ughly phonetic, i.e. it attempted to reproduce
the sound of the period and region, and even men of learning, as late
as the eighteenth century, were very uncertain in matters of
orthography. The spelling of the language is now practically
normalized, although in conformity with no sort of principle; but the
family name, as a private possession, has kept its freedom. Thus, if
we wish to speak poetically of a meadow, I suppose we should call it a
lea, but the same word is represented by the family names Lea, Lee,
Ley, Leigh, Legh, Legge, Lay, Lye, perhaps the largest group of local
surnames we possess.

In matters of spelling we observe various tendencies. One is the
retention of an archaic form, which does not necessarily affect
pronunciation. Late Mid. English was fond of y for i, of double
consonants, and of final -e. All these appear in the names Thynne
(thin) and Wyllie (wily). Therefore we should not deride the man who
writes himself Smythe. But in some cases the pronunciation suffers,
e.g. the name Fry represents Mid. Eng. fri, one of the forms of the
adjective that is now written free. Burt represents Anglo-Sax.
beorht, the normal result of which is Bright. We now write subtle and
perfect, artificial words, in the second of which the pronunciation
has been changed in accordance with the restored spelling; but the
older forms survive in the names Suttle and Parfitt--

"He was a verray parfit, gentil knyght."

(A, 72.)

The usual English pronunciation of names like Mackenzie, Menzies,
Dalziel, is due to the substitution by the printer of a z for an
obsolete letter that represented a soft palatal sound more like y.
[Footnote: This substitution has led one writer on surnames, who
apparently confuses bells with beans, to derive the rare surname
Billiter, whence Billiter's Lane in the City, from "Belzetter, i.e.,
the Bell-setter." The Mid. Eng. "bellezeter, campanarius" (Prompt.
Parv.), was a bell-founder, from a verb related to geysir, ingot, and
Ger. giessen, to pour. Robert le bellegeter was a freeman of York in
1279.]

We have an archaic plural ending in Knollys (Knowles), the plural of
knoll, and in Sandys, and an archaic spelling in Sclater for Slater or
Slatter, for both slat and slate come from Old Fr. esclat (eclat), a
splinter. With Knollys and Sandys we may put Pepys, for the existence
of the dims. Pipkin, Peppitt, and Peppiatt points to the medieval
name Pipun, corresponding to the royal P