m the middle rungs of the social ladder are also to be
taken literally, e.g. Franklin, a freeholder, Anglo-Fr. frankelein--

"How called you your franklin, Prior Aylmer?"

"Cedric," answered the Prior, "Cedric the Saxon"

(Ivanhoe, ch. i.)--

Burgess, Freeman, Freeborn. The latter is sometimes for Freebairn and
exists already as the Anglo-Saxon personal name Freobeorn. Denison
(Chapter II) is occasionally an accommodated form of denizen,
Anglo-Fr. deinzein, a burgess enjoying the privileges belonging to
those who lived "deinz (in) la cite." In 1483 a certain Edward
Jhonson--

"Sued to be mayde Denison for fer of ye payment of ye subsedy."

(Letter to Sir William Stonor, June 9, 1483.)

Bond is from Anglo-Sax, bonda, which means simply agriculturist. The
word is of Icelandic origin and related to Boor, another word which
has deteriorated and is rare as a surname, though the cognate Bauer is
common enough in Germany. Holder is translated by Tennant. For some
other names applied to the humbler peasantry see Chapter XIII.

To return to the social summit, we have Kingson, often confused with
the local Kingston, and its Anglo-French equivalent Fauntleroy.
Faunt, aphetic for Anglo-Fr. enfaunt, is common in Mid. English. When
the mother of Moses had made the ark of bulrushes, or, as Wyclif calls
it, the "junket of resshen," she--

"Putte the litil faunt with ynne"

(Exodus ii. 3)

The Old French accusative (Chapter I) was also used as a genitive, as
in Bourg-le-roi, Bourg-la-rein, corresponding to our Kingsbury and
Queensborough. We have a genitive also in Flowerdew, found in French
as Flourdieu. Lower, in his Patronymics Britannica (1860), the first
attempt at a dictionary of English surnames, conjectures Fauntleroy to
be from an ancient French war-cry Defendez le roi! for "in course of
time, the meaning of the name being forgotten, the de would be
dropped, and the remaining syllables would easily glide into
Fauntleroy." [Footnote: I have quoted this "etymology" because it is
too funny to be lost; but a good deal of useful information can be
found in Lower, especially with regard to the habitat of well-known
names.]

ECCLESIASTICAL NAMES

Names of ecclesiastics must usually be nicknames, because medieval
churchmen were not entitled to have descendants. This appears clearly
in such an entry as "Bishop the crossbowman," or "Johannes Monacus et
uxor ejus Emma," living in Kent in the twelfth century.