Gypsy Surnames, Romani
Surnames
From "Romano Lavo-Lil
Word-book of the Romany"
by George Borrow, 1905
COOPER AND SMITH: There are many curious things connected with the Gypsies, but perhaps
nothing more so than what pertains to their names. Gypsies
have a double nomenclature, each tribe or family having a
public and a private name, one by which they are known to the Gentiles, and
another to themselves alone. Their public names are quite English; their private
ones attempts, some of them highly singular and uncouth, to render those names
by Gypsy equivalents. Gypsy names
may be divided into two classes, names connected with trades, and surnames or
family names. First of all, something about trade names.
There are only two names of trades which
have been adopted by English Gypsies as proper names, Cooper and Smith: these
names are expressed in the English Gypsy dialect by Vardo-mescro
and Petulengro. The first of these renderings is by no means a
satisfactory one, as Vardo-mescro
means a cartwright, or rather a carter. To speak the truth, it would be next to
impossible to render the word 'cooper' into English Gypsy, or indeed into Gypsy
of any kind; a cooper, according to the common acceptation of the word, is one
who makes pails, tubs, and barrels, but there are no words in Gypsy for such
vessels. The Transylvanian Gypsies call a cooper a bedra-kero
or pail-maker, but bedra is not Gypsy, but Hungarian, and the English
Gypsies might with equal propriety call a cooper a pail-engro. On
the whole the English Gypsies did their best when they rendered 'cooper' into
their language by the word for 'cartwright.'
PETULENGRO, the other trade name,
is borne by the Gypsies who are known to the public by the English appellation
of Smith. It is not very easy to say what is the exact meaning of Petulengro:
it must signify, however, either horseshoe-fellow or tinker: petali
or petala signifies in Gypsy
a horseshoe, and is probably derived from the Modern Greek [Greek: ]; engro
is an affix, and is either derived from or connected with the Sanscrit kara,
to make, so that with great feasibility Petulengro
may be translated horseshoe-maker. But bedel in Hebrew means 'tin,' and
as there is little more difference between petul and bedel than
between petul and petalon, Petulengro
may be translated with almost equal feasibility by tinker or tin-worker, more
especially as tinkering is a principal pursuit of Gypsies, and to jal
petulengring signifies to go a-tinkering in English Gypsy. Taken, however,
in either sense, whether as horseshoe-maker or tin-worker (and, as has been
already observed, it must mean one or the other), Petulengro
may be considered as a tolerably fair rendering of the English Smith.
So much for the names of the Gypsies which the
writer has ventured to call the trade names; now for those of the other class.
These are English surnames, and for the most part of a highly aristocratic
character, and it seems at first surprising that people so poor and despised as
Gypsies should be found bearing names so time-honoured and imposing. There is,
however, a tolerable explanation of the matter in the supposition that on their
first arrival in England the different tribes sought the protection of certain
grand powerful families, and were permitted by them to locate themselves on
their heaths and amid their woodlands, and that they eventually adopted the
names of their patrons. Here follow the English names of some of the principal
tribes, with the Romany translations or equivalents:-
BOSWELL: The proper meaning of
this word is the town of Bui. The initial Bo or Bui is an old
Northern name, signifying a colonist or settler, one who tills and builds. It
was the name of a great many celebrated Northern kempions, who won land and a
home by hard blows. The last syllable, well, is the French ville:
Boswell, Boston, and Busby all signify one and the same thing--the town of
Bui--by the well being French, the Saxon, and by the Danish; they are
half-brothers of Bovil and Belville, both signifying fair town,
and which ought to be written Beauville and Belville. The Gypsies,
who know and care nothing about etymologies, confounding bos with buss,
a vulgar English verb not to be found in dictionaries, which signifies to kiss,
rendered the name Boswell by Chumomisto, that is, Kisswell, or one
who kisses well--choom in their language signifying to kiss, and misto
well--likewise by choomomescro, a kisser. Vulgar as the word buss
may sound at present, it is by no means of vulgar origin, being connected with
the Latin basio and the Persian bouse.
GREY: This is the name of a
family celebrated in English history. The Gypsies who adopted it, rendered it
into their language by Gry, a word very much resembling it in sound,
though not in sense, for gry, which is allied to the Sanscrit ghora,
signifies a "horse." They had no better choice, however, for in Romany there is no
word for grey, any more than there is for green or blue. In several languages
there is a difficulty in expressing the colour which in English is called grey.
In Celtic, for instance, there is no definite word for it; glas, it is
true, is used to express it, but glas is as frequently used to express
green as it is to express grey.
HEARNE,
HERNE: This is the name
of a family which bears the heron for its crest, the name being either derived
from the crest, or the crest from the name. There are two Gypsy renderings of
the word--Rossar-mescro or Ratzie-mescro, and Balorengre. Rossar-mescro
signifies duck-fellow, the duck being substituted for the heron, for which there
is no word in Romany. The meaning of Balor-engre is hairy people; the
translator or translators seeming to have confounded Hearne with 'haaren,' old
English for hairs. The latter rendering has never been much in use.
LEE: The Gypsy name of this tribe
is Purrum, sometimes pronounced Purrun. The meaning of Purrurn
is an onion, and it may be asked what connection can there be between Lee and
onion? None whatever: but there is some resemblance in sound between Lee and
leek, and it is probable that the Gypsies thought so, and on that account
rendered the name by Purrum, which, if not exactly a leek, at any rate
signifies something which is cousin-german to a leek. It must be borne in mind
that in some parts of England the name Lee is spelt Legh and Leigh, which would
hardly be the case if at one time it had not terminated in something like a
guttural, so that when the Gypsies rendered the name, perhaps nearly four
hundred years ago, it sounded very much like 'leek,' and perhaps was Leek, a
name derived from the family crest. At first the writer was of opinion that the
name was Purrun, a modification of pooro, which in the Gypsy
language signifies old, but speedily came to the conclusion that it must be Purrum,
a leek or onion; for what possible reason could the Gypsies have for rendering
Lee by a word which signifies old or ancient? whereas by rendering it by Purrum,
they gave themselves a Gypsy name, which, if it did not signify Lee, must to
their untutored minds have seemed a very good substitute for Lee. The Gypsy word
pooro, old, belongs to Hindostan, and is connected with the Sanscrit pura,
which signifies the same. Purrum is a modification of the Wallachian pur,
a word derived from the Latin porrum, an onion, and picked up by the
Gypsies in Roumania or Wallachia, the natives of which region speak a highly
curious mixture of Latin and Sclavonian.
LOVEL: This is the name or title
of an old and powerful English family. The meaning of it is Leo's town, Lowe's
town, or Louis' town. The Gypsies, who adopted it, seem to have imagined that it
had something to do with love, for they translated it by Camlo or Caumlo,
that which is lovely or amiable, and also by Camomescro, a lover, an
amorous person, sometimes used for 'friend.' Camlo is connected with the
Sanscrit Cama, which signifies love, and is the appellation of the Hindoo
god of love. A name of the same root as the one borne by that divinity was not
altogether inapplicable to the Gypsy tribe who adopted it: Cama, if all
tales be true, was black, black though comely, a Beltenebros, and the Lovel
tribe is decidedly the most comely and at the same time the darkest of all the
Anglo-Egyptian families. The faces of many of them, male and female, are perfect
specimens of black beauty. They are generally called by the race the Kaulo
Camloes, the Black Comelies. And here, though at the risk of being thought
digressive, the writer cannot forbear saying that the darkest and at one time
the comeliest of all the Caumlies, a celebrated fortune-teller, and an old
friend of his, lately expired in a certain old town, after attaining an age
which was something wonderful. She had twenty-one brothers and sisters, and was
the eldest of the family, on which account she was called "Rawnie P.,
pooroest of bis ta dui," Lady P.--she had married out of the family--
eldest of twenty-two.
MARSHALL: The name Marshall has
either to do with marshal, the title of a high military personage, or marches,
the borders of contiguous countries. In the early Norman period it was the name
of an Earl of Pembroke. The Gypsies who adopted the name seem in translating it
to have been of opinion that it was connected with marshes, for they rendered it
by mokkado tan engre, fellows of the wet or miry place, an appellation
which at one time certainly became them well, for they are a northern tribe
belonging to the Border, a country not very long ago full of mosses and miry
places. Though calling themselves English, they are in reality quite as much
Scotch as English, and as often to be found in Scotland as the other country,
especially in Dumfriesshire and Galloway, in which latter region, in Saint
Cuthbert's churchyard, lies buried 'the old man' of the race,-- Marshall, who
died at the age of 107. They sometimes call themselves Bungyoror and Chikkeneymengre,
cork-fellows and china people, which names have reference to the occupations
severally followed by the males and females, the former being cutters of bungs
and corks, and the latter menders of china.
STANLEY: This is the name or
title of an ancient English family celebrated in history. It is probably
descriptive of their original place of residence, for it signifies the stony
lea, which is also the meaning of the Gaelic Auchinlech, the place of abode of
the Scottish Boswells. It was adopted by an English Gypsy tribe, at one time
very numerous, but at present much diminished. Of this name there are two
renderings into Romany; one is Baryor or Baremescre, stone-folks
or stonemasons, the other is Beshaley. The first requires no comment, but
the second is well worthy of analysis, as it is an example of the strange
blunders which the Gypsies sometimes make in their attempts at translation. When
they rendered Stanley by Beshaley or Beshley, they mistook the
first syllable stan for 'stand,' but for a very good reason rendered it
by besh, which signifies 'to sit, and the second for a word in their own
language, for ley or aley in Gypsy signifies 'down,' so they
rendered Stanley by Beshley or Beshaley, which signifies 'sit
down.' Here, of course, it will be asked what reason could have induced them, if
they mistook stan for 'stand,' not to have rendered it by the Gypsy word for
'stand'? The reason was a very cogent one, the want of a word in the Gypsy
language to express 'stand'; but they had heard in courts of justice witnesses
told to stand down, so they supposed that to stand down was much the same as to
sit down, whence their odd rendering of Stanley. In no dialect of the Gypsy,
from the Indus to the Severn, is there any word for 'stand,' though in every one
there is a word for 'sit,' and that is besh, and in every Gypsy
encampment all along the vast distance, Beshley or Beshaley would
be considered an invitation to sit down.
So much for the double-name system in use
among the Gypsies of England. There is something in connection with the Gypsies
of Spain which strangely coincides with one part of it--the translation of
names. Among the relics of the language of the Gitanos or Spanish Gypsies are
words, some simple and some compound, which are evidently attempts to translate
names in a manner corresponding to the plan employed by the English Romany. In
illustration of the matter, the writer will give an analysis of Brono
Aljenicato, the rendering into Gitano of the name of one frequently
mentioned in the New Testament, and once in the Apostles' Creed, the highly
respectable, but much traduced individual known to the English public as Pontius
Pilate, to the Spanish as Poncio Pilato. The manner in which the rendering has
been accomplished is as follows: Poncio bears some resemblance to the Spanish puente,
which signifies a bridge, and is a modification of the Latin pons, and
Pilato to the Spanish pila, a fountain, or rather a stone pillar, from
the top of which the waters of a fountain springing eventually fall into a stone
basin below, the two words-- the Brono Aljenicato--signifying bridge-fountain,
or that which is connected with such a thing. Now this is the identical, or all
but the identical, way in which the names Lee, Lovel, and Stanley have been done
into English Romany. A remarkable instance is afforded in this Gitano Scripture
name, this Brono Aljenicato, of the heterogeneous materials of which Gypsy
dialects are composed: Brono is a modification of a Hindoo or Sanscrit,
Aljenicato of an Arabic root. Brono is connected with the Sanscrit pindala,
which signifies a bridge, and Aljenicato is a modification of the Gypsy aljenique,
derived from the Arabic alain, which signifies the fountain. But of
whatever materials composed, a fine-sounding name is this same Brono Aljenicato,
perhaps the finest sounding specimen of Spanish Gypsy extant, much finer than a
translation of Pontius Pilate would be, provided the name served to express the
same things, in English, which Poncio Pilato serves to express in Spanish, for
then it would be Pudjico Pani or Bridgewater; for though in English Gypsy there
is the word for a bridge, namely pudge, a modification of the Persian pul,
or the Wallachian podul, there is none for a fountain, which can be only
vaguely paraphrased by pani, water.
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