Jeames

Meaning

Noun

• A footman; a flunky.

Origin

• William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), English novelist, used this name for The Yellowplush Papers (1837-8), a series of sketches in Fraser's Magazine purportedly written by a London West End footman named Charles James Yellowplush. The name itself was suggested by a domestic servant in the Thackeray household, "a bona fide manservant, an old gentleman named John Goldsworthy, formerly the Larkbeare footman, who wore faded knee-breeches in the family livery" [D.J. Taylor, Thackeray, 1999]. Plush was a fabric traditionally used for footmen's wear, and especially for their brightly-colored breeches. The same character appeared with a "gentrified" form of his name in The Diary of C. Jeames de la Pluche (1846), and his popularity caused "Jeames" (an affected form of "James") to be used for a time as a generic name for a footman.