name as Ælfgifu. At the present day our nomenclature has changed so
utterly that Emma sounds like ordinary English, while Ælfgifu sounds
like a wholly foreign word. The incidental light thrown upon our history
by the careful study of personal names is indeed so valuable that a few
remarks upon the subject seem necessary in order to complete our hasty
survey of Anglo-Saxon Britain.

During the very earliest period when we catch a glimpse of the English
people on the Continent or in eastern Britain, a double system of naming
seems to have prevailed, not wholly unlike our modern plan of Christian
and surname. The clan name was appended to the personal one. A man was
apparently described as Wulf the Holting, or as Creoda the Æscing. The
clan names were in many cases common to the English and the Continental
Teutons. Thus we find Helsings in the English Helsington and the Swedish
Helsingland; Harlings in the English Harlingham and the Frisian
Harlingen; and Bleccings in the English Bletchingley and the
Scandinavian Bleckingen. Our Thyrings at Thorrington answer, perhaps, to
the Thuringians; our Myrgings at Merrington to the Frankish Merwings or
Merovingians; our Wærings at Warrington to the Norse Væringjar or
Varangians. At any rate, the clan organization was one common to both
great branches of the Teutonic stock, and it has left its mark deeply
upon our modern nomenclature, both in England and in Germany. Mr. Kemble
has enumerated nearly 200 clan names found in early English charters and
documents, besides over 600 others inferred from local names in England
at the present day. Taking one letter of the alphabet alone, his list
includes the Glæstings, Geddings, Gumenings, Gustings, Getings,
Grundlings, Gildlings, and Gillings, from documentary evidence; and the
Gærsings, Gestings, Geofonings, Goldings, and Garings, with many
others, from the inferential evidence of existing towns and villages.