Andrew Lang, John Henry Freese and Thomas Allan Ingram

“ In wills and settlements a clause is often inserted whereby a testator or settler imposes upon the takers of the estate an obligation to assume his name and bear his arms. The stamp duty payable for a royal licence in this case is fifty pounds, but if the application is merely voluntary the stamp duty is ten pounds. Where there is a more formal adoption of a surname, it is usual, for purposes of publicity and evidence, to advertise the change of name in the newspapers and to execute a deed poll setting out the change, and enrol the same in the central office of the Supreme Court. ”

“ As population increased and intercourse became general, it became necessary to employ some further name by which one man might be known from another, and in process of time the use of surnames became universal, the only exceptions in England being the members of the royal family, who sign by their baptismal names only.
Where the ecclesiastical law does not come into conflict with the common law or has not been changed by it, it still prevails, and therefore it may be said that the name given at baptism may be regarded as practically unalterable. ”

“ Thus the names of mountains and rivers in many parts of England are Celtic—for example, to take familiar instances, Usk, Esk and Avon. There are also local names (such as Mona, Monmouth, Mynwy and others) which seem to be relics of tribes even older than the Celtic stocks, and “vestiges of non-Aryan people, whom the Celts found in possession both on the Continent and in the British Isles.” [1] The later English name is sometimes the mere translation, perhaps unconscious, of the earlier Celtic appellation, often added to the more ancient word. ”

“ Probably other neighbouring tribes also call themselves “the men” in another dialect or language, while the people in the neighbourhood are known by an opprobrious epithet, as Rakshasas among the early Aryan dwellers in India, or Eskimo (raw-eaters) in the far north of the American continent. Tribal names in Australia are often taken from the tribal term for “yes” or “no”; cf. Languedoc.
Leaving social for personal names, we find that, among most uncivilized races, a name (derived from some incident or natural object) is given at the time of birth by the parents of each new-born infant. ”

“ Women originally took the name of the head of the family—Caecilia (filia) Metelli, Metella Crassi (uxor) . Later, f. (= filia) was added after the name of a daughter. Towards the end of the republic women are denoted by their gentile name alone, while under the empire they always have two—the nomen and cognomen of the father (Aemilia Lepida, daughter of Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus) , or the nomen of both father and mother (Valeria Attia, daughter of Attius Atticus and Valeria Sextina) . ”

“ On remarriage the rule is for the wife to adopt the name of the new husband, but an exception to this is tacitly recognized in the case of a title acquired by marriage when the holder remarries a commoner. ”

“ Neither does the English law recognize the absolute right of any person in any particular name to the extent of preventing another person from assuming it (Du Boulay v. Du Boulay, 1869, L.R. 2 P.C. 430) . If, however, a person adopts a new name and wishes to have it publicly notified and recognized in official circles, the method of procedure usually adopted is that by royal licence. This is by petition, prepared and presented through the Heralds' Office. If granted, the royal licence is given under the sign manual and privy seal of the sovereign, countersigned by the home secretary. ”

“ But in personal names the complexity of human character, and the gradual processes of tangling and disentangling the threads of varied human interest, soon come in, and personal names are not imposed once and for all. Each man in very early societies may have many names, in different characters and at different periods of his life. ”

“ A limitation more or less similar prevails in Germany and other European countries.
As regards the surname (Fr. surnom, name in addition) , custom has universally decreed that a man shall be known by the name of his father. But in England and the United States, at least, this custom is not legally binding; there is no law preventing man from taking whatever name he has a fancy for, nor are there any particular formalities required to be observed on adopting a fresh surname ”

“ Both in France and Germany official authorization must be obtained for any change of name. By the German Code 1900 (s. 12) if the right to a new name is disputed by another or his interest is injured thereby, the person entitled can compel the abandonment of the new name.
In England, a wife on marriage adopts the surname of her husband, disregarding entirely her maiden surname; in Scotland the practice usually is for the wife to retain her maiden name for all legal purposes, adding the name of her husband as an alias. ”

“ The British race carries with it the ancient names of an older people into every continent, and titles perhaps originally given to places in the British Isles by men who had not yet learned to polish their weapons of flint may now be found in Australia, America, Africa and the islands of the farthest seas. ”

“ The groups of supposed kin, however widely scattered in local distribution, are known as wolves, bears, turtles, suns, moons, cockatoos, reeds and what not, according as each group claims descent from this or that stock, and sometimes wears a mark representing this or that animal, plant or natural object. ”

“ A continual development of custom can be traced, and the analysis of any man’s family and Christian names will lead us beyond history into the manners of races devoid of literary records. (A. L.)
Greek Names.—The Greeks had only one, and no family, name; hence the name of a child was left to the discretion of the parents. The eldest son generally took the name of his paternal grandfather, girls that of their grandmother. Genuine patronymics (Phocion, son of Phocus) , analogous compounds (Theophrastus, son of Theodorus) , or names of similar meaning (Philumenus, son of Eros) also occur. ”