Excerpt from English Surnames: Their Sources and Significations

Book, casting aside the new importation, were, in the great majority of cases, obsolete by the end of the twelfth century, and of those which have survived and descended to us as surnames, well-nigh all are devoid of diminutive or patronymic desinences - a clear proof that they were utterly out of fashion as personal names during the era of surname formation. The Norman invasion was not a conquest of our language, but it was of our nomenclature. The 'saturday Review' may still demand that we shall view all as English, and obliterate the distinctive terms of Saxon and Norman, but in doing so let us not forget facts. The language which preceded the Norman Conquest is still the ave/aide of ordinary converse. The nomenclature of that period went down like Pharaoh's chariot, and like Pharaoh's chariot, which for all I know lies where it did, was never recovered.

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