extending S.E. to Rödby (20 m.), protects the coast against inundation, a serious inroad of the sea having occurred in 1872.
NAMAQUALAND, a region of south-western Africa, extending along the west coast over 600 m. from Damaraland (22° 43′ S.) on the north to 31° S., and stretching inland 80 to 350 m. It is divided by the lower course of the Orange river into two portions—Little Namaqualand to the south and Great Namaqualand to the north. Little Namaqualand forms part of Cape Colony (q.v.), and Great Namaqualand is the southern portion of German South-West Africa (q.v.). The people of Namaqualand are the purest surviving type of Hottentots, and number some twenty to thirty thousand.
NAMASUDRA, the name adopted by the great caste or tribe who inhabit the swamps of Eastern Bengal, India, whom the higher castes are wont to designate by the opprobrious term of Chandal. Their number in 1901 exceeded 2 millions; but if the cognate Pods and also the Mahommedans of the same ethnical stock were to be added, the total would probably reach 11 millions.
NAME (O. Eng. nama; cognate forms in Teutonic languages are Dutch naam, Ger. Name, &c., but the word is common to all Indo-European languages; cf. Gr. ὄνομα, Lat. nomen, Sans. nāman, &c.), the distinguishing appellation by which a person, place, thing or class of persons or things is known.
Local Names.—The study of names and of their survival in civilization enables us in some cases to ascertain what peoples inhabited districts now tenanted by races of far different speech. Thus the names of mountains and rivers in many parts of England are Celtic—for example, to take familiar instances, Usk, Esk and Avon. There are also local names (such as Mona, Monmouth, Mynwy and others) which seem to be relics of tribes even older than the Celtic stocks, and “vestiges of non-Aryan people, whom the Celts found in possession both on the Continent and in the British Isles.”[1] The later English name is sometimes the mere translation, perhaps unconscious, of the earlier Celtic appellation, often added to the more ancient word. Penpole Point in Somerset is an obvious example of this redoubling of names. The pre-Aryan place-names of the Aegean are much discussed by philologists. Such a name as Corinthos, with all other words in nthos, as hyacinthos, is thought to be pre-Hellenic. The river-names Gade, Ver, Test and many other monosyllabic river-names in the home counties, appear to be neither English nor Celtic, but have been neglected, being known to few but anglers and rustics. As to the meaning and nature of ancient local names, they are as a rule purely descriptive. A river is called by some word which merely signifies “the water”; a hill has a name which means no more than “the point,” “the peak,” “the castle.” Celtic names are often of a more romantic tone, as Ardnamurchan, “the promontory by the great ocean,” an admirable description of the bold and steep headland which breasts the wash of the Atlantic. As a general rule the surviving Celtic names, chiefly in Ireland. Wales and Scotland, all contain some wide meaning of poetic appropriateness. The English names, on the other hand, commonly state some very simple fact, and very frequently do no more than denote property, such and such a town or hamlet, “ton” or “ham,” is the property of the Billings, Uffings, Tootings, or whoever the early English settlers in the district may have been. The same attachment to the idea of property is exhibited in even the local names of petty fields in English parishes. Occasionally one finds a bit of half-humorous description, as when a sour, starved and weedy plot is named “starvacre”; but more usually fields are known as “Thompson's great field,” “Smith's small field,” “the fouracre,” or the like. The name of some farmer or peasant owner or squatter of ancient date survives for centuries, attached to what was once his property. Thus the science of local names has a double historical value. The names indicate the various races (Celtic, Roman and English in Great Britain) who have set in the form of names the seal of their possession on the soil. Again, the meanings of the names illustrate the characters of the various races. The Romans have left names connected with camps (castra, chesters) and military roads; the English have used simple descriptions of the baldest kind, or have exhibited their attachment to the idea of property; the Celtic names (like those which the red men have left in America, or the blacks in Australia) are musical with poetic fancy, and filled with interest in the aspects and the sentiment of nature. The British race carries with it the ancient names of an older people into every continent, and titles perhaps originally given to places in the British Isles by men who had not yet learned to polish their weapons of flint may now be found in Australia, America, Africa and the islands of the farthest seas. Local names were originally imposed in a handy local manner. The settler or the group of cave-men styled the neighbouring river “the water,” the neighbouring hill “the peak,” and these terms often still survive in relics of tongues which can only be construed by the learned.
Personal Names.—The history of personal names is longer and more complex, but proceeds from beginnings almost as simple. But in personal names the complexity of human character, and the gradual processes of tangling and disentangling the threads of varied human interest, soon come in, and personal names are not imposed once and for all. Each man in very early societies may have many names, in different characters and at different periods of his life. The oldest personal names which we need examine here are those which indicate, not an individual, but a group, held together by the conscious sense or less conscious sentiment of kindred, or banded together for reasons of convenience. An examination of customs prevalent among the most widely separated races of Asia, Africa, Australia and America proves that groups conceiving themselves to be originally of the same kin are generally styled by the name of some animal or other object (animate or inanimate) from which they claim descent. This object is known as the “totem” (see Totemism). The groups of supposed kin, however widely scattered in local distribution, are known as wolves, bears, turtles, suns, moons, cockatoos, reeds and what not, according as each group claims descent from this or that stock, and sometimes wears a mark representing this or that animal, plant or natural object. Unmistakable traces of the same habit of naming exist among Semitic and Teutonic races, and even among Greeks and Romans. The names chosen are commonly those of objects which can be easily drawn in a rude yet recognizable way, and easily expressed in the language of gesture. In addition to the totem names (which indicate, in each example, supposed blood-kindred), local aggregates of men received local names. We hear of the “hill-men,” “the cave-men,” “the bush-men,” “the coast-men,” the “men of the plain,” precisely as in the old Attic divisions of Aktaioi, Pediaioi and so forth. When a tribe comes to recognize its own unity, as a rule it calls itself by some term meaning simply “the men,” all other tribes being regarded as barbarous or inferior. Probably other neighbouring tribes also call themselves “the men” in another dialect or language, while the people in the neighbourhood are known by an opprobrious epithet, as Rakshasas among the early Aryan dwellers in India, or Eskimo (raw-eaters) in the far north of the American continent. Tribal names in Australia are often taken from the tribal term for “yes” or “no”; cf. Languedoc.
Leaving social for personal names, we find that, among most uncivilized races, a name (derived from some incident or natural object) is given at the time of birth by the parents of each new-born infant. Occasionally the name is imposed before the child is born, and the proud parents call themselves father and mother of such an one before the expected infant sees the light. In most cases the name (the earliest name) denotes some phenomenon of nature; thus Dobrizhofer met in the forests a young man styled “Gold flower of day,” that is, “Dawn,” his father having been named “Sun.” Similar names are commonly given by the natives of Australia, while no names are more common among North-American Indians than those derived from sun, moon, cloud and wind.
The names of savage persons are not permanent. The name
- ↑ Elton, Origins of English History, p. 165; Rhys, Lectures on Celtic Philology, pp. 181, 182.
