hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2024-04-20

■ #5472. 中英語期に英語人名へ姓が導入された背景 (3) [onomastics][personal_name][name_project][norman_conquest][sociolinguistics][by-name][german]

　「#5346. 中英語期に英語人名へ姓が導入された背景」 ([2023-12-16-1]) と「#5451. 中英語期に英語人名へ姓が導入された背景 (2)」 ([2024-03-30-1]) に続き，この話題についての第3弾．昨日の記事「#5471. 中英語の職業 by-name 研究の価値」 ([2024-04-19-1]) で引用・参照した Fransson が，"The Rise of Surnames" と題する節でこの問題を取り上げている．古英語から初期中英語にかけて surname （あるいは by-name）の使用が一般化してきた経緯と背景を読んででみよう (20--21) ．

   In Old English times people generally had only one name, the Christian name, and there were a great many such names. But already during this period the need of a second name began to be felt, and a number of such names have been delivered to us . . . . How common these by-names were, is impossible to decide, as we have not sufficient material for this. What we especially want are rolls or books containing the names of the lower people. It is possible, therefore, that by-names were in fairly common use at the end of the Old English period. In the Charters, however, people usually appear without any second names throughout the period.
   In Domesday Book there are many instances of second names, but most persons still appear with a Christian name only. In the beginning of the Middle English period the development advances rapidly, and in the documents from this time second names become more and more common; in the 13th century one rarely finds a person mentioned only by his Christian name.
   The reason why the need of second names became stronger after the conquest is that Christian names were completely changed. Most of those that existed in Old English died out, and instead the Christian names of the Normans came into common use, but there were not so numerous. Thus there were only about 25 male names that were common: it is true that others existed, but they rarely occurred. Within the same village, therefore, one very often meets with persons who have the same Christian name. Owing to this an extra name was required to distinguish such persons; the next stage was to give other persons, too, a second name.
   The Normans had second names when they came to England, and these were added to those that already existed, thus accelerating the development.

　先の記事で触れたのとおおよそ同じ点が指摘されている．ノルマン征服後，洗礼名が英語系からノルマン系に置き換わったが，後者の種類が貧弱だったことが大きく影響している．ある村をランダムに取り上げた調査によると，Willelmus （7回），Robertus （5回），Johannes （3回），Ricardus （3回），Radulphus （3回），Adam （3回），Petrus （3回）等の状況である (Fransson 21fn) ．
　また，古英語期より姓を付す習慣は思いのほか定着していた可能性が高く，そこへ同じ習慣をもつノルマン文化が入ってきて，その習慣をより強固なものとした，という事情もあったろう．
　ちなみに，姓を付す慣習の発達は，イングランドでは上記の通り初期中英語期のことだったが，ドイツではもっとずっと遅く，地域によっては14世紀まで稀だったというから驚きだ (Fransson 20fn) ．改めてノルマン征服の大きな効果を感じさせる．

　・ Fransson, G. Middle English Surnames of Occupation 1100--1350, with an Excursus on Toponymical Surnames. Lund Studies in English 3. Lund: Gleerup, 1935.

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