Our names are important. It is the one thing that sticks with you (or at least most of us) throughout all our lives. But names are funny things….they are given to wee ones before they even have a chance to exhibit their personality. But they do say a lot about us. Generally names let others know what sex you are, and since the popularity of them waxes and wanes with the decades they can also indicate your age.
In the past few years there has been a trend to be very creative with the naming of babies. But honestly, is it cutting edge and different because we spell Caleb with a K or have multiple variations like Ashlee, Ashley or Ashleigh? That’s not for me to decide but here is what I do know. Naming patterns are somewhat like fashion and what was kewl 100 years ago seems to be coming back in style. I STILL think that Madeline is an old ladies name and am befuddled by its resurgence, but I am glad to see that names like Henry and Charles are finding a new fan base.
However, before being quick to judge regarding ethnic names, funny spellings or just plain strange monikers I thought I might take a quick look at some of the given names in my family tree. At least one example of each of these names appears in my tree from a time span ranging from the 1600’s up to present day.
Hepzibah–From the Old Testament, means My delight in is her
Philander–Greek means Friend. In the 18th century it took on the meaning of “womanizer” and thus fell out of favor
Mehitable–Old Testament means God makes happy
Orpha–Hebrew meaning Neck
Zipporah–Hebrew meaning Bird
Tryphena–Hebrew meaning Delicate or Soft
Zella–Old English meaning Zealous
Eliphalet–Hebrew meaning My God is deliverance
Elkanah–Hebrew meaning God has brought
Sophronia–Greek meaning Self-controlled
Jerusha–Hebrew meaning Possession
Jabez–Hebrew meaning Sorrowful
Hulda–German meaning Lovable
If your tree is plotted out far enough, you might have several of the previous names in your family. While they are uncommon now and I have doubts about them making a resurgence, they aren’t too unusual. At least I could find evidence of them online with their origins and meanings. Then next group however…. not so much. Mom (or even Dad) had a creative moment and hung an unusual Christian name on their children.
Azor
Caldora
Kezian
Clatori
Capitola
Wirt
Wyan
Zebudah
Zephro
Zeddock
and one really awesome one:
Zorcastor Zora Applegarth!
I have a plethora of ancestors that were here very early in the history of the US. I think many of us are familiar with the Colonial names that were popular at that time. Some of them are still used today though not particularly popular, for example Phoebe and Archibald. Here is a sampling of some of the more interesting Colonial names in my tree.
Comfort
Thankfull
Hopestill
Hopeful
Reliance
Relief
Fear
Patience
Experience
Freelove
Charity
Manly
and of course
Prudence
For more information on Early American names and naming conventions, you may find this blog post interesting.
Now for a slightly different name, one of my favorites is a young lady born on the 4th of July on the 100th birthday of the US and given the designation Centennial or Cent for short. For added interest, she passed away on the 25th of December. Apparently she wanted everyone to celebrate “her” special days!
But for the penultimate list of names we have to look at the family of Beulah Annis and Rev. Timothy Dewey. I suspect that Mrs. Dewey was a learned woman and perhaps she had access to or even owned the 20 volume set of the forth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica first published in 1801.
Anna Diadama
Philander Seabury
Franklin Jefferson
Armenius Philadelphius
Almyra Melpomena
Marcus Bonaparte
Pleides Arastarcus (male)
Victor Millenius
Ammonia Octavia
and my all time favorite:
Encyclopedia Britannica
“Brit”, as she was known, never married and cared for her father until his death. The (snarky) theory is that no one would marry her because she was a know-it-all. I don’t know about that but the Reverend and Mrs. Dewey were nothing short of well read and creative.
Next time you hear an unusual name and say “Who came up with that?”, know that as long as there will be children born needing names there will be parents willing to break with tradition. After all who needs another Jessica?
Very interesting that we had an ancestor named Encyclopedia Britannica ….because that was your “nickname” in middle school…because you did indeed seem to “know it all” and that wonderful trait has now morphed into the adult nickname “”Houston”….as in….UM…Houston, we have a problem! You are our go to problem solver…..a simply wonderful asset!!
P.S. I’ve read that a frequent naming practice in the colonial days was to leave it in the hands of God: open the Bible to a random page, drop your finger down, and give your child whatever name it landed closest to.
A few more colonial “virtue” names I’ve encountered in my family are Desire, Concurrence, and Silence (all female). I’m not related to him, but while looking through deed books in Vermont I saw frequent mention of a man whose full name was Preserved Fish- I can’t decide if his parents had a big sense of humor, or no sense of humor at all.
Some Biblical names in my ancestry include Asahel, Asenath, Ai, Dorcas, Sarepta, Selah, Zerviah, and Mephibosheth. The last was as much of a mouthful back then as it is today- I read that it was mangled in the town records as Phebe, Phib, Mephib, Mepheb, Mephebesh, Febesheth, and Meb.
I also had a 19th century ancestor named Calista (Greek for most beautiful). Her son married a woman whose mother’s name was Sarepta. This seems like a remarkable coincidence to me, because Calista and Sarepta are very rare names with completely different origins, yet are surprisingly similar. They each have seven letters, split up into three syllables at the same places. The have exactly the same pattern of vowels and consonants (e.g., CVCVCCV), and they have a “t” and two “a”s in the same positions (e.g., Ca-CVC-ta).
Wikipedia has a nice list of Biblical names and their meanings (search “list of biblical names”).