t; but it is not used in England now, though
there is still the Italian name, _Bonifazio_, which comes from the
same word.

Both Christian names and surnames have been taken from the Latin _Dies
Natalis_, or "Birthday of our Lord." The French word for Christmas,
_Noel_, comes from this, and, as well as _Natalie_, is used as a
Christian name. _Noel_ is found, too, both as a Christian name and
surname in England. At one time English babies were sometimes
christened _Christmas_, but this is never used as a Christian name
now, though a few families have it as a surname.

Perhaps the most peculiar Christian names that have ever been were the
long names which some of the English Puritans gave their children in
the seventeenth century. Often they gave them whole texts of Scripture
as names, so that at least one small boy was called "Bind their nobles
in chains and their kings in fetters of iron." Let us hope his
relatives soon found some other name to call him "for short."

Everybody has heard of the famous Cromwellian Parliament, which would
do nothing but talk, and which was called the "Barebones Parliament,"
after one of its members, who not only bore this peculiar surname, but
was also blessed with the "Christian" name of _Praise-God_. Cromwell
grew impatient at last, and Praise-God Barebones and the other talkers
suddenly found Parliament dissolved. These names were not, as a rule,
handed on from father to son, and soon died out, though in America
even to-day we get Christian names somewhat similar, but at least
shorter--names like _Willing_.

It is often easier to see how we got our Christian names than how we
got our surnames. As we have seen, there was a time when early peoples
had only first names. The Romans had surnames, or _cognomina_, but the
barbarians who won Europe from them had not.

In England surnames were not used until nearly a hundred years after
the Norman Conquest, and then only by kings and nobles. The common
people in England had, however, nearly all got them by the fourteenth
century; but in Scotland many people were still without surnames in
the time of James I., and even those who had them could easily change
one for another. Once a man got a surname it was handed on to all his
children, as surnames are to-day.

It is interesting to see in how many different ways people got their
surnames. Sometimes this is easy, but it is more difficult in other
cases.

The first surnames in England were