Tiler leaving Acton, perhaps for Acton's good, would
be known in his new surroundings as John Acton. A moment's reflection
will show that this must be so. Scott is an English name, the
aristocratic Scotts beyond the border representing a Norman family
Escot, originally of Scottish origin. English, early spelt Inglis, is
a Scottish name. The names Cornish and Cornwallis first became common
in Devonshire, as Devenish did outside that county. French and
Francis, Old Fr. le franceis, are English names, just as Langlois
(l'Anglais) is common in France. For the same reason Cutler is a rare
name in Sheffield, where all are cutlers. By exception the name
Curnow, which is Cornish for a Cornishman, is fairly common in its
native county, but it was perhaps applied especially to those
inhabitants who could only speak the old Cornish language.

CLASSES OF LOCAL NAMES

The local name may range in origin from a country to a plant (France,
Darbishire, Lankester, Ashby, Street, House, Pound, Plumptre, Daisy),
and, mathematically stated, the size of the locality will vary in
direct proportion to the distance from which the immigrant has come.
Terentius Afer was named from a continent. I cannot find a parallel
in England, but names such as the nouns France, Ireland, Pettingell
(Portugal), or the adjectives Dench, Mid. Eng. dense, Danish, Norman,
Welsh, (Walsh, Wallis, etc.), Allman (Allemand), often perverted to
Almond, were considered a sufficient mark of identification for men
who came from foreign parts. But the untravelled inhabitant, if
distinguished by a local name, would often receive it from some very
minute feature of the landscape, e.g. Solomon Daisy may have been
descended from a Robert Dayeseye, who lived in Hunts in 1273. It is
not very easy to see how such very trifling surnames as this last came
into existence, but its exiguity is surpassed in the case of a
prominent French airman who bears the appropriately buoyant name of
Brindejonc, perhaps from some ancestor who habitually chewed a straw.

An immense number of our countrymen are simply named from the points
of the compass, slightly disguised in Norris, Anglo-Fr. le noreis,
[Footnote: The corresponding le surreis is now represented by
Surridge.] Sotheran, the southron, and Sterling, for Easterling, a
name given to the Hanse merchants. Westray was formerly le westreis.
A German was to our ancestors, as he still is to sailors, a Dutchman,
whence our name