Abstract
MR. BOWMAN'S popular account of the methods and material for the study of surnames will serve a useful purpose in making known a fascinating and instructive subject of investigation to a wider public. It is indeed surprising that the literature on the subject is relatively so small. Few investigations which can be so readily followed throw more light on the habits and mentality of our ancestors than the surnames they used and the reasons for which they gave.them to individuals. Mr. Bowman's work is fully in accordance with accredited methods; nor does he fail to warn us by precept and by examples, which follow scientific method, of the dangers of the over-hasty conclusion which is nothing more or less than guesswork. The chapter on fourteenth century London is an excellent example of the intimate detail relating to the organisation and life of an urban population that this class of evidence can be made to yield.
The Story of Surnames.
William Dodgson
Bowman
By. Pp. xiv Pp. vii + 280. (London: George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 1931.) 7s. 6d. net.
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The Story of Surnames . Nature 128, 743 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/128743d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/128743d0