y--

Blaireau, a badger, gray, boason, brock (Cotgrave)--

but Badger itself is occupative (Chapter XIX). The polecat survives
as Fitch, Fitchett, and Fitchew--

"Fissau, a filch, or fulmart."

(Cotgrave.)

FISHES

On fish-names Bardsley remarks, "We may quote the famous chapter on
'Snakes in Iceland': 'There are no snakes in Iceland,' and say there
are no fish-names in England." This is almost true. The absence of
marked traits of character in the, usually invisible, fish would
militate against the adoption of such names. We should not expect to
find the shark to be represented, for the word is of too late
occurrence. But Whale is fairly common. Whale the mariner received
two pounds from Henry VII's privy purse in 1498. The story of Jonah,
or very generous proportions, may have originated the name Whalebelly,
"borne by a respectable family in south-east England" (Bardsley).

But there would obviously be no great temptation to go fishing for
nicknames when the beasts of the farmyard and the forest, the birds of
the marshes and the air, offered on every side easily understood
comparisons. At the same time Bardsley's statement goes a little too
far. He explains Gudgeon as a corruption of Goodison. But this, true
though it may be in some cases, will not explain the very common
French surname Goujon. The phrase "greedy gudgeon" suggests that in
this case a certain amount of character had been noticed in the fish.
Sturgeon also seems to be a genuine fish-name. We find Fr. Lesturgeon
and Ger. Stoer, both meaning the same. We have also Smelt and the
synonymous Spurling. In French and German we find other surnames
which undoubtedly belong to this class, but they are not numerous and
probably at first occurred only in regions where fishing or
fish-curing were important industries.

A few examples will show that apparent fish-names are usually not
genuine. Chubb is for Job (Chapter III), Eeles is one of the numerous
derivatives of Elias (Chapter IX), Hake is, like Hack, from the
Scandinavian Hacun, Haddock is sometimes a perversion of the local
Haydock, Lamprey comes via Old French from Old High Ger. Landprecht,
which has usually given Lambert.

Pike is local (Chapter XII), Pilchard is for Pilcher (Chapter XVIII),
Roach is Fr. Laroche, Salmon is for Salomon, and Turbot is the
Anglo-Sax. Thurbeorht, which has also given Tarbut, as Thurgod has
given Targett. But in few of the above examples is the po