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Show THE ORIGIN OF NAMES. W hen not engaged in berating his ill luck. of having been born an American, the late Vv'illiam Waldorf Astor spent much time and research in ascertaining the origin of his faniilv name. In the course of years and with the expenditure expendi-ture of much labor, the expatriated Yankee came to the conclusion that his faniilv name formerly was "Astorga," and that he was descended from a noble no-ble family of the latter name which flourished in Italy in the Middle Ages. Having convinced himself that this was so, Aster undertook to prove it to others. With the help of his money and his patronage, it is said, he succeeded quite well. Upon reading this news, a writer for the Xew York Herald undertook to discover dis-cover tome more facts about Astor and his names. Astor. for piamnlfi. was " Yiseount Astor of Hever L'astlc." To the general reader the name of Sever conveys no special significance, says the writer referred to, but the archaeologist and etymologist find it full of interest. It first appears in records about the year 127S, in the form of Evere, Hevre, or Heure. Its-, present form was assumed as-sumed about Ii?". It is derived from, or formed, two Anglo-Saxon or old English En-glish words. One of these is he, hee, his, or in old English lieah, meaning high. The other is the old English ofer, Frisian over, or German ufer, meaning a river bank. Thus Hever Castle means a castle on a high river bank. Numerous other names are derived de-rived from one or the other of those same originals. Thus Healey and the more familiar Henley are from he or heah, in the latter heah being infleclel into hean, meaning high, and lea or leah, meaning a meadow. So Astor, Bccchcr, Hasler, and Iver are compounds com-pounds of ash, eech, hazel, and ivy with over, meaning, ash bank, beech-bank, hazel-bank and ivy-bank. Another name associated wirTi Vis; count Astor in England is that of Cliveden, Clive-den, at Taplow, in Buckinghamshire. Cliveden, which in Somersetshire assumes as-sumes the form of Clcvedon, is a compound com-pound of two words. One of them is elive, cleve, cleev, or in old English, clif, meaning a cliff. The same word is found in Cleveland, Clifford, Clifton, etc. The other is den, deno, dean, or in old English denu, meaning a valley, a ravine, a den or lair, or also a woodland wood-land swine pasture, in which latter sense it occurs in the well known name of the Forest of Dean. Taplow dates from the famous Domesday Book, in which it appears as Thapcslav. It comes from Tapa, which the Normans in Domesday Book culled TKapes, the name of a man or a f am -ily; and law or low, in old English hlaw, meaning burial mound or mounded mound-ed grave. So Taplow means I be burial mound of Tapa. Being engaged upon II- subject of names, the delvcr found that tho orig inal names of London and Paris aro identical. London, called by the Roman Ro-man historian Tacitus Uondinium, is derived fTotn tho old Gaelic lod, meaning mean-ing a pool or marsh, and dun, a fortifi cation: Lt)d Dun, euphonized into London, Lon-don, tbtrg moaning a marsh with a fort. The original name of Paris was Uutetia, wilcii was likewise derived from the Gaelic lod, a marsh. The derivation of the name Washington, Wash-ington, as disclosed by these researches, should be of interest to Americans. II first appeared in 11 VI, as YVassyug-lone, YVassyug-lone, and in 1107 as Wassinton; though a still earlier form from the snmo root was Wfidfi&bufge' in fiill. of course, It has nothing whatever lo do with washing. wash-ing. II. is Waaaa -ing loii, (own of the sons of Wassa. Tlicna is reason, however, how-ever, for thinking Dial Wflujai is a derivative de-rivative of Wad Is, a proper name which occurs in Hie legend of llcowulf. In Unit case, Washington menns the town of the descendants of Waels. tnd lints a ri boi our first pnsfldattt ' t-ncfftrv to :i Icyondnry hero in Ihc oldest work in Sngllsb lit r in 1 urc. It should be nolddf by 'he way. that while, in many eases pliicr-, have taken the names of families, in this case llie family look the name of I lie plnco, |
