NORNA-RAPPORTER 88 Binamn. Uppkomst, bildning, terminologi ...

Coming to grips with the multifacetedness of bynames 39
Coming to grips
with the multifacetedness of bynames
By Silvio Brendler
Anything complex enough to be interesting is multifaceted;
one finds out different things by looking at different facets,
without being obliged to claim [...] that the facet is the whole
gem (Lass 1997, p. 384).
1. Introduction
Let me borrow two metaphors from the above motto. As name students consider
bynames to be interesting, I infer from the first line of Roger Lass’s
statement that bynames must be complex and thus multifaceted. From the multifacetedness
of bynames I draw the conclusion that studying bynames is like
gem cutting. It is this conclusion that I advance as my first thesis.
I somewhat differ from the view Lass airs in line two. Considering byname
students as gem cutters, I think that bynames present themselves as rough gems
in need of being cut and polished – in other words, in need of being faceted by
us. Only then can we look at their different facets. So my second thesis is: no
facets without faceting.
I do agree with the third line of the statement by Lass. I would like to modify
and extend it, however, and put it forward as my third thesis, which is as follows:
We cannot see the whole gem if we focus on the individual facets. On the
other hand, there is no facet without a gem.
To develop my three theses it is helpful to bear in mind that a facet, or an
aspect of bynames, is to a gem, or bynames, as a part is to a whole.
Now that I have put forward my theses, I will not any longer withhold the
reason why we should consider the question how to come to grips with the
multifacetedness of bynames. Having studied a selection of the international
literature on bynames for more than a decade, I have come to the conclusion
that byname studies tend to focus on various but individual facets of bynames.
So byname students have, for instance, had an abiding interest in
etymology (see the dictionaries of bynames) and classification (Brendler
2007). Furthermore, there has been some debate over how to tell a byname
from a hereditary surname (Mackel 1931, pp. 31–37; Bach 1952–1953, vol.
2, pp. 73–76; Debus 2001, pp. 232–233). Bynames have frequently been
studied to serve such extra-onomastic purposes as lexicography (Weekley &
Pilkington 1921, Clark & Owen 1978, McClure 2010), dialectology (Kris-