from that of the mother country. The relative infrequency of hyphenated names in America is familiar ; when they appear at all it is almost always in response to direct English influences.[1] Again, a number of English family names have undergone modification in the New World. V enable may serve as a speci- men. The form in England is almost invariably Venables, but in America the final s has been lost, and every example of the name that I have been able to find in the leading American reference-books is without it. And where spellings have re- mained unchanged, pronunciations have been frequently modi- fied. This is particularly noticeable in the South. Callowhill, down there, is commonly pronounced Carrol; Crenshawe is Granger; Hawthorne, Horton; Heyward, Howard; Norsworthy, Nazary; Ironimonger, Hunger; Farinholt, F email; Camp, Kemp; Buchanan, Bohannan; Drewry, Droit, Enroughty, Darby; and Taliaferro, Tolliver. [2] The English Crowninshields pronounce every syllable of their name ; the American Cronminshields com- monly make it Crunshel. Van Schaick, an old New York name, is pronounced Von Scoik. A good many American Jews, aim- ing at a somewhat laborious refinement, change the pronuncia- tion of the terminal stein in their names so that it rhymes, not with line, but with bean. Thus, in fashionable Jewish circles, there are no longer any Epsteins, Goldsteins and Hammer- steins but only Epsteens, Goldsteens and Hammersteens. The American Jews differ further from the English in pronounc- ing Levy to make the first syllable rhyme with tea; the English Jews always make the name Lev-vy, To match such
- ↑ They arose in England through the custom of requiring an heir by the female line to adopt the family name on inheriting the family property. Formerly the heir dropped his own surname. Thus the ancestor of the present Duke of Northumberland, born Smithson, took the ancient name of Percy on succeeding to the underlying earldom in the eighteenth century. But about a hundred years ago, heirs in like case began to join the two names by hyphenation, and such names are now very common in the British peerage. Thus the surname of Lord Barrymore is Smith-Barry, that of Lord Vernon is Venables-Vemon, and that of the Earl of Wharncliffe is Montagu-Stuart-Wortley-Hackenzie.
- ↑ B. W. Green: Word-Book of Virginia Folkspeech; Richmond, 1899, pp. 13-16.
