epin. Streatfeild preserves
variant spellings of street and field. In Gardiner we have the Old
Northern French word which now, as a common noun, gardener, is
assimilated to garden, the normal French form of which appears in
Jardine.

Such orthographic variants as i and y, Simons, Symons, Ph and f,
Jephcott, Jeffcott, s and c, Pearce, Pearce, Rees, Reece, Sellars
(cellars), ks and x, Dickson, Dixon, are a matter of taste or
accident. Initial letters which became mute often disappeared in
spelling, e.g. Wray, a corner (Chapter XIII), has become hopelessly
confused with Ray, a roe, Knott, from Cnut, i.e. Canute, or from
dialect knot, a hillock, with Noll, crop-haired. Knowlson is the son
of Nowell (Chapter IX) or of Noll, i.e. Oliver.

Therefore, when Mr. X. asserts that his name has always been
spelt in such and such a way, he is talking nonsense. If his
great-grandfather's will is accessible, he will probably find two or
three variants in that alone. The great Duke of Wellington, as a
younger man, signed himself Arthur Wesley--

"He was colonel of Dad's regiment, the Thirty-third foot, after Dad
left the army, and then he changed his name from Wesley to Wellesley,
or else the other way about"

(KIPLING, Marklake Witches);

and I know two families the members of which disagree as to the
orthography of their names. We have a curious affectation in such
spellings as ffrench, ffoulkes, etc., where the ff is merely the
method of indicating the capital letter in early documents.

The telescoping of long names is a familiar phenomenon. Well-known
examples are Cholmondeley, Chumley, Marjoribanks, Marchbanks,
Mainwaring, Mannering. Less familiar are Auchinleck, Affleck,
Boutevilain, Butlin, Postlethwaite, Posnett, Sudeley, Sully,
Wolstenholme, Woosnam. Ensor is from the local Edensor, Cavendish was
regularly Candish for the Elizabethans, while Cavenham in Suffolk has
given the surname Canham. Daventry has become Daintree, Dentry, and
probably the imitative Dainty, while Stepson is for Stevenson. It is
this tendency which makes the connection between surnames and village
names so difficult to establish in many cases, for the artificial name
as it occurs in the gazetteer often gives little clue to the local
pronunciation. It is easy to recognize Bickenhall or Bickenhill in
Bicknell and Puttenham in Putnam, but the identity of Wyndham with
Wymondham is only clear when we know the local Pronunciation of the
latt