What's in a name?

W H A T ' S IN A

G. D.

NAME?

HEATHCOTE

'What's in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.' (Romeo and Juliet) DĂźring my lifetime the world of natural history has changed almost beyond belief. When I was a child, small boys in country districts were expected to have a collection of birds' eggs and most elementary (primary) schools had a rack of jam jars containing wild flowers identified, not necessarily correctly, by 'Miss'. Today, collecting is generally discouraged or even forbidden by law, and what I would call 'Natural history' or biology is no longer taught. On the plus side, it is now possible for anyone to watch superb television films showing the most intimate details of living plants and animals, from all over the world, in their natural habitats. Books are now readily available which enable a naturalist to put a name to all common plants and animals although, even today, books have not been produced which enable many invertebrates, micro-fungi, and other less 'populĂ¤r' members of our flora or fauna (few of which have common, i.e. generally-recognised English names) to be identified. It is on English rather than scientific names that I wish to comment here, and specifically those used in Suffolk. I spent my childhood on the edge of the South Downs in Sussex and only came to Suffolk to live in 1962. Perhaps to many local people I am still a foreigner? When I first came here I often found it hard to understand the speech of our local farm workers (and doubtless they failed to understand . me). T h e n , a local school teacher could sometimes identify the specific village from the Bradfield group near Bury St. Edmunds from which the children came, by slight differences in speech, and of course there were similar small differences in speech throughout the county. Today, with television and the radio in most homes, better communications generally, and many people moving into East Anglia, speech is much more uniform. Although I am an entomologist and not an etymologist (I study 'bugs' not words) I find the local names of plants and animals of great interest. They often show countryfolk's familiarity with wildlife, but may refiect superstition, incorrect identification or wrong interpretation of behaviour. When involved in adult education classes in rural Suffolk I usually ask members for lists of the local plant and animal names which they used as children. Many such names turn out to be more widely used, in southern England at least. If, for example, I used the same name as a child in Sussex, I do not count it as a specifically 'Suffolk' name. Of course my students do not always correctly identify the species involved, the use of some names may be very local indeed and not used throughout Suffolk, so my lists are of limited value. It is, however, possible to confirm that some of the names given to me are true 'Suffolk' names by referring to Claxton (1960), Forby (1830), Massingham (1925) or Moor Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 25

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Suffolk Natural History, Vol. 25

(1823), and for names more widely used in East Anglia to Fowler (1973, or the articles written by him in the Eastern Daily Press). Justin and Edith Brooke (1963) write amusingly about the Suffolk dialect around Wickhambrooke in West Suffolk, where they farmed in the 1920s. Brenchley (1920) from Rothamsted, gives a very fĂźll list of populĂ¤r names of farmland weeds, often 20 or more for a Single species, but unfortunately she does not give their county of origin. Clarke (1925) gives a useful list of Breckland names. T o take a Single example, the all too common weed Chenopodium album L., which most of us call 'Fat H e n \ is also known as 'Wild Spinach', 'Muck-weed', 'Dirty Dick', 'Drought-weed', 'Lamb's-quarters', 'Lamb's Tongue' and several more common names. These names refer to the use of its corky fruits to feed hens (it was also used as food by early man incidentally) or its importance as a weed of arable crops. Naturally, the more the local Community was concerned with any particular wild plant or animal the more likely it was to have a common 'Suffolk' name. Only large, common insects were likely to have a 'Suffolk' name, but a whole vocabulary had developed around rabbits. Until recently many Suffolk people called rabbits 'Coneys', and the name has sometimes been retained as a place name, e.g. Coney Weston. This name was used in the early mediaeval period, when rabbits were introduced from the Iberian peninsula. A rabbit hole in a bank was called a 'Thru shoot', and a rabbit killed by a stoat a 'Stoater'. Several local names were used when rabbiting, e.g. to 'Hulk' was to disembowel a rabbit, and to 'Huddle' was to split the sinews in a rabbit's hind leg and push the other leg through so that it could be carried on a stick. Scientifically it would be desirable for the old Suffolk names to disappear and for us all to use the same English names. However, I would be sorry to see many of them go. Here are a few of my favourites, speit as pronounced: Mammals 'Rany' = Shrew. 'Owd Sally'/'Sarah' = Hare. 'Puggy' = Red Squirrel. (It follows that a 'Puggy's nest' is a squirrel's drey.) 'Mousehunter' or 'Mousehunt' = a Weasel. (Elderly Suffolk people have assured me that there are two species of weasel, and that they call the smaller ones 'mousehunters'. There is only one species recognised in Britain, but there is a considerable difference in size between the sexes.) (See p. 8) 'Mivet' is a Field Mouse, and bear in mind that the plural of mouse is 'Meece'. Birds 'Harnser' = Heron. 'Mavis' = Song Thrush. 'Ring-dow' = Wood Pigeon. 'Dow Fulfer' = Fieldfare (I have also heard it called 'Cold Arse', a clear reference to its grey-white rear.) 'Blood Olp'/'Cock Olp' = Bullfinch. 'Polyspink' = Chaffinch. 'Dan Billy' = Crow. 'Devlin' = Swift. 'Thick Knees' = Stone Curlew. 'Didopler' = Little Grebe. 'Larker' = Gull. 'Red Ligs' = French Partridge. 'King Harry' = Goldfinch. 'Hornpie' = Lapwing. 'Hedge-e-bet' = Hedge Sparrow (but then do not most ornithologists use the Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 25