English Names

 

English surnames have an interesting history. In early times people just had only one name when they were born. It might have been John or Hilda, for example. One name was quite enough. If someone mentioned (提起) Hilda or John, everyone knew who he / she was because there would be only one Hilda or one John in a small village (村子). But as time went on, small villages grew into towns. Then there might be five or six Johns and five or six Hildas all living in the same place. How were people to know which John or which Hilda was meant then?

One way of getting over the difficulty (解决困难) was by adding (加上) the name of the work the person did. So the man who was a cook (厨师) might be called John the Cook. The man who wove (编织) clothes might be called John the Weaver. Second names or, surnames as we now call them, had come into being (产生). In time these surnames were given to a man’s children. So John Weaver’s children would, perhaps, be called Hilda Weaver and Charles Weaver. And this is how we still use surnames today.

Another way of telling (区别)one person from another with the same name was by adding the place where they lived. Thus the two men in the same village, both with the name of Tom, might be known as Tom by the Wood and Tom in the Field. This would give rise (产生) to such surnames as Wood, Field, Street, Tree, Pond, Lake, Forest, etc.

The origin (起源) of many surnames is easy to find. But how others started is difficult to know. Only scholars (学者) who have studied the history of words can tell the origin of the more difficult ones, and even they can’t always be sure.

Make the best choice

1.The passage mainly tells us about _______________ .

A. the history of the English people

B. the history of the English words

C. how some English names started

D. why so many people were named John and Smith

2.In early times (早期)English people ____________________ .

A. had only two names, John and Hilda

B. had only one given name at birth (在出生时)

C. had two given names at birth

D. had no given name at birth

3. People found it troublesome (麻烦) to have only one name ______________ .

A. when they started to use it

B. when there were several (几个) people having the same name

C. when people started to live in villages

D. when villages grew into towns

4. Some English people got their second names according to (根据) their ___________ .

A. ages    B. clothes   C. hobbies   D. family background (背景)

5. People used Wood as their surname because _________________.

A. it was a common thing    B. they lived in a village

C. they were farmers        D. they lived near a place where many trees grew