our surnames has been mostly left to the amateur
philologist, and many origins given by my predecessors as ascertained
facts turn out, on investigation, to be unsupported by a shred of
evidence. I cannot hope that this little book in its new form is free
from error, but I feel that it has benefited by the years I have spent
in research since its original publication. I would ask reader to
accept it, not as a comprehensive treatise containing full information
on any name that happens to occur in it, but as a general survey of
the subject, and an attempt to indicate and exemplify the various ways
in which our surnames have come into existence.

ERNEST WEEKLEY.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, NOTTINGHAM. April 1922.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

The early demand for a new edition of this little book is a gratifying
proof of a widespread interest in its subject, rather than a testimony
to the value of my small contribution to that subject. Of the
imperfections of this contribution no one can be more conscious than
myself, but I trust that the most palpable blemishes have been removed
in this revised edition. The student of etymology seldom passes a day
without coming across some piece of evidence which throws new light on
a difficult problem (see Chapter XVI), or invalidates what had before
seemed a reasonable conjecture. I have to thank many correspondents
for sending me information of value and for indicating points in which
conciseness has led to misunderstanding. Some of my correspondents
need, however, to be reminded that etymology and genealogy are
separate sciences; so that, while offering every apology to that Mr.
Robinson whose name is a corruption of Montmorency, I still adhere to
my belief that the other Robinsons derive from Robert.

ERNEST WEEKLEY.

NOTTINGHAM March 1914.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

The interpretation of personal names has always had an attraction for
the learned and others, but the first attempts to classify and explain
our English surnames date, so far as my knowledge goes, from 1605. In
that year Verstegan published his Restitution of Decayed Intelligence,
which contains chapters on both font-names and surnames, and about the
same time appeared Camden's Remains Concerning Britain, in which the
same subjects are treated much more fully. Both of these learned
antiquaries make excellent reading, and much curious information may
be gleaned from their pages, especially