Chapter I

), Tryggr (true), Triggs, Unwine (unfriend), Unwin, etc. But many of these had died out as personal names and, in medieval use, were nicknames pure and simple.

MONOSYLLABIC NAMES

Finally, there is a very large group of Anglo-Saxon dissyllabic names, usually ending in -a, which appear to be pet forms of the longer names, though it is not always possible to establish the connection. Many of them have double forms with a long and short vowel respectively. It is to this class that we must refer the large number of our monosyllabic surnames, which would otherwise defy interpretation. Anglo-Sax. Dodds gave Dodd, while Dodson's partner Fogg had an ancestor Focga. Other examples are Bacga, Bagg, Benna, Benn, Bota, Boot and dim. Booty, Botts, Bolt, whence Bolting, Bubba, Bubb, Budda, Budd, Bynna, Binns, Cada, Cade, Cobbs, Cobb, Coda, Coad, Codda, Codd, Cuffs, Cuff, Deda, Deedes, Duda, Dowd, Duna, Down, Donna, Dunn, Dutta, Dull, Eada, Eade, Edes, etc., Ebba, Ebbs; Eppa, Epps, Hudda, Hud, whence Hudson, Inga, Inge, Sibba, Sibbs, Sicga, Siggs, Tata, Tate and Tait, Tidda, Tidd, Tigga, Tigg, Toca, Tooke, Tucca, Tuck, Wada, Wade, Wadda, Waddy, etc. Similarly French took from German a number of surnames formed from shortened names in -o, with an accusative in -on, e.g. Old Ger. Bodo has given Fr. Bout and Bouton, whence perhaps our Butt and Button.

But the names exemplified above are very thinly represented in early records, and, though their existence in surnames derived from place-names (Dodsley, Bagshaw, Bensted, Bedworth, Cobham, Ebbsworth, etc.) would vouch for them even if they were not recorded, their comparative insignificance is attested by the fact that they form very few derivatives.

Compare, for instance, the multitudinous surnames which go back to monosyllables of the later type of name, such as John and Hugh, with the complete sterility of the names above. Therefore, when an alternative derivation for a surname is possible, it is usually ten to one that this alternative is right. Dodson is a simplified Dodgson, from Roger ( Chapter VI ); Benson belongs to Benedict, sometimes to Benjamin; Cobbett is a disguised Cuthbert or Cobbold (cf. Garrett,

## Chapter II ); Down is usually local, at the down or dune; Dunn is

medieval le dun, a colour nickname; names in Ead-, Ed-, are usually from the medieval female name Eda (