What's the oddest name you've found?

[Maiden Stone]

Isn't "Ransom" more likely to be linked with where wild garlic grew? (Not a place for vampires!)

Ramson is wild garlic. A possible derivation of the name of the Lancashire town of Ramsbottom is "the valley of ramsons".  I have never heard of any vampires in the vicinity of Ramsbottom, so there may be credence to this.
Writer Arthur Ransome gave one of his characters the first name of Titty.
Silence was a name given to several baby girls in 17thC Tottington, next-door to Ramsbottom. Parents hoping for some peaceful nights?

[Lionrhod]

One thing that always bemused me was the use of "Bastard" as a surname... Surely that's not something that one would want to advertise?

And of course Fitz hyphenated onto a name means "bastard son." I agree - why would you want to make that public?

Fitz was Norman-French for son, fils, in a time before surnames. An example of an equivalent surname is Johnson. Neither necessarily indicates illegitimacy.

I've been misinformed! Thanks for the info!

[Lionrhod]

Hi

Welcome to RootsChat

Here in the UK there was a TV series called Keeping up Appearances, the lead was a character called Hyacinth Bucket.

She would always tell everyone her surname was pronounced Bouquet.

Ah a TV show. That makes sense.

Thanks for the welcome!

In my family there aren't a lot of weird names that we've found yet. At least not so far as general western European names. One was Gillette (which does make me wonder if the razor folks owe me a bit of dough on their biz!

Another interesting one is Cathers. We know we are related to Willa Cather and that the family had a big fight (it seems to be a thing our family does every couple generations and has a huge battle) where half the family dropped the s on the end of the surname. I've wondered if they come originally from Cathar (Pyrenees) heretics.

But then we have the Eastern Europeans. Spelling nightmare. I am grateful my grandma never actually married my dad's father because we're looking at Drzewuszewski. Alphabet with a D.

My buddies and I have a joke about some British names/words that seemed appropriate here:

Welsh Wheel of Fortune:

"Give me an L" "Ding ding ding ding!"
"Give me a D" "Ding ding ding!"
"Give me a W" "Ding ding ding!"
"I'd like to buy a vowel." *Failure BEEP noise.*

It's rumored that the Welsh sold all their vowels to the Scotts. 

Hyacinth Bucket "pronounced Bouquet" was a massive snob. She went to great lengths to hide her less than respectable family background, with hilarious results. Hyacinth's sisters had floral names too. The actress who played Hyacinth starred in a later TV series as Hetty Wainthrop, a Lancashire housewife turned private detective.

Gillette may have been Gilet or Gillet or Gillot. Possibly French? It's also found in England. A census search of 1841 & 51 shows that 1/4-1/3 were in or from Lancashire, many in the Fylde region of that county. The only other place with a large number was London, but some of those may have originated elsewhere. There were a few in some south-western counties of England. Common spelling of surname in Lancashire was Gillet. Some of the Fylde ones were neighbours and possibly relatives of one of my Fylde families. Many were Catholic. The Fylde remained a strongly Catholic area after the English Reformation.
Have a look at Lancashire Online Parish Clerks and Lancashire BMD sites and you'll find plenty of Gillets/Gillots.  Members of  Catholic Gillet families appear in 18th & early 19th century parish marriage and burial registers. Sometimes their children's births were recorded in baptismal registers. The Catholic Record Society published transcripts of some early Catholic registers 100 years ago. CRS devoted a whole volume of their journal to Fylde registers. 

The Welsh may lack vowels but the Welsh version of Scrabble needs an extra supply of the letter y. 

LOL on Scrabble.

Yes, the family called Gilette "that French woman." She and my ggfather were divorced. She took one child and he took the other. Obviously a lot of bile in that relationship. Unknown at this stage whether she actually came from France, or was just of French heritage.

[Caroline Cantor]

A day or two ago I found a Salmon Mash Beart in a census return; the birth registration also gives that as his actual name, so not a mistranscription!

Salmon Mash Beart was my great great uncle. As far as I can tell his two first names were family surnames from previous generations.... a bit unfortunate that he got landed with both when his siblings were given more ordinary names such as Frederick, Charles, Oscar and Herbert! Salmon, I believe, was known as Sam - probably a wise decision! Would be very happy to make contact with anyone out there researching the Beart family.

[andrewalston]

In my family there aren't a lot of weird names that we've found yet. At least not so far as general western European names. One was Gillette (which does make me wonder if the razor folks owe me a bit of dough on their biz!

The razor company was started by a chap called King Camp Gillette, which is itself a pretty odd name.

He came up with the marketing concept of making the sharp part of a razor disposable, so that people would have to keep buying replacements. The profit came from the blades, not the holder.

The same principle is in common use today. It means that ink for your printer probably costs more than the printer itself.

[BushInn1746]

One thing that always bemused me was the use of "Bastard" as a surname... Surely that's not something that one would want to advertise?

And of course Fitz hyphenated onto a name means "bastard son." I agree - why would you want to make that public?

Fitz was Norman-French for son, fils, in a time before surnames. An example of an equivalent surname is Johnson. Neither necessarily indicates illegitimacy.

I've been misinformed! Thanks for the info!

Why would you want to make that public? Another notch on the bed-post perhaps, virility, ego?


French - it was a child of your mistress, rather than you wife.


I've heard of a Philip le Bastard.

See also the Sons of Philip of Bergundy, Corneille and Anthony,

Anthony bore the title Grand bātard de Bergundy

Anthony Bastard of Bergundy

Mark

[..claire..]

I had heard from an elderly family member that one of our ancestors was the illegitimate daughter of a local landowner but had never found anything to support the story. Delving into the family deeper I came across a baptism of

Sally Bastard daughter of Mary Blake  - I have to admit when I first read it I had thought the minister was just stating she was illegitimate.

Following her life however,  I found she carried Bastard as a middle name - the local landowners were the Bastard family of Kitley House in Devon.

But I've never found anything to link her to the family.

[dobfarm]

I had heard from an elderly family member that one of our ancestors was the illegitimate daughter of a local landowner but had never found anything to support the story. Delving into the family deeper I came across a baptism of

Sally Bastard daughter of Mary Blake  - I have to admit when I first read it I had thought the minister was just stating she was illegitimate.

Following her life however,  I found she carried Bastard as a middle name - the local landowners were the Bastard family of Kitley House in Devon.

But I've never found anything to link her to the family.

Well to male member of the family having a secret fling with a young servant girl maybe- They sound a right lot of Ba*ta*d toff's

[..claire..]

 

From census records & BMDs it would appear that the Blake family came from a humble background - does make me wonder how Mary & Sally Blake are listed as 'proprietor of houses' - where they got the dosh from