Given Names

Given Names—The non-Anglo Saxon American's willingness to anglicize his patronymic is far exceeded by his eagerness to give "American" baptismal names to his children. The favorite given names of the old country almost disappear in the first native-born generation. The Irish immigrants quickly dropped such names asTerence,DennisandPatrick, and adopted in their places the less conspicuousJohn,GeorgeandWilliam. The Germans, in the same way, abandonedOtto,August,Hermann,Ludwig,Heinrich,Wolfgang,Albrecht,Wilhelm,Kurt,Hans,Rudolf,Gottlieb,JohannandFranz. For some of these they substituted the English equivalents:Charles,Lewis,Henry,William,John,Frankand so on. In the room of others they began afflicting their offspring with more fanciful native names:MiltonandRaymondwere their chief favorites thirty or forty years ago.[30]The Jews carry the thing to great lengths. At present they seem to take most delight inSidney,Irving,Milton,Roy,StanleyandMonroe, but they also call their sonsJohn,Charles,Henry,Harold,William,Richard,James,Albert,Edward,Alfred,Frederick,Thomas, and evenMark,LukeandMatthew, and their daughtersMary,Gertrude,Estelle,Pauline,AliceandEdith. As a boy I went to school with many Jewish boys. The commonest given names among them wereIsadore,Samuel,Jonas,IsaacandIsrael. These are seldom bestowed by[Pg284]the rabbis of today. In the same school were a good many German pupils, boy and girl. Some of the girls bore such fine old German given names asKatharina,Wilhelmina,Elsa,Lotta,ErmentrudeandFrankziska. All these have begun to disappear.

The newer immigrants, indeed, do not wait for the birth of children to demonstrate their naturalization; they change their own given names immediately they land. I am told by Abraham Cahan that this is done almost universally on the East Side of New York. "Even the most old-fashioned Jews immigrating to this country," he says, "changeYoseltoJoseph,YankeltoJacob,LiebeltoLouis,FeiveltoPhilip,ItziktoIsaac,RuventoRobert, andMoiseorMoteltoMorris." Moreover, the spelling ofMorris, as the position of its bearer improves, commonly changes toMaurice, though the pronunciation may remainMawruss, as in the case of Mr. Perlmutter. The immigrants of other stocks follow the same habit. Every BohemianVaclavorVojtĕchbecomes aWilliam, everyJaroslavbecomes aJerry, everyBronislavaBarney, and everyStanislavaStanley. The Italians run toFrankandJoe; so do the Hungarians and the Balkan peoples; the Russians quickly drop their national system of nomenclature and give their children names according to the American plan. Even the Chinese laundrymen of the big cities becomeJohn,George,CharlieandFrank; I once encountered one boasting the name ofEmil.

The Puritan influence, in names as in ideas, has remained a good deal more potent in American than in England. The given name of the celebratedPraise-GodBarebones marked a fashion which died out in England very quickly, but one still finds traces of it in America,e. g., in such women's names asFaith,Hope,Prudence,CharityandMercy, and in such men's names asPeregrine.[31]The religious obsession of the New England colonists is also kept in mind by the persistence of Biblical names:Ezra,Hiram,Ezekial,Zachariah,Elijah,Elihu, and so on. These[Pg285]names excite the derision of the English; an American comic character, in an English play or novel, always bears one of them. Again, the fashion of using surnames as given names is far more widespread in America than in England. In this country, indeed, it takes on the character of a national habit; fully three out of four eldest sons, in families of any consideration, bear their mothers' surnames as middle names. This fashion arose in England during the seventeenth century, and one of its fruits was the adoption of such well-known surnames asStanley,Cecil,Howard,DouglasandDuncanas common given names.[32]It died out over there during the eighteenth century, and today the great majority of Englishmen bear such simple given names asJohn,CharlesandWilliam—often four or five of them—but in America it has persisted. A glance at a roster of the Presidents of the United States will show how firmly it has taken root. Of the ten that have had middle names at all, six have had middle names that were family surnames, and two of the six have dropped their other given names and used these surnames. This custom, perhaps, has paved the way for another: that of making given names of any proper nouns that happen to strike the fancy. Thus General Sherman was named after an Indian chief,Tecumseh, and a Chicago judge was baptizedKenesaw Mountain[33]in memory of the battle that General Sherman fought there. A late candidate for governor of New York had the curious given name ofD-Cady.[34]Various familiar American given names, originally surnames, are almost unknown in England, among them,Washington,Jefferson,Jackson,Lincoln,ColumbusandLee.Chaunceyforms a curious addition to the list. It was the surname of the second president of Harvard College, and was bestowed upon their offspring by numbers of his graduates. It then got into[Pg286]general use and acquired a typically American pronunciation, with theaof the first syllable flat. It is never encountered in England.

In the pronunciation of various given names, as in that of many surnames, English and American usages differ.Evelyn, in England, is given two syllables instead of three, and the first is made to rhyme withleave.Ireneis given two syllables, making itIrene-y.Ralphis pronouncedRafe.Jeromeis accented on the first syllable; in America it is always accented on the second.[35]

§ 3

Geographical Names—"There is no part of the world," said Robert Louis Stevenson, "where nomenclature is so rich, poetical, humorous and picturesque as in the United States of America." A glance at the latest United States Official Postal Guide[36]or report of the United States Geographic Board[37]quite bears out this opinion. The map of the country is besprinkled with place names from at least half a hundred languages, living and dead, and among them one finds examples of the most daring and elaborate fancy. There are Spanish, French and Indian names as melodious and charming as running water; there are names out of the histories and mythologies of all the great races of man; there are names grotesque and names almost sublime. No other country can match them for interest and variety. When there arises among us a philologist who will study them as thoroughly and intelligently as the Swiss, Johann Jakob Egli, studied the place names of Central Europe, his work will be an invaluable contribution to the history of the nation, and no less to an understanding of the psychology of its people.

The original English settlers, it would appear, displayed little imagination in naming the new settlements and natural features[Pg287]of the land that they came to. Their almost invariable tendency, at the start, was to make use of names familiar at home, or to invent banal compounds.Plymouth Rockat the North andJamestownat the South are examples of their poverty of fancy; they filled the narrow tract along the coast with newBostons,Cambridges,BristolsandLondons, and often used the adjective as a prefix. But this was only in the days of beginning. Once they had begun to move back from the coast and to come into contact with the aborigines and with the widely dispersed settlers of other races, they encountered rivers, mountains, lakes and even towns that bore far more engaging names, and these, after some resistance, they perforce adopted. The native names of such rivers as theJames, theYorkand theCharlessuccumbed, but those of thePotomac, thePatapsco, theMerrimackand thePenobscotsurvived, and they were gradually reinforced as the country was penetrated. Most of these Indian names, in getting upon the early maps, suffered somewhat severe simplifications.Potowánmeacwas reduced toPotomackand then toPotomac;UnéaukarabecameNiagara;Reckawackes, by the law of Hobson-Jobson, was turned intoRockaway, andPentapangintoPort Tobacco.[38]But, despite such elisions and transformations, the charm of thousands of them remained, and today they are responsible for much of the characteristic color of American geographical nomenclature. Such names asTallahassee,Susquehanna,Mississippi,Allegheny,Chicago,Kennebec,PatuxentandArkansasgive a barbaric brilliancy to the American map. Only the map of Australia, with its mellifluous Maori names, can match it.

The settlement of the American continent, once the eastern coast ranges were crossed, proceeded with unparalleled speed, and so the naming of the new rivers, lakes, peaks and valleys, and of the new towns and districts no less, strained the inventiveness of the pioneers. The result is the vast duplication of names that shows itself in the Postal Guide. No less than eighteen imitative[Pg288]BostonsandNew Bostonsstill appear, and there are nineteenBristols, twenty-eightNewports, and twenty-twoLondonsandNew Londons. Argonauts starting out from an older settlement on the coast would take its name with them, and so we findPhiladelphiasin Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee,Richmondsin Iowa, Kansas and nine other western states, andPrincetonsin fifteen. Even when a new name was hit upon it seems to have been hit upon simultaneously by scores of scattered bands of settlers; thus we find the whole land bespattered withWashingtons,Lafayettes,JeffersonsandJacksons, and with names suggested by common and obvious natural objects,e. g.,Bear Creek,Bald KnobandBuffalo. The Geographic Board, in its last report, made a belated protest against this excessive duplication. "The namesElk,Beaver,CottonwoodandBald," it said, "are altogether too numerous."[39]Of postoffices alone there are fully a hundred embodyingElk; counting in rivers, lakes, creeks, mountains and valleys, the map of the United States probably shows at least twice as many such names.

A study of American geographical and place names reveals eight general classes, as follows: (a) those embodying personal names, chiefly the surnames of pioneers or of national heroes; (b) those transferred from other and older places, either in the eastern states or in Europe; (c) Indian names; (d) Dutch, Spanish and French names; (e) Biblical and mythological names; (f) names descriptive of localities; (g) names suggested by the local flora, fauna or geology; (h) purely fanciful names. The names of the first class are perhaps the most numerous. Some consist of surnames standing alone, asWashington,Cleveland,Bismarck,Lafayette,TaylorandRandolph; others consist of surnames in combination with various old and newGrundwörter, asPittsburgh,Knoxville,Bailey's Switch,Hagerstown,Franklinton,Dodge City,Fort Riley,Wayne JunctionandMcKeesport; and yet others are contrived of given names, either alone or in combination, asLouisville,St. Paul,Elizabeth,Johnstown,Charlotte,WilliamsburgandMarysville. The number of towns in the United States bearing women's given names is enormous.[Pg289]I find, for example, eleven postoffices calledCharlotte, ten calledAdaand no less than nineteen calledAlma. Most of these places are small, but there is anElizabethwith 75,000 population, anElmirawith 40,000, and anAugustawith nearly 45,000.

The names of the second class we have already briefly observed. They are betrayed in many cases by the prefixNew; more than 600 such postoffices are recorded, ranging fromNew AlbanytoNew Windsor. Others bear such prefixes asWest,NorthandSouth, or various distinguishing affixes,e. g.,Bostonia,Pittsburgh Landing,YorktownandHartford City. One often finds eastern county names applied to western towns and eastern town names applied to western rivers and mountains. Thus,Cambria, which is the name of a county but not of a postoffice in Pennsylvania, is a town name in seven western states;Baltimoreis the name of a glacier in Alaska, andPrincetonis the name of a peak in Colorado. In the same way the names of the more easterly states often reappear in the west,e. g., inMount Ohio, Colo.,Delaware, Okla., andVirginia City, Nev. The tendency to name small American towns after the great capitals of antiquity has excited the derision of the English since the earliest days; there is scarcely an English book upon the states without some fling at it. Of late it has fallen into abeyance, though sixteenAthensesstill remain, and there are yet manyCarthages,Uticas,Syracuses,Romes,Alexandrias,NinevahsandTroys. The third city of the nation,Philadelphia, got its name from the ancient stronghold of Philadelphus of Pergamun. To make up for the falling off of this old and flamboyant custom, the more recent immigrants have brought with them the names of the capitals and other great cities of their fatherlands. Thus the American map bristles withBerlins,Bremens,Hamburgs,WarsawsandLeipzigs, and is beginning to showStockholms,Venices,BelgradesandChristianias.

The influence of Indian names upon American nomenclature is quickly shown by a glance at the map. No less than 26 of the states have names borrowed from the aborigines, and the same thing is true of most of our rivers and mountains. There was an effort, at one time, to get rid of these Indian names. Thus[Pg290]the early Virginians changed the name of thePowhatanto theJames, and the first settlers in New York changed the name ofHoricontoLake George. In the same way the present name of theWhite MountainsdisplacedAgiochook, andNew Amsterdam, and laterNew York, displacedManhattan, which has been recently revived. The law of Hobson-Jobson made changes in other Indian names, sometimes complete and sometimes only partial. Thus,MauwauwamingbecameWyoming,MaucwachoongbecameMauch Chunk,OuabachebecameWabash,AsingsingbecameSing-Sing, andMachihiganingbecameMichigan. But this vandalism did not go far enough to take away the brilliant color of the aboriginal nomenclature. The second city of the United States bears an Indian name, and so do the largest American river, and the greatest American water-fall, and four of the five great Lakes, and the scene of the most important military decision ever reached on American soil.

The Dutch place-names of the United States are chiefly confined to the vicinity of New York, and a good many of them have become greatly corrupted.Brooklyn,WallaboutandGramercyoffer examples. The first-named was originallyBreuckelen, the second wasWaale Bobht, and the third wasDe Kromme Zee.Hell-Gateis a crude translation of the DutchHelle-Gat. During the early part of the last century the more delicate New Yorkers transformed the term intoHurlgate, but the change was vigorously opposed by Washington Irving, and soHell-Gatewas revived. The law of Hobson-Jobson early converted the Dutchhoekintohook, and it survives in various place-names,e. g.,KinderhookandSandy Hook. The Dutchkillis aGrundwortin many other names,e. g.,Catskill,Schuylkill,Peekskill,FishkillandKill van Kull; it is the equivalent of the Americancreek. Many other Dutch place-names will come familiarly to mind:Harlem,Staten,Flushing,Cortlandt,Calver Plaat,Nassau,Coenties,Spuyten Duyvel,Yonkers,HobokenandBowery(fromBouvery).[40]BlockIsland was originallyBlok, and CapeMay, according to Schele de Vere, wasMey, both Dutch.[Pg291]A large number of New York street and neighborhood names come down from Knickerbocker days, often greatly changed in pronunciation.Desbrossesoffers an example. The Dutch called itde Broose, but in New York today it is commonly spoken of asDez-bros-sez.

French place-names have suffered almost as severely. Few persons would recognizeSmackover, the name of a small town in Arkansas, as French, and yet in its original form it wasChemin Couvert. Schele de Vere, in 1871, recorded the degeneration of the name toSmack Cover; the Postoffice, always eager to shorten and simplify names, has since made one word of it and got rid of the redundantc. In the same wayBob Ruly, a Missouri name, descends fromBois Brulé. "The American tongue," says W. W. Crane, "seems to lend itself reluctantly to the words of alien languages."[41]This is shown plainly by the history of French place-names among us. A large number of them,e. g.,Lac Superieur, were translated into English at an early day, and most of those that remain are now pronounced as if they were English. ThusDes Moinesisdee-moyns,Terre Hauteisterry-hut,Beaufortisbyu-fort,New Orleansisor-leens,Lafayettehas a flata,Havre de Gracehas another, andVersaillesisver-sales. The pronunciation ofsault, as inSault Ste. Marie, is commonly more or less correct; the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad is popularly called theSoo. This may be due to Canadian example, or to some confusion betweenSaultandSioux. The FrenchLouis, inSt. LouisandLouisville, is usually pronounced correctly. So is therougeinBaton Rouge, though thebatonis commonly boggled. It is possible that familiarity withSt. Louisinfluenced the local pronunciation ofIllinois, which isIllinoy, but this may be a mere attempt to improve upon the vulgarIllin-i.[42]

For a number of years the Geographic Board has been seeking[Pg292]vainly to reestablish the correct pronunciation of the name of thePurgatoireriver in Colorado. Originally named theRio de las Animasby the Spaniards, it was renamed theRivière du Purgatoireby their French successors. The American pioneers changed this toPicketwire, and that remains the local name of the stream to this day, despite the effort of the Geographic Board to compromise onPurgatoireriver. Many other French names are being anglicized with its aid and consent. Already half a dozenBellevueshave been changed toBelleviewsandBellviews, and the spelling of nearly all theBelvédèreshas been changed toBelvidere.Belair, La., represents the end-product of a process of decay which began withBelle Aire, and then proceeded toBellaireandBellair. All these forms are still to be found, together withBel Air. The Geographic Board's antipathy to accented letters and to names of more than one word[43]has convertedIsle Ste. Thérèse, in the St. Lawrence river, toIsle Ste. Therese, a truly abominable barbarism, andLa Cygne, in Kansas, toLacygne, which is even worse.Lamoine,Labelle,LagrangeandLamonteare among its other improvements;Lafayette, forLa Fayette, long antedates the beginning of its labors.

The Spanish names of the Southwest are undergoing a like process of corruption, though without official aid.San Antoniohas been changed toSan Antonein popular pronunciation and seems likely to go toSan Tone;El Pasohas acquired a flat Americanaand az-sound in place of the Spanishs;Los Angelespresents such difficulties that no two of its inhabitants agree upon the proper pronunciation, and many compromise on simpleLos, as the folks ofJacksonvillecommonly call their townJax. Some of the most mellifluous of American place-names are in the areas once held by the Spaniards. It would be hard to match the beauty ofSanta Margarita,San Anselmo,Alamogordo,Terra Amarilla,Sabinoso,Las Palomas,Ensenada,Nogales,San PatricioandBernalillo. But they are under a severe and double assault. Not only do the present lords of the soil debase them in speaking them; in many cases they are formally displaced by native names of the utmost harshness and banality. Thus,[Pg293]one finds in New Mexico such absurdly-named towns asSugarite,Shoemaker,Newhope,Lordsburg,EastviewandCentral; in Arizona such places asOld Glory,Springerville,WickenburgandCongress Junction, and even in California such abominations asOakhurst,Ben Hur,Drytown,Skidoo,Susanville,UnoandOno.

The early Spaniards were prodigal with place-names testifying to their piety, but these names, in the overwhelming main, were those of saints. AddSalvador,TrinidadandConcepcion, and their repertoire is almost exhausted. If they ever named a townJesusthe name has been obliterated by Anglo-Saxon prudery; even their use of the name as a personal appellation violates American notions of the fitting. The names of the Jewish patriarchs and those of the holy places in Palestine do not appear among their place-names; their Christianity seems to have been exclusively of the New Testament. But the Americans who displaced them were intimately familiar with both books of the Bible, and one finds copious proofs of it on the map of the United States. There are no less than sevenBethlehemsin the Postal Guide, and the name is also applied to various mountains, and to one of the reaches of the Ohio river. I find thirteenBethanys, seventeenBethels, elevenBeulahs, nineCanaans, elevenJordansand twenty-oneSharons.Adamis sponsor for a town in West Virginia and an island in the Chesapeake, andEvefor a village in Kentucky. There are five postoffices namedAaron, two namedAbraham, two namedJob, and a town and a lake namedMoses. Most of theSt. PaulsandSt. Josephsof the country were inherited from the French, but the twoSt. Patricksshow a later influence. EightWesleysandWesleyvilles, eightAsburysand twelve names embodyingLutherindicate the general theological trend of the plain people. There is a village in Maryland, too small to have a postoffice, namedGott, and I findGotts Islandin Maine andGottvillein California, but no doubt these were named after German settlers of that awful name, and not after the Lord God directly. There are fourTrinities, to say nothing of the inherited SpanishTrinidads.[Pg294]

Names wholly or partly descriptive of localities are very numerous throughout the country, and among theGrundwörterembodied in them are terms highly characteristic of America and almost unknown to the English vocabulary.Bald Knobwould puzzle an Englishman, but the name is so common in the United States that the Geographic Board has had to take measures against it. Others of that sort areCouncil Bluffs,Patapsco Neck,Delaware Water Gap,Curtis Creek,Walden Pond,Sandy Hook,Key West,Bull Run,Portage,French Lick,Jones Gulch,Watkins Gully,Cedar Bayou,Keams Canyon,Parker Notch,Sucker Branch,Fraziers BottomandEagle Pass.Butte Creek, inMontana, is a name made up of two Americanisms. There are thirty-five postoffices whose names embody the wordprairie, several of them,e. g.,Prairie du Chien, Wis., inherited from the French. There are sevenDivides, eightButtes, eight town-names embodying the wordburnt, innumerable names embodyinggrove,barren,plain,fork,center,cross-roads,courthouse,coveandferry, and a great swarm ofCold Springs,Coldwaters,Summits,MiddletownsandHighlands. The flora and fauna of the land are enormously represented. There are twenty-twoBuffalosbeside the city in New York, and scores ofBuffalo Creeks,Ridges,SpringsandWallows. TheElks, in various forms, are still more numerous, and there are dozens of towns, mountains, lakes, creeks and country districts named after thebeaver,martin,coyote,mooseandotter, and as many more named after such characteristic flora as thepaw-paw, thesycamore, thecottonwood, thelocustand thesunflower. There is anAlligatorin Mississippi, aCrawfishin Kentucky and aRat Lakeon the Canadian border of Minnesota. The endless search for mineral wealth has besprinkled the map with such names asBromide,Oil City,Anthracite,Chrome,Chloride,Coal Run,Goldfield,Telluride,LeadvilleandCement.

There was a time, particularly during the gold rush to California, when the rough humor of the country showed itself in the invention of extravagant and often highly felicitous place-names, but with the growth of population and the rise of civic spirit they have tended to be replaced with more seemly coinages.[Pg295]Catfishcreek, in Wisconsin, is now theYaharariver; theBulldogmountains, in Arizona, have become theHarosomas; thePicketwireriver, as we have seen, has resumed its old French name ofPurgatoire. As with natural features of the landscape, so with towns. Nearly all the oldBoozevilles,Jackass Flats,Three Fingers,Hell-For-Sartains,Undershirt Hills,Razzle-Dazzles,Cow-Tails,Yellow Dogs,Jim-Jamses,Jump-Offs,Poker CitysandSkunktownshave yielded to the growth of delicacy, butTombstonestill stands in Arizona,Goose Billremains a postoffice in Montana, and the Geographic Board gives its imprimatur to theHorsethieftrail in Colorado, toBurning Bearcreek in the same state, and toPig Eyelake in Minnesota. Various other survivors of a more lively and innocent day linger on the map:Blue Ball, Ark.,Cowhide, W. Va.,Dollarville, Mich.,Oven Fork, Ky.,Social Circle, Ga.,Sleepy Eye, Minn.,Bubble, Ark.,Shy Beaver, Pa.,Shin Pond, Me.,Rough-and-Ready, Calif.,Non Intervention, Va.,Noodle, Tex.,Nursery, Mo.,Number Four, N. Y.,Oblong, Ill.,Stock Yards, Neb.,Stout, Iowa, and so on. West Virginia, the wildest of the eastern states, is full of such place-names. Among them I findAffinity,Annamoriah(Anna Maria?),Bee,Bias,Big Chimney,Billie,Blue Jay,Bulltown,Caress,Cinderella,Cyclone,Czar,Cornstalk,Duck,Halcyon,Jingo,Left Hand,Ravens Eye,Six,Skull Run,Three Churches,Uneeda,Wide Mouth,War EagleandStumptown. The Postal Guide shows twoBen Hurs, fiveSt. Elmosand tenIvanhoes, but only oneMiddlemarch. There are seventeenRoosevelts, sixCodysand sixBarnums, but noShakespeare.Washington, of course, is the most popular of American place-names. But among names of postoffices it is hard pushed byClinton,Centerville,Liberty,Canton,MarionandMadison, and even bySpringfield,WarrenandBismarck.

The Geographic Board, in its laudable effort to simplify American nomenclature, has played ducks and drakes with some of the most picturesque names on the national map. Now and then, as in the case ofPurgatoire, it has temporarily departed from this policy, but in the main its influence has been thrown against the fine old French and Spanish names, and against the[Pg296]more piquant native names no less. Thus, I find it deciding againstPortage des Flaconsand in favor of the hideousBottle portage, againstCañada del Burroand in favor ofBurro canyonagainstCanos y Ylas de la Cruzand in favor of the barbarousCruz island. InBougére landingandCañon Cityit has deleted the accents. The name of theDe Grasse riverit has changed toGrass.De Lauxit has changed to the intolerableDlo. And, as we have seen, it has steadily amalgamated French and Spanish articles with their nouns, thus achieving such forms asDuchesne,Eldorado,DeleonandLaharpe. But here its policy is fortunately inconsistent, and so a number of fine old names has escaped. Thus, it has decided in favor ofBon Secoursand againstBonsecours, and in favor ofDe Soto,La CrosseandLa Moure, and againstDesoto,LacrosseandLamoure. Here its decisions are confused and often unintelligible. WhyLaporte, Pa., andLa Porte, Iowa? WhyLagrange, Ind., andLa Grange, Ky.? Here it would seem to be yielding a great deal too much to local usage.

The Board proceeds to the shortening and simplification of native names by various devices. It deletes such suffixes astown,cityandcourthouse; it removes the apostrophe and often the genitivesfrom such names asSt. Mary's; it shortensburghtoburgandboroughtoboro; and it combines separate and often highly discreet words. The last habit often produces grotesque forms,e. g.,Newberlin,Boxelder,Sabbathday lake,Fallentimber,Bluemountain,Westtown,ThreepinesandMissionhill. It apparently cherishes a hope of eventually regularizing the spelling ofAllegany. This is nowAlleganyfor the Maryland county, the Pennsylvania township and the New York and Oregon towns,Alleghanyfor the mountains, the Colorado town and the Virginia town and springs, andAlleghenyfor the Pittsburgh borough and the Pennsylvania county, college and river. The Board inclines toAlleghenyfor both river and mountains. Other Indian names give it constant concern. Its struggles to set upChemquasabamticookas the name of a Maine lake in place ofChemquasabamticandChemquassabamticook, andChatahospeeas the name of an Alabama creek in place ofChattahospee,[Pg297]Hoolethlocco,Hoolethloces,HoolethlocoandHootethloccoare worthy of its learning and authority.[44]

The American tendency to pronounce all the syllables of a word more distinctly than the English shows itself in geographical names. White, in 1880,[45]recorded the increasing habit of giving full value to the syllables of such borrowed English names asWorcesterandWarwick. I have frequently noted the same thing. In Worcester county, Maryland, the name is usually pronouncedWooster, but on the Western Shore of the state one hearsWorcest-'r.[46]Norwichis another such name; one hearsNor-wichquite as often asNorrich.[47]Yet another isDelhi; one often hearsDel-high. White said that in his youth the name of theShawangunkmountains, in New York, was pronouncedShongo, but that the custom of pronouncing it as spelled had arisen during his manhood. So withWinnipiseogee, the name of a lake; onceWinipisaukie, it gradually came to be pronounced as spelled. There is frequently a considerable difference between the pronunciation of a name by natives of a place and its pronunciation by those who are familiar with it only in print.Baltimoreoffers an example. The natives always drop the medialiand so reduce the name to two syllables; the habit identifies them.Anne Arundel, the name of a county in Maryland,[Pg298]is usually pronouncedAnn 'ran'lby its people.Arkansas, as everyone knows, is pronouncedArkansawby the Arkansans, and the Nevadans give the name of their state a flata. The local pronunciation ofIllinoisI have already noticed.Iowa, at home, is oftenIoway.[48]Many American geographical names offer great difficulty to Englishmen. One of my English acquaintances tells me that he was taught at school to accentMassachusettson the second syllable, to rhyme the second syllable ofOhiowithtea, and to sound the firstcinConnecticut. In Maryland the name ofCalvertcounty is given a broada, whereas the name ofCalvertstreet, in Baltimore, has a flata. This curious distinction is almost always kept up. A Scotchman, coming to America, would give thechin such names asLoch RavenandLochvalethe guttural Scotch (and German) sound, but locally it is always pronounced as if it werek.

Finally, there is a curious difference between English and American usage in the use of the wordriver. The English invariably put it before the proper name, whereas we almost as invariably put it after.The Thames riverwould seem quite as strange to an Englishman asthe river Chicagowould seem to us. This difference arose more than a century ago and was noticed by Pickering. But in his day the American usage was still somewhat uncertain, and such forms asthe river Mississippiwere yet in use. Todayriveralmost always goes after the proper name.

§ 4

Street Names—"Such a locality as 'thecornerofAvenue HandTwenty-thirdstreet,'" says W. W. Crane, "is about as distinctively American as Algonquin and Iroquois names likeMississippiandSaratoga."[49]Kipling, in his "American Notes,"[50]gives testimony to the strangeness with which the[Pg299]number-names, the phrase "the corner of," and the custom of omittingstreetfall upon the ear of a Britisher. He quotes with amazement certain directions given to him on his arrival in San Francisco from India: "Go six blocks north to [the] corner ofGearyandMarkey[Market?]; then walk around till you strike [the] corner ofGutterandSixteenth." The English always add the wordstreet(orroadorplaceoravenue) when speaking of a thoroughfare; such a phrase as "OxfordandNew Bond" would strike them as incongruous. The American custom of numbering and lettering streets is almost always ascribed by English writers who discuss it, not to a desire to make finding them easy, but to sheer poverty of invention. The English apparently have an inexhaustible fund of names for streets; they often give one street more than one name. Thus,Oxfordstreet, London, becomes theBayswaterroad,Highstreet,Holland Parkavenue,Goldhawkeroad and finally theOxfordroad to the westward, andHigh Holborn,Holbornviaduct,Newgatestreet,Cheapside, thePoultry,CornhillandLeadenhallstreet to the eastward. The Strand, in the same way, becomesFleetstreet,Ludgatehill andCannonstreet. Nevertheless, there is aFirstavenue inQueen's Park, and parallel to it areSecond,Third,Fourth,FifthandSixthavenues—all small streets leading northward from the Harrow road, just east of Kensal Green cemetery. I have observed that few Londoners have ever heard of them. There is also aFirststreet in Chelsea—a very modest thoroughfare near Lennox gardens and not far from the Brompton Oratory.

Next to the numbering and lettering of streets, a fashion apparently set up by Major Pierre-Charles L'Enfant's plans for Washington, the most noticeable feature of American street nomenclature, as opposed to that of England, is the extensive use of such designations asavenue,boulevard,driveandspeedway.Avenueis used in England, but only rather sparingly; it is seldom applied to a mean street, or to one in a warehouse district. In America the word is scarcely distinguished in meaning fromstreet.[51]Boulevard,driveandspeedwayare almost[Pg300]unknown to the English, but they useroadfor urban thoroughfares, which is very seldom done in America, and they also make free use ofplace,walk,passage,laneandcircus, all of which are obsolescent on this side of the ocean. Some of the older American cities, such as Boston and Baltimore, have surviving certain ancient English designations of streets,e. g.,CheapsideandCornhill; these are unknown in the newer American towns.Broadway, which is also English, is more common. Many American towns now haveplazas, which are unknown in England. Nearly all haveCity Hall parks,squaresorplaces;City Hallis also unknown over there. The principal street of a small town, in America, is almost alwaysMain street; in England it is as invariablyHighstreet, usually with the definite article beforeHigh.

I have mentioned the corruption of old Dutch street and neighborhood names in New York. Spanish names are corrupted in the same way in the Southwest and French names in the Great Lakes region and in Louisiana. In New Orleans the street names, many of them strikingly beautiful, are pronounced so barbarously by the people that a Frenchman would have difficulty recognizing them. Thus,Bourbonhas becomeBur-bun,DauphineisDaw-fin,FoucherisFoosh'r,EnghienisEn-gine, andFelicity(originallyFélicité) isFill-a-city. The French, in their days, bestowed the names of the Muses upon certain of the city streets. They are now pronouncedCal´-y-ope,Terp´-si-chore,Mel-po-mean´,You-terp´, and so on.Bon Enfants, apparently too difficult for the native, has been translated intoGood Children. OnlyEsplanadeandBagatelle, among the French street names of the city, seem to be commonly pronounced with any approach to correctness.

FOOTNOTES:[1]The great Irish famine, which launched the chief emigration to America, extended from 1845 to 1847. The Know Nothing movement, which was chiefly aimed at the Irish, extended from 1852 to 1860.[2]A. B. Faust: The German Element in the United States, 2 vols.; Boston, 1909, vol. ii, pp. 34et seq.[3]Richard T. Ely: Outlines of Economics, 3rd rev. ed.; New York, 1916, p. 68.[4]Cf.Seth K. Humphrey: Mankind; New York, 1917, p. 45.[5]Cf.William G. Searle: Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum; Cambridge, 1897.[6]New York WorldAlmanac, 1914, p. 668.[7]It was announced by the Bureau of War Risk Insurance on March 30, 1918, that there were then 15,000Millersin the United States Army. On the same day there were 262John J. O'Briens, of whom 50 had wives namedMary.[8]Cf.Carlyle's Frederick the Great, bk. xxi, ch. vi.[9]S. Grant Oliphant, in theBaltimore Sun, Dec. 2, 1906.[10]HarrietLaneJohnston was of this family.[11]Cf.Faust,op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 183-4.[12]A Tragedy of Surnames, by Fayette Dunlap,Dialect Notes, vol. iv, pt. 1, 1913, p. 7-8.[13]Americanisms, p. 112.[14]Henry Harrison, in his Dictionary of the Surnames of the United Kingdom; London, 1912, shows that such names asBloom,Cline, etc., always represent transliterations of German names. They are unknown to genuinely British nomenclature.[15]A great many more such transliterations and modifications are listed by Faust,op. cit., particularly in his first volume. Others are in Pennsylvania Dutch, by S. S. Haldemann; London, 1872, p. 60et seq., and in The Origin of Pennsylvania Surnames, by L. Oscar Kuhns,Lippincott's Magazine, March, 1897, p. 395.[16]I lately encountered the following sign in front of an automobile repair shop:For puncture or blowBring it toLowe.[17]Baltimore Sun, March 17, 1907.[18]Cf.The Origin of Pennsylvania Surnames,op. cit.[19]Koch, a common German name, has very hard sledding in America. Its correct pronunciation is almost impossible to Americans; at best it becomesCoke. Hence it is often changed, not only toCook, but toCox,Kokeor evenCockey.[20]This is army slang, but promises to survive. The Germans, during the war, had no opprobrious nicknames for their foes. The French were alwaysdie Franzosen, the English weredie Engländer, and so on, even when most violently abused. Evender Yankeewas rare.[21]Cf.Some Current Substitutes for Irish, by W. A. McLaughlin,Dialect Notes, vol. iv, pt. ii.[22]Spiggoty, originating at Panama, now means a native of any Latin-American region under American protection, and in general any Latin-American. It is navy slang, but has come into extensive civilian use. It is a derisive daughter of "NospikInglese."[23]Cf.Reaction to Personal Names, by Dr. C. P. Oberndorf,Psychoanalytic Review, vol. v, no. 1, January, 1918, p. 47et seq.This, so far as I know, is the only article in English which deals with the psychological effects of surnames upon their bearers. Abraham, Silberer and other German psychoanalysts have made contributions to the subject. Dr. Oberndorf alludes, incidentally, to the positive social prestige which goes with an English air, and, to a smaller extent, with a French air in America. He tells of an Italian who changed his patronymic ofDipucciintode Puccito make it more "aristocratic." And of a German bearing the genuinely aristocratic name ofvon Landsschaffshausenwho changed it to "a typically English name" because the latter seemed more distinguished to his neighbors.[24]The effects of race antagonism upon language are still to be investigated. The etymology ofslaveindicates that the inquiry might yield interesting results. The wordFrench, in English, is largely used to suggest sexual perversion. In German anythingRussianis barbarous, andEnglisheducation hints at flagellation. The French, for many years, called a certain contraband appliance acapote Anglaise, but after theentente cordialethey changed the name tocapote Allemande. The common English name to this day isFrench letter.Cf.The Criminal, by Havelock Ellis; London, 1910, p. 208.[25]Cf.The Jews, by Maurice Fishberg; New York, 1911, ch. xxii, and especially p. 485et seq.[26]The English Jews usually changeLevytoLewis, a substitution almost unknown in America. They also changeAbrahamtoBrahamandMosestoMoss.VideSurnames, Their Origin and Nationality, by L. B. McKenna; Quincy (Ill.), 1913, pp. 13-14.[27]For these observations of name changes among the Jews I am indebted to Abraham Cahan.[28]They arose in England through the custom of requiring an heir by the female line to adopt the family name on inheriting the family property. Formerly the heir dropped his own surname. Thus the ancestor of the present Duke of Northumberland, bornSmithson, took the ancient name ofPercyon succeeding to the underlying earldom in the eighteenth century. But about a hundred years ago, heirs in like case began to join the two names by hyphenation, and such names are now very common in the British peerage. Thus the surname of Lord Barrymore isSmith-Barry, that of Lord Vernon isVenables-Vernon, and that of the Earl of Wharncliffe isMontagu-Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie.[29]B. W. Green: Word-Book of Virginia Folk-Speech; Richmond, 1899, pp. 13-16.[30]The one given name that they have clung to isKarl. This, in fact, has been adopted by Americans of other stocks, always, however, spelledCarl. Such combinations asCarlGray,CarlWilliams and evenCarlMurphy are common. Here intermarriage has doubtless had its effect.[31]Cf.Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature, by Charles W. Bardsley; London, 1880.[32]Cf.Bardsley,op. cit., p. 205et seq.[33]The Geographic Board has lately decided thatKenesawshould beKennesaw, but the learned jurist sticks to onen.[34]Thornton reprints a paragraph from theCongressional Globeof June 15, 1854, alleging that in 1846, during the row over the Oregon boundary, when "Fifty-four forty or fight" was a political slogan, many "canal-boats, and even some of the babies, ... were christened54° 40′."[35]The Irish present several curious variations. Thus, they divideCharlesinto two syllables. They also take liberties with various English surnames.Bermingham, for example, is pronouncedBrimminghamin Ireland.[36]Issued annually in July, with monthly supplements.[37]The latest report is the fourth, covering the period 1890-1916; Washington, 1916.[38]The authority here is River and Lake Names in the United States, by Edmund T. Ker; New York, 1911. Stephen G. Boyd, in Indian Local Names; York (Pa.), 1885, says that the original Indian name wasPootuppag.[39]P. 17.[40]Cf.Dutch Contributions to the Vocabulary of English in America, by W. H. Carpenter,Modern Philology, July, 1908.[41]Our Naturalized Names,Lippincott's Magazine, April, 1899. It will be recalled how Pinaud, the French perfumer, was compelled to place advertisements in the street-cars, instructing the public in the proper pronunciation of his name.[42]The same compromise is apparent in the pronunciation ofIroquois, which isIro-quoyquite as often as it isIro-quoys.[43]Videits Fourth Report (1890-1916), p. 15.[44]The Geographic Board is composed of representatives of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Geological Survey, the General Land Office, the Post Office, the Forest Service, the Smithsonian Institution, the Biological Survey, the Government Printing Office, the Census and Lighthouse Bureaus, the General Staff of the Army, the Hydrographic Office, Library and War Records Office of the Navy, the Treasury and the Department of State. It was created by executive order Sept. 4, 1890, and its decisions are binding upon all federal officials. It has made, to date, about 15,000 decisions. They are recorded in reports issued at irregular intervals and in more frequent bulletins.[45]Every-Day English, p. 100.[46]I have often noted that Americans, in speaking of the familiarWorcestershiresauce, commonly pronounce every syllable and enunciatedshiredistinctly. In England it is alwaysWoostersh'r.[47]The English have a great number of such decayed pronunciations,e. g.,MaudlinforMagdalen College,SisterforCirencester,MerryboneforMarylebone. Their geographical nomenclature shows many corruptions due to faulty pronunciation and the law of Hobson-Jobson,e. g.,Leighton Buzzardfor the Norman FrenchLeiton Beau Desart.[48]Curiously enough, Americans always use the broadain the first syllable ofAlbany, whereas Englishmen rhyme the syllable withpal. The English also pronouncePall Mallas if it were spelledpal mal. Americans commonly give it two broada's.[49]Our Street Names,Lippincott's Magazine, Aug., 1897, p. 264.[50]Ch. i.[51]There are, of course, local exceptions. In Baltimore, for example,avenueused to be reserved for wide streets in the suburbs. Thus Charlesstreet, on passing the old city boundary, became Charlesstreet-avenue. Further out it became the Charlesstreet-avenue-road—probably a unique triplication. But that was years ago. Of late many fifth-rate streets in Baltimore have been changed into avenues.

[1]The great Irish famine, which launched the chief emigration to America, extended from 1845 to 1847. The Know Nothing movement, which was chiefly aimed at the Irish, extended from 1852 to 1860.

[2]A. B. Faust: The German Element in the United States, 2 vols.; Boston, 1909, vol. ii, pp. 34et seq.

[3]Richard T. Ely: Outlines of Economics, 3rd rev. ed.; New York, 1916, p. 68.

[4]Cf.Seth K. Humphrey: Mankind; New York, 1917, p. 45.

[5]Cf.William G. Searle: Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum; Cambridge, 1897.

[6]New York WorldAlmanac, 1914, p. 668.

[7]It was announced by the Bureau of War Risk Insurance on March 30, 1918, that there were then 15,000Millersin the United States Army. On the same day there were 262John J. O'Briens, of whom 50 had wives namedMary.

[8]Cf.Carlyle's Frederick the Great, bk. xxi, ch. vi.

[9]S. Grant Oliphant, in theBaltimore Sun, Dec. 2, 1906.

[10]HarrietLaneJohnston was of this family.

[11]Cf.Faust,op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 183-4.

[12]A Tragedy of Surnames, by Fayette Dunlap,Dialect Notes, vol. iv, pt. 1, 1913, p. 7-8.

[13]Americanisms, p. 112.

[14]Henry Harrison, in his Dictionary of the Surnames of the United Kingdom; London, 1912, shows that such names asBloom,Cline, etc., always represent transliterations of German names. They are unknown to genuinely British nomenclature.

[15]A great many more such transliterations and modifications are listed by Faust,op. cit., particularly in his first volume. Others are in Pennsylvania Dutch, by S. S. Haldemann; London, 1872, p. 60et seq., and in The Origin of Pennsylvania Surnames, by L. Oscar Kuhns,Lippincott's Magazine, March, 1897, p. 395.

[16]I lately encountered the following sign in front of an automobile repair shop:For puncture or blowBring it toLowe.

[16]I lately encountered the following sign in front of an automobile repair shop:

For puncture or blowBring it toLowe.

[17]Baltimore Sun, March 17, 1907.

[18]Cf.The Origin of Pennsylvania Surnames,op. cit.

[19]Koch, a common German name, has very hard sledding in America. Its correct pronunciation is almost impossible to Americans; at best it becomesCoke. Hence it is often changed, not only toCook, but toCox,Kokeor evenCockey.

[20]This is army slang, but promises to survive. The Germans, during the war, had no opprobrious nicknames for their foes. The French were alwaysdie Franzosen, the English weredie Engländer, and so on, even when most violently abused. Evender Yankeewas rare.

[21]Cf.Some Current Substitutes for Irish, by W. A. McLaughlin,Dialect Notes, vol. iv, pt. ii.

[22]Spiggoty, originating at Panama, now means a native of any Latin-American region under American protection, and in general any Latin-American. It is navy slang, but has come into extensive civilian use. It is a derisive daughter of "NospikInglese."

[23]Cf.Reaction to Personal Names, by Dr. C. P. Oberndorf,Psychoanalytic Review, vol. v, no. 1, January, 1918, p. 47et seq.This, so far as I know, is the only article in English which deals with the psychological effects of surnames upon their bearers. Abraham, Silberer and other German psychoanalysts have made contributions to the subject. Dr. Oberndorf alludes, incidentally, to the positive social prestige which goes with an English air, and, to a smaller extent, with a French air in America. He tells of an Italian who changed his patronymic ofDipucciintode Puccito make it more "aristocratic." And of a German bearing the genuinely aristocratic name ofvon Landsschaffshausenwho changed it to "a typically English name" because the latter seemed more distinguished to his neighbors.

[24]The effects of race antagonism upon language are still to be investigated. The etymology ofslaveindicates that the inquiry might yield interesting results. The wordFrench, in English, is largely used to suggest sexual perversion. In German anythingRussianis barbarous, andEnglisheducation hints at flagellation. The French, for many years, called a certain contraband appliance acapote Anglaise, but after theentente cordialethey changed the name tocapote Allemande. The common English name to this day isFrench letter.Cf.The Criminal, by Havelock Ellis; London, 1910, p. 208.

[25]Cf.The Jews, by Maurice Fishberg; New York, 1911, ch. xxii, and especially p. 485et seq.

[26]The English Jews usually changeLevytoLewis, a substitution almost unknown in America. They also changeAbrahamtoBrahamandMosestoMoss.VideSurnames, Their Origin and Nationality, by L. B. McKenna; Quincy (Ill.), 1913, pp. 13-14.

[27]For these observations of name changes among the Jews I am indebted to Abraham Cahan.

[28]They arose in England through the custom of requiring an heir by the female line to adopt the family name on inheriting the family property. Formerly the heir dropped his own surname. Thus the ancestor of the present Duke of Northumberland, bornSmithson, took the ancient name ofPercyon succeeding to the underlying earldom in the eighteenth century. But about a hundred years ago, heirs in like case began to join the two names by hyphenation, and such names are now very common in the British peerage. Thus the surname of Lord Barrymore isSmith-Barry, that of Lord Vernon isVenables-Vernon, and that of the Earl of Wharncliffe isMontagu-Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie.

[29]B. W. Green: Word-Book of Virginia Folk-Speech; Richmond, 1899, pp. 13-16.

[30]The one given name that they have clung to isKarl. This, in fact, has been adopted by Americans of other stocks, always, however, spelledCarl. Such combinations asCarlGray,CarlWilliams and evenCarlMurphy are common. Here intermarriage has doubtless had its effect.

[31]Cf.Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature, by Charles W. Bardsley; London, 1880.

[32]Cf.Bardsley,op. cit., p. 205et seq.

[33]The Geographic Board has lately decided thatKenesawshould beKennesaw, but the learned jurist sticks to onen.

[34]Thornton reprints a paragraph from theCongressional Globeof June 15, 1854, alleging that in 1846, during the row over the Oregon boundary, when "Fifty-four forty or fight" was a political slogan, many "canal-boats, and even some of the babies, ... were christened54° 40′."

[35]The Irish present several curious variations. Thus, they divideCharlesinto two syllables. They also take liberties with various English surnames.Bermingham, for example, is pronouncedBrimminghamin Ireland.

[36]Issued annually in July, with monthly supplements.

[37]The latest report is the fourth, covering the period 1890-1916; Washington, 1916.

[38]The authority here is River and Lake Names in the United States, by Edmund T. Ker; New York, 1911. Stephen G. Boyd, in Indian Local Names; York (Pa.), 1885, says that the original Indian name wasPootuppag.

[39]P. 17.

[40]Cf.Dutch Contributions to the Vocabulary of English in America, by W. H. Carpenter,Modern Philology, July, 1908.

[41]Our Naturalized Names,Lippincott's Magazine, April, 1899. It will be recalled how Pinaud, the French perfumer, was compelled to place advertisements in the street-cars, instructing the public in the proper pronunciation of his name.

[42]The same compromise is apparent in the pronunciation ofIroquois, which isIro-quoyquite as often as it isIro-quoys.

[43]Videits Fourth Report (1890-1916), p. 15.

[44]The Geographic Board is composed of representatives of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Geological Survey, the General Land Office, the Post Office, the Forest Service, the Smithsonian Institution, the Biological Survey, the Government Printing Office, the Census and Lighthouse Bureaus, the General Staff of the Army, the Hydrographic Office, Library and War Records Office of the Navy, the Treasury and the Department of State. It was created by executive order Sept. 4, 1890, and its decisions are binding upon all federal officials. It has made, to date, about 15,000 decisions. They are recorded in reports issued at irregular intervals and in more frequent bulletins.

[45]Every-Day English, p. 100.

[46]I have often noted that Americans, in speaking of the familiarWorcestershiresauce, commonly pronounce every syllable and enunciatedshiredistinctly. In England it is alwaysWoostersh'r.

[47]The English have a great number of such decayed pronunciations,e. g.,MaudlinforMagdalen College,SisterforCirencester,MerryboneforMarylebone. Their geographical nomenclature shows many corruptions due to faulty pronunciation and the law of Hobson-Jobson,e. g.,Leighton Buzzardfor the Norman FrenchLeiton Beau Desart.

[48]Curiously enough, Americans always use the broadain the first syllable ofAlbany, whereas Englishmen rhyme the syllable withpal. The English also pronouncePall Mallas if it were spelledpal mal. Americans commonly give it two broada's.

[49]Our Street Names,Lippincott's Magazine, Aug., 1897, p. 264.

[50]Ch. i.

[51]There are, of course, local exceptions. In Baltimore, for example,avenueused to be reserved for wide streets in the suburbs. Thus Charlesstreet, on passing the old city boundary, became Charlesstreet-avenue. Further out it became the Charlesstreet-avenue-road—probably a unique triplication. But that was years ago. Of late many fifth-rate streets in Baltimore have been changed into avenues.

Back to Index Next