od may also be for Hud (Chapter I), but the garment is made into a
personal name in Little Red Ridinghood, who is called in French le
petit Chaperon Rouge.] we have Fr. Capron (chaperon). Burdon, Fr.
bourdon, meant a staff, especially a pilgrim's staff. Daunger is
described as having--

"In his honde a gret burdoun"

(Romaunt of the Rose, 3401).

But the name Burdon is also local. Bracegirdle, i.e. breeks-girdle,
must have been the nickname of one who wore a gorgeous belt. It is a
curious fact that this name is chiefly found in the same region
(Cheshire) as the somewhat similar Broadbelt. The Sussex name Quaile
represents the Norman pronunciation of coif. More usually an
adjective enters into such combinations. With the historic Curthose,
Longsword, Strongbow we may compare Shorthouse, a perversion of
shorthose, Longstaff, Horlock (hoar), Silverlock, Whitlock, etc.
Whitehouse is usually of local origin, but has also absorbed the
medieval names Whitehose and White-hawse, the latter from Mid. Eng.
hawse, neck. Woollard may be the Anglo-Saxon personal name Wulfweard,
but is more probably from woolward, i.e. without linen, a costume
assumed as a sign of penitence

"Wolwarde, without any lynnen nexte ones body, sans chemyse."
(Palsgrave.)

The three names Medley, Medlicott, and Motley go together, though all
three of them may be local (the mid-lea, the middle-cot, and the
moat-lea). Medley mixed, is the Anglo-French past participle of Old
Fr. mesler (meler). Motley is of unknown origin, but it was not
necessarily a fool's dress--

"A marchant was ther with a forked berd,
In mottelye, and hye on horse he sat,
Upon his heed a Flaundryssh bevere hat" (A, 270).

So also the Serjeant of the Law was distinguished his, for the period,
plain dress--

"He rood but hoomly in a medlee cote" (A, 328).

Gildersleeve is now rare in England, though it still flourishes in the
United States. [Footnote: We have several instances of this
phenomenon. A familiar example is Lippincott, a surname of local
origin (Devonshire). But Bardsley's inclusion of American statistics
is often misleading. It is a well-known fact that the foreign names
of immigrants are regularly assimilated to English forms in the United
States. In some cases, such as Cook for Koch, Cope (Chapter XII) for
Kopf, Stout (Chapter XXII) for Stolz or Stultz, the change is
etymologically justified. But in other cases, such as Tallman for
Thalmann, da