ot have divers Christian names _at divers times_.

When a man changes his Christian name, he alters his legal identity. The
surname, however, is assumable at pleasure. The use of surnames came into
England, according to Camden, about {489} the time of the Conquest, but
they were not in general use till long after that. Many branches of
families used to substitute the names of their estate or residence for
their patronymic, which often makes the tracing of genealogies a difficult
matter. It was not till the middle of the fourteenth century that surnames
began to descend from father to son, and a reference to any old document of
the time will show how arbitrarily such names were assumed.

A surname, in short, may be called a matter of convenience; a Christian
name, a matter of necessity. The giving two Christian names at baptism did
not come generally into use till, owing to the multiplication of the
patronymic, a single Christian name became insufficient to identify the
individual. Consequently an instance of a double Christian name, previous
to the commencement of the eighteenth century, is a rarity. The fifth and
sixth earls of Northumberland bore the names of Henry-Algernon Percy. The
latter died in 1537.

As to the period at which Christian names were assumed as surnames, your
correspondent ERICAS is referred to Lower's _English Surnames_.

H. C. K.

---- Rectory, Hereford.

Your correspondent ERICA will not, I think, find an instance in this
country of a person having more than one Christian name before the last
century. Charles James Fox and William Wyndham Grenville are the two
earliest instances I can find. It is trivial but curious to observe, that
in the lists given at the beginning of the _Oxford Calendar_ of the heads
of colleges and halls from their several foundations, the first who appears
with two Christian names is the venerable president of Magdalene College.
Antony Ashley Cooper is only a seeming exception; his surname was
Ashley-Cooper, as is proved by his contributing the letter _a_ to the word
_cabal_, the nickname of the ministry of which he formed a part. We find
the custom common enough in Germany at the time of the Reformation, and
still earlier in Italy. I apprehend that its origin is really in the _tria
nomina_ of Roman freemen. It was introduced into this country through our
royal family, but I am not aware of any prince who had the benefit of it
before Charles James.

I apprehend the