Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/218

Martin, and the rest, the common general Christian names, Harry, William, Robert, Roger, etc., and some less common ones, such as Julyan, Vivian, Nicholas (Nicol, Nicholl, etc.), Colin, Jeffry, Jasper, Gilbert, etc., and names of Cornish saints, Keverne, Key, Gluyas, Ustick (probably adjectival form from Just). Besides these there are a few from old British, or of Breton or Norman introduction, Harvey (Hervé), Dennis, Rawle, and Rawlin (Raoul, Raoulin, Rivallen), Tangye ( Tanguy, a quite common name in Brittany, from St. Tanguy, one of the entourage of St. Pol of Leon), Arthur, David or Davy (as representing the Welsh saint, not the King of Israel), Sampson (representing the Bishop of Dol, not the Israelite hero), Jewell (Breton Judicael or Juhel). Some names take a variety of forms. Thus Clement is found as Clemens, Clemments, Clements, Clemo or Clemmow, Climo, Climance, etc., Ralph (Radulphus, Rudolph, Randolph, Rollo) is found as Ralph, Rapson, Rawe, Rawle, Rawlin, Rawling, Rawlings, Rabling, Randall, Rowe, Rowling, Rowse, etc. There are also certain names which have a resemblance to Spanish names, Pascoe, Varcoe, Jago, Crago, Manuel, etc., but no theory of Spanish influence is necessarily to be built upon them, as they are otherwise explainable. As the Cornish had got beyond the matriarchal stage of culture before historic times, we do not find family names derived from names of women, but no chapter on Cornish nomenclature can omit that very remarkable and peculiarly Cornish name Jennifer, which is beyond any doubt a local form of the name of Guenivere, the wife of Arthur. A more Frenchified form is still found in Brittany, and the Cornish form goes back to time immemorial. At one time the name of an equally celebrated Queen of Cornwall was used as a Cornish Christian name, for Ysolt de Cardinham possessed the advowson of the church of Colan in