l names which have come in
this way from trades. We have _Taylor_ for a beginning.

But many surnames which are taken from the names of trades come from
Old English words which are now seldom or never used. _Chapman_, a
common name now, was the Old English word for a general dealer.
_Spicer_ was the old name for grocer, and is now a fairly common
surname. The well-known name of _Fletcher_ comes from the almost
forgotten word _flechier_, "an arrowmaker." _Coltman_ came from the
name of the man who had charge of the colts. _Runciman_ was the man
who had charge of horses too, and comes from another Old English word,
_rouncy_, "a horse." The _Parkers_ are descended from a park-keeper
who used to be called by that name. The _Horners_ come from a maker of
horns; the _Crockers_ and _Crokers_ from a "croker," or "crocker," a
maker of pottery. _Hogarth_ comes from "hoggart," a hog-herd;
_Calvert_ from "calf-herd;" and _Seward_ from "sow-herd." _Lambert_
sometimes came from "lamb-herd."

But we cannot always be sure of the origin of even the commonest
surnames. For instance, every person named _Smith_ is not descended
from a smith, for the name also comes from the old word _smoth_, or
"smooth," and this is the origin of _Smith_ in _Smithfield_.

A great many English surnames were taken from places. _Street_,
_Ford_, _Lane_, _Brooke_, _Styles_, are names of this kind. Sometimes
they were prefixed by the Old English _atte_ ("at") or the French _de
la_ ("of the"), but these prefixes have been dropped since. _Geoffrey
atte Style_ was the Geoffrey who lived near the stile--and so on.

Nearly all the names ending in _hurst_ and _shaw_ are taken from
places. A _hurst_ was a wood or grove; a _shaw_ was a shelter for
fowls and animals. The chief thing about a man who got the surname of
_Henshaw_ or _Ramshaw_ was probably that he owned, or had the care of,
such a shelter for hens or rams.

Names ending in _ley_ generally came into existence in the same way, a
_ley_ being also a shelter for domestic animals. So we have _Horsley_,
_Cowley_, _Hartley_, _Shipley_ (from "sheep"). Sometimes the name was
taken from the kind of trees which closed such a shelter in, names
like _Ashley_, _Elmsley_, _Oakley_, _Lindley_, etc.

Surnames as well as Christian names were often taken from the names
of saints. From such a beautiful name as _St. Hugh_ the Normans had
_Hugon_, and from this we get the rather commonplace names of
_Huggins_, _Hutchins_,