for Judkins (Chapter VI), etc.
Here I should also include Biggs, which is not always connected with
Bigg, for we seldom find adjectival nicknames with -s. It seems to
represent Biggins, from obsolete biggin, a building (Chapter XIII).

The French nasal n often disappeared before r. Thus denree, lit. a
pennyworth, appears in Anglo-French as darree. Similarly Henry became
Harry, except in Scotland, and the English Kings of that name were
always called Harry by their subjects. It is to this pronunciation
that we owe the popularity of Harris and Harrison, and the frequency
of Welsh Parry, ap, Harry, as compared with Penry. A compromise
between Henry and Harry is seen in Hanrott, from the French dim.
Henriot.

The initial h-, which we regard with such veneration, is treated quite
arbitrarily in surnames. We find a well-known medieval poet called
indifferently Occleve and Hoccleve. Harnett is the same as Arnett,
for Arnold, Ewens and Heavens are both from Ewan, and Heaven is an
imitative form of Evan. In Hoskins, from the medieval Osekin, a dim.
of some Anglo-Saxon name such as Oswald (Chapter VII), the aspirate
has definitely prevailed. The Devonshire name Hexter is for Exeter,
Arbuckle is a corruption of Harbottle, in Northumberland. The Old
French name Ancel appears as both Ansell and Hansell, and Earnshaw
exists side by side with Hearnshaw (Chapter XII).

The loss of h is especially common when it is the initial letter of a
suffix, e.g. Barnum for Barnham, Haslam, (hazel), Blenkinsop for
Blenkin's hope (see hope, Chapter XII), Newall for Newhall, Windle for
Wind Hill, Tickell for Tick Hill, in Yorkshire, etc. But Barnum and
Haslam may also represent the Anglo-Saxon dative plural of the words
barn and hazel. A man who minded sheep was once called a Shepard, or
Sheppard, as he still is, though we spell it shepherd. The letter w
disappears in the same way; thus Greenish is for Greenwich, Horridge
for Horwich, Aspinall for Aspinwall, Millard for Millward, the
mill-keeper, Boxall for Boxwell, Caudle for Cauldwell (cold); and the
Anglo-Saxon names in -win are often confused with those in -ing, e.g.
Gooding, Goodwin; Golding, Goldwin; Gunning, Gunwin, etc. In this way
Harding has prevailed over the once equally common Hardwin.

BABY PHONETICS

Finally, we have to consider what may be called baby phonetics, the
sound-changes which seem rather to transgress general phonetic laws.
Young children habitually