Origin
LAW : (Scot) A hill. Laye, old French, a hill.
BACHELOR : From the Dutch Bock, a book, and leeraar, a doctor of divinity, law, or physic. When applied to persons of a certain military rank, it may be a corruption of Bas chevalier, because lower in dignity than the milites bannereti. Killian adopts the opinion that as the soldier who has once been engaged in battle, is called battalarius, so he who has once been engaged in literary warfare, in public dispute upon any subject. Calepinus thinks that those who took the degree of Bachelor, were so called (Baccalaurei), because a chaplet of laurel berries was placed upon them. The word, however, has probably but one origin, which would account for its various applications.
BARRON : The word Baron is of Celtic extraction, and originally synonymous with man in general It has this meaning in the Salic law, and in the laws of the Lombards; in the English law, the phrase baron and. feme is equivalent to man and wife. It was afterward used to denote a man of respectability, a stout or valiant man; and Barone was also used by the Italians to signify a beggar. From denoting a stout or valiant man, it was employed as a name for a distinguished military leader, who having fought and conquered under some great commander, was afterward rewarded by him with a part of the lands which he had acquired. As a surname, it was originally Le Baron, The Baron. Gaelic, Baran, a baron.
BARON : The word Baron is of Celtic extraction, and originally synonymous with man in general It has this meaning in the Salic law, and in the laws of the Lombards; in the English law, the phrase baron and. feme is equivalent to man and wife. It was afterward used to denote a man of respectability, a stout or valiant man; and Barone was also used by the Italians to signify a beggar. From denoting a stout or valiant man, it was employed as a name for a distinguished military leader, who having fought and conquered under some great commander, was afterward rewarded by him with a part of the lands which he had acquired. As a surname, it was originally Le Baron, The Baron. Gaelic, Baran, a baron.
BRECK : Local. An old word signifying broken, a gap; Brecca, an old law term which we find in old Latin deeds, was used to denote a breach, decay, or want of repair. Breck is also used in some parts of England to denote pasture. Breck, Gaelic, is a wolf or wild savage.
BRISBAN : This name is local, and may signify the Mount or Hill of Judgment, a place where courts were held and law administered, among the Celts and Britons, from the Cornish-British brez or brys, a judgment, a trial at law, and ban, a hill, a mount In Gaelic, Breasban signifies the royal mount; Briosgabhain, the rapid river; Brisbeinn, the broken hill or cliff.
BRISBIN : This name is local, and may signify the Mount or Hill of Judgment, a place where courts were held and law administered, among the Celts and Britons, from the Cornish-British brez or brys, a judgment, a trial at law, and ban, a hill, a mount In Gaelic, Breasban signifies the royal mount; Briosgabhain, the rapid river; Brisbeinn, the broken hill or cliff.
CHATHAM : Local. From a town in Kent, England, on the Medway, so named from the Saxon cyte, a cottage, and ham, a village, signifying the village of cottages. A paragraph to the following effect went the round of the papers not many years since: Two attorneys in partnership had the name of the firm, Catcham and Chetum, inscribed, in the usual manner, upon their office-door; but as the singularity and ominous juxta-position of the words led to many a coarse joke from passers-by, the men of law attempted to destroy, in part, the effect of the odd association, by the insertion of the initials of their Christian names, which happened to be Isaiah and Uriah; but this made the affair ten times worse, for the inscription then ran: I. Catchman and U. Chetum !”
CHETHAM : Local. From a town in Kent, England, on the Medway, so named from the Saxon cyte, a cottage, and ham, a village, signifying the village of cottages. A paragraph to the following effect went the round of the papers not many years since: Two attorneys in partnership had the name of the firm, Catcham and Chetum, inscribed, in the usual manner, upon their office-door; but as the singularity and ominous juxta-position of the words led to many a coarse joke from passers-by, the men of law attempted to destroy, in part, the effect of the odd association, by the insertion of the initials of their Christian names, which happened to be Isaiah and Uriah; but this made the affair ten times worse, for the inscription then ran: I. Catchman and U. Chetum !”
LAHEY : Gaelic, Leighiche, a physician. Leigh, Gaelic, law, order ; Fear Lagha, a lawyer.
LAIRD : The same as Lord, from L, the, and ord or aird, Gaelic, supreme, high, eminence, highness; Lerad, Laird, from radh, Gaelic, saying, declaring, expressing, aflirming an adage or proverb; giving or uttering law, from the verb abair. (See Lord.)
LAWLESS : Lah-lios. Gaelic, Lagh, law, order, and lias, a court, a hall, a fortress, a place where law is administered. Lau, Cor. Br., praise, and lis, a court. Lawless, an outlaw.
LAWLEY : (Saxon) A place in the hundred of Blackburn, Shropshire, from Law, low, and ley, a place, lea, or pasture.
LAWSON : The son of Law, the familiar abbreviation of Lawrence.
LEWTHWAITE : (Anglo-Saxon) From thwaite, a piece of ground cleared of wood, and lowe, a hill, law, a hill or eminence; in Saxon, Hlewe.
LOWTHWAITE : (Anglo-Saxon) From thwaite, a piece of ground cleared of wood, and lowe, a hill, law, a hill or eminence; in Saxon, Hlewe.
LOUDOUN : From the parish of Loudoun in Ayrshire, Scotland. The name is compounded of Law and dun, a pleonasm, as both words signify a hill. The hill-hill.
MILDMAY : Said to be derived from the Saxon Mild, soft or tender, and dema, a judge, and was given to one of the early ancestors of the family from his tempering the severity of the law with mercy.
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