ch we may compare the
German surname Pfennig and its compounds Barpfennig, Weisspfennig,
etc. The early adoption of this coin-name as a personal name is due
to the fact that the word was taken in the sense of money in general.
We still speak of a rich man as "worth a pretty penny." Hallmark is
folk-etymology for the medieval Half-mark. Such medieval names as
Four-pence, Twenty-mark, etc., probably now obsolete, are paralleled
by Fr. Quatresous and Sixdenier, still to be found in the Paris
Directory. It would be easy to form conjectures as to the various
ways in which such names may have come into existence. To the same
class must belong Besant, the name of a coin from Byzantium, its
foreign origin giving it a dignity which is absent from the native
Farthing and Halfpenny, though the latter, in one instance, was
improved beyond recognition into MacAlpine.

IMPRECATIONS

There is also a small group of surnames derived from oaths or
exclamations which by habitual use became associated with certain
individuals. We know that monarchs had a special tendency to indulge
in a favourite expletive. To Roger de Collerye we owe some
information as to the imprecations preferred by four French kings--

"Quand la Pasque-Dieu (Louis XI.) deceda,
Le Bon Jour Dieu (Charles VIII.) luy succeda,
Au Bon Jour Dieu deffunct et mort
Succeda le Dyable m'emport (Louis XII).
Luy decede, nous voyons comme
Nous duist (governs) la Foy de Gentilhomme (Francis I.)."

So important was this branch of linguistics once considered that
Palsgrave, the French tutor of Princess Mary Tudor, includes in his
Esclarcissement de la Langue Francoyse a section on "The Maners of
Cursyng." Among the examples are "Le grant diable luy rompe le col et
les deux jambes," "Le diable l'emporte, corps et ame, tripes et
boyaux," which were unfortunately too long for surname purposes, but
an abridged form of "Le feu Saint Anthoyne l'arde" [Footnote: Saint
Anthony's fire, i.e. erysipelas, burn him!] has given the French name
Feulard. Such names, usually containing the name of God, e.g.
Godmefetch, Helpusgod, have mostly disappeared in this country; but
Dieuleveut and Dieumegard are still found in Paris, and Gottbehuet, God
forbid, and Gotthelf, God help, occur in German. Godbehere still
exists, and there is not the slightest reason why it should not be of
the origin which its form indicates. In Gracedieu, thanks to God, the
second element is an Old French