Note 136 — Chapter II · LOCAL SURNAMES.

‘Champaigne,’ of course, means simply plain-land, and is found locally in various parts of Western Europe. I have included ‘Champion’ with the others because, though sometimes a combative sobriquet, it is as often found to be the mediæval form of the local term, ‘Champian’ and ‘Champain’ being other modes of spelling the same to be met with at this period. Thus we find such double entries as ‘Katerina le Champion’ and ‘Roger de Champion.’ Our present Authorised Version uses the word twice, as in Deut. xi. 30:—‘Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh?’ In the various translations of this passage almost all the above modes of spelling have been used.