What's in a Name?

I noted in an earlier post that the middle name of my great grandfather John Downing was Bachman and that the name had transmuted from Baughman to Bachman.  

H. L. Mencken had it otherwise in his book, The American Language, chapter about proper names.    He quoted an article by Howard Barker, who wrote:  "Bachmann was first 'improved' as Baughmann, promptly misunderstood as Boughman (pronounced to rhyme with ploughman), and then more easily spelled Bowman, which made possible one more shift in pronumciation."  [The American Language, P. 479.]

This goes contrary to what I first learned of what the Bachmans/Boughmans in my family did sometime around 1800,  as Johannes Baughman son of Heinrich Baughmann had a son born 1783 who called himself Daniel Bachman.   On the other hand, some genealogies show only a change from Bachmann to Bachman and ignore the "Baughman"    http://mykindred.com/cloud/TX/getperson.php?personID=I89290&tree=mykindred01  In that case, my sources have it wrong.     But there is the pronunciation:  my mother learned from John Bachman Downing  (d. 1944) pronounced the name "Bawkman," not "Bockman."

The Oxford Dictionary of Surnames by Hanks and Hodges considers Bachman at least to be a variant of Bach, meaning perhaps, "baker" or possibly "one who lives by a river."   But according to the genealogy I linked to above, the name was Bachmann at least as far back as the early 1600s in Richterswig Canton, Zurich, Switzerland, from whence the Bachmann's came to America and bought land in Virginia from the Fairfax Proprietary.

"Carriker" did come from "Karcher."   Likely they are pronounced the same.  

Changing gears.    I have been accused of having two first names.     This accusation shows a lack of history, because my last name dates from the late 1100s and was first used as a given name no more than 150 years ago.  The name itself probably is taken from Gaelic meaning "woods" or even"wind" depending on which dictionary you look it up in.  

Like many surnames it likely came from a location, in this case the grant of a barony and lands by King Malcolm to the family in recognition for fighting Danes (there is the usual story about the ancestor killing the Danish chieftain in single combat).     There is a town in Scotland of that name, dating back to the time of Malcolm or earlier, which may mark the location of those lands.    By this theory then, the place gave rise to the name.

But there was a charming story about how the family name originated, that it comes from the Germanic tribe known as the Catti, a poor tribe whose name may be preserved today in one of the poorer regions of Germany known as Hesse.     The Catti were among the allied tribes who destroyed the three legions of Varus about 2003 years ago.   ["My legions." moaned Augustus, in shock over the disaster, "Varus!  Bring me back my legions!"]  At some point, so the story goes, a number of the Catti in escaping from the soldiers of Tiberius (about the year 4) or those of Germanicus (about 20 years later when he wreaked a fearful vengeance over the loss of 20,000 of Varus' men) fled for their lives in boats across the North Sea to the coast of Scotland, where they were permitted to settle.  My surname, so goes the story, comes straight from the tribal name Catti.  

Now in fact at one point the family battle flag did feature a cat on it, but this may have been beause the story was then current and believed.   It is said that the Catti flag was carried into the battle of Flodden Field in 1513, and that despite the death of a number of family members the flag was recovered and preserved. 

This tale suggests that a tribal name came first, then a place name and a family name.   Historically fascinating, even if not believed today.

Changing gears again:  variations on "Gold."   One branch (I think it is the Cloyes or the Gates or somebody back in the Mayes line but don't remember) is traced back to a Solomon Gould in England who had sons named Abraham, Joseph, Jacob, and so on.   Was he Jewish?   Who knows?    The first Starnes to grow up in America married an Ann Goldman who like him came to New York in 1710.   The mother of Heinrich Bachman who emigrated to the colonies from Switzerland was named Goldschmidt.   Interesting.