o given Gutteridge.

Moreover, it must not be forgotten that our medieval nomenclature is
preponderantly French, as the early rolls show beyond dispute, so
that, even where a modern name appears susceptible of an Anglo-Saxon
explanation, it is often safer to refer it to the Old French cognate;
for the Germanic names introduced into France by the Frankish
conquerors, and the Scandinavian names which passed into Normandy,
contained very much the same elements as our own native names, but
underwent a different phonetic development. Thus I would rather
explain Bawden, Bowden, Boulders, Boden, and the dims. Body and
Bodkin, as Old French variants from the Old Ger. Baldawin than as
coming directly from Anglo-Saxon. Boyden undoubtedly goes back to Old
Fr. Baudouin.

Practically all the names given in Gower's lines (Chapter V), and many
others to which I have ascribed a continental origin, are found
occasionally in England before the Conquest, but the weight of
evidence shows that they were either adopted in England as French
names or were corrupted in form by the Norman scribes and officials.
To take other examples, our Tibbald, Tibbles, Tibbs suggest the Fr.
Thibaut rather than the natural development of Anglo-Sax. Thiudbeald,
i.e. Theobald; and Ralph, Relf, Roff, etc., show the regular Old
French development of Raedwulf, Radolf. Tibaut Wauter, i.e. Theobald
Walter, who lived in Lancashire in 1242, had both his names in an old
French form.

ANGLO-SAXON NICKNAMES

As a matter of fact, the various ways of forming nicknames or
descriptive names, are all used in the pre-Conquest personal names.
We find Orme, i.e. serpent or dragon (cf. Great Orme's Head), Wulf,
i.e. Wolf, Hwita, i.e. White, and its derivative Hwiting, now Whiting,
Saemann, i.e. Seaman, Bonda, i.e. Bond, Leofcild, dear child, now Leif
child, etc. But, except the case of Orme, so common as the first
element of place-names, I doubt the survival of these as purely
personal names into the surname period and regard White, Seaman, Bond,
Leif child rather as new epithets of Mid. English formation. Whiting
is of course Anglo-Saxon, -ing being the regular patronymic suffix.
Cf. Browning, Benning, Dering, Dunning, Gunning, Hemming, Kipping,
Manning, and many others which occur in place-names. But not all
names in -ing are Anglo-Saxon, e.g. Baring is German; cf. Behring, of
the Straits; and Jobling is Fr. Jobelin, a double dim. of Job.

I will now give a fe