The Genealogy & Family History Social Network
What's your favorite name?
Ignatius, anyone? How about Clotilde?
One of the best aspects of genealogy research, for me at least, is learning some of the names my ancestors saw fit to bestow upon their children. When I first started and I found my 4th g grandfather Micah and his sister Silence, I was fascinated. Now, I know that naming conventions change over time and vary greatly with geography and other factors. (I also have a pet theory about the name Silence... In my family it always seems to have been given to the 11th or 12th child, so I believe that it was wishful thinking.)
Still, some names just jump out at you. My current favorites are:
Clotilde LeGrand (1st cousin twice removed)
Bezaleel Howe (b.1750 MA,d.1825 NY - 4th g grand uncle) (his son was also Bezaleel)
Ignatius Malloy (b. after 1845 - 1st cousin 3 times removed)
and my winner... S. Imogene Addison (b. abt 1820 - 1st cousin 4 times removed.) I think that the "S" was for Silence...
So what are your favorite names?
One of the best aspects of genealogy research, for me at least, is learning some of the names my ancestors saw fit to bestow upon their children. When I first started and I found my 4th g grandfather Micah and his sister Silence, I was fascinated. Now, I know that naming conventions change over time and vary greatly with geography and other factors. (I also have a pet theory about the name Silence... In my family it always seems to have been given to the 11th or 12th child, so I believe that it was wishful thinking.)
Still, some names just jump out at you. My current favorites are:
Clotilde LeGrand (1st cousin twice removed)
Bezaleel Howe (b.1750 MA,d.1825 NY - 4th g grand uncle) (his son was also Bezaleel)
Ignatius Malloy (b. after 1845 - 1st cousin 3 times removed)
and my winner... S. Imogene Addison (b. abt 1820 - 1st cousin 4 times removed.) I think that the "S" was for Silence...
So what are your favorite names?
Views: 1126
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Terri on
-
My fave so far is my rellie who sailed to the new world on the Anne. His name was MANNASEH (KEMPTON). What a cool name.. Mannaseh! I also like my 3rd Great Grandfathers name, HEZIKIAH.(DAVIS).
-
Permalink Reply by Kathleen Fox Allen on
-
Mannaseh is very cool, Terri. According to BehindTheName.com:
Means "causing to forget" in Hebrew. In the Old Testament this was the name of the oldest son of Joseph and the ancestor of one of the twelve tribes of Israel.
-
-
Ok, I just found more on Mannaseh - check out the link to Hezikiah (although spelled differently) -
from http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Manasseh.html
Manasseh
The name Manasseh occurs five times in the Bible. The most famous Manasseh is the oldest son of Joseph. Another famous Manasseh is the son and successor of king Hezekiah (2 Ki 21:1). Among the men that divorce their foreign wives during the purge of Ezra are also two men named Manasseh (Ezr 10:30, 33). In Judges 18:30 a Manasseh is mentioned among the tribe of Dan.
The name Manasseh is generally seen as derived from the verb (nasha 1428) meaning forget, deprive. The name is formed by this verb, and the prefix letter mem, which may indicate the particle that means "from," hence From Forgetting. Jones reads Forgetting, Forgetfulness. NOBSE reads Making to Forget.
However, the identical root (nasha 1427) means to lend or be a creditor. The name Manasseh, therefore, also means From A Debt. This is significant because Manasseh's brother is named Ephraim, a name with a distinctly bitter secondary meaning. Perhaps Joseph named his son From A Debt, because he figured that besides his gratitude for being rescued, he felt that either God or his family owed him a debt for tearing him away from his father.
-
Permalink Reply by William S Dean on
-
I have several favorite names among ancestors -
Peregrina Rosa Yorba b. 1845 in southern California. She married Clodomiro Sepulveda.
Spicy Gant (not a nickname) born 1827 in Kentucky.
Apphia Pepper born 1687 in Barnstable MA (her mother was also named Apphia)
Rebecca Sparrow (daughter of Rebecca Bangs) (and yes, there is an actual John "Jack" Sparrow in the lineage, too LOL)
-
Permalink Reply by Carolyn Sue Drummond on
-
While doing research on the 1850 Census in Grayson Co., I found: "Pleasant Belcher" with his brother "Littleberry Belcher". Don't know why but it always struck me as funny......what were his parents thinking? Was it a family name? Was he a Pleasant baby? Where did Littleberry come from?
-
-
Hi Carolyn
I have a few Pleasants as first names, too...incl. Pleasant Johnson, Pleasant Moorman, and William Pleasant Griffith. Typically, and in each of these cases, the so named were Quakers or had Quaker parents. Quaker first names often reflect "characteristics" such as Thankfull, and Hope. It's an alternative to Biblical names like Zacariah or Judith or even "heroic" names which in my case includes Achilles and Archelaus. I suspect if you research you'll find your Belchers were either Quakers or Congregationalists or the like.
re: Littleberry -- it's actually more common as a first name than you might think, including a Littleberry Mosby who fought in the Civil War, and other first name Littleberrys around the time of the American Revolution and colonies. It appears to have derived mostly from a wife's last name used as a first name for children. Hope that helps!
-
Permalink Reply by Jim Avery on
-
My favorite name is my grgrgrgrandmother Maria Christina Kleckner, So what did she do - married a guy named Snook. So she spent the rest of eternity with that last name.
Also my mom and her 4 sisters had two middle names They were Gaihl Thelma Romayne Bartels (my mom), Gladys Viola Mae Bartels, Goldie Pauline Ruth Bartels, Grace Lizzie Moore Bartels and Gertrude Sophia Lillian Bartels. The previous generation was Luther George Wohlford Bartels (father of these girls), Lizzie Moore Ruth Bartels, Lawson Charlie Allen Bartels and Fanny Sophia Olive Bartels.
-
-
Those are great! Clearly your ancestors were not afraid of the long names. But you wound up just with Jim... do you feel cheated? :)
-
-
Hepsilah Dibble - one of my ancestors (not sure if I got the spelling right, but love the sound of the name - both fore and sur)
-
-
Wow. How is that first name pronounced? Hep-sii-la ? (with a long i?) or Hep-sil-a (short i?)
-
-
We have a lot named after presidents and Generals.Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and so on.The name of Elizabeth seems to run threw every generation of our lines. My favorites are the unusual however. Ransom, Knewonee, Jestin, Fielden,Arminta, but my favorite my far is a grandmother named Clyde.
-
Permalink Reply by Denise Coughlin on
-
I ran across a first name while doing a Findagrave.com request that I can't get out of my mind......Fairybelle.......and apparently there's another Fairybelle in the county as well.....road trip to find her marker as well!!!
© 2024 Created by IIGSExecDirector.
Powered by
