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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Just Kia on Tuesday 29 July 08 18:03 BST (UK)

Title: Unusual First Names
Post by: Just Kia on Tuesday 29 July 08 18:03 BST (UK)
What is the most unusual first names (real, not mistranscriptions) you have come across in your trees?

I've got the following - some of these are not direct lineage but from marriages of siblings as well.
Delyth (F)
Deveraux (M)
Enoch (M)
Greenwood (M)
Israel (M)
Jabez (M)
Japhet/Japhot (M)
Kerenhappuch (F)
Peridreau (M)
Salome (F)
Temperence (F)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: meles on Tuesday 29 July 08 18:09 BST (UK)
Enoch, Israel, Jabez, Japhet/Japhot and Kerenhappuch are Jewish names and not that unusual.

Salome - poor lass! One of those "it sounded nice" but the original was not that nice.

I have in my tree sisters Temperence, Prudence, Chastity and Charity. One does not like to ask, but Chastity had 7 children...  ;)

meles
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Just Kia on Tuesday 29 July 08 18:12 BST (UK)
Enoch, Israel, Jabez, Japhet/Japhot and Kerenhappuch are Jewish names and not that unusual.
I'm fairly certain that they weren't Jewish people (not that that means anything, I know), is it likely that they heard the names and liked them?

Edited to add:

Salome - poor lass! One of those "it sounded nice" but the original was not that nice.
Interestingly - "In Christian mythology, Salome was the daughter of Herodias and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee in Palestine." Is Salome possibly also a Jewish name?
That said they aren't all from the same branch by any shot of the imagination.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: meles on Tuesday 29 July 08 18:17 BST (UK)
Oh, yes! I have all those names in my tree (except Israel), but no Jewish connections that I've found. Indeed, they are all non-conformists - and therefore likely to choose names from the Old Testament.

meles
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: aghadowey on Tuesday 29 July 08 18:21 BST (UK)
The names were probably taken from the Bible and doesn't mean that the family would have been Jewish. My grandfather's family were German- his father was Elias (German form of Elijah) and siblings were Israel, Rebekah (the Hebrew spelling of Rebecca), Abraham, Susannah, Mariah.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: meles on Tuesday 29 July 08 18:21 BST (UK)
Salome was a Bad Girl who came to a Bad End.   ;) Not a Jewish name, but in the NT.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salome

meles
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: aghadowey on Tuesday 29 July 08 18:30 BST (UK)
One English family in my ancestry has some lovely old names:

Bethiah, Charity, Experience, Susannah, Elizabeth, Sarah, Hannah, Lillis, Patience, Lettis, Penelope, Roby (not Ruby), Hopestill, Abigail, Christian, Philana, Sibyl, Phebe, Ruhama, Lydia...

Jonathan, Noah, Samuel, John, Levi, Isaac, Nathan, Seth, Peleg, Barnabus, Caleb, Simeon, Benjamin, Perry, Israel, Amos, Benanuel, Zephaniah, Jara...

Most of the names have a Biblical connection, some are popular at the moment.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: wildtech on Tuesday 29 July 08 18:33 BST (UK)
As already said a lot of those names are Biblical.  And yes Salome was a bad girl - think 7 veils and the head of John The Baptist.

Delyth is of Welsh origin

In my own tree I have a Temperance(f)
 as middle names I have Cannon(f) Mercy(f) Fulfore(m)

Just noticed ahgadowey's post
My son is called Jonathan John Isaac - all biblical and 'translates' as The Gift of a Gracious God has made us laugh.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: nanny jan on Tuesday 29 July 08 19:08 BST (UK)


Hamutal (female) and Marmaduke (male)



Knee-deep in Williams, Elizabeths, Georges............


Nanny Jan
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: stanmapstone on Tuesday 29 July 08 19:25 BST (UK)

Interestingly - "In Christian mythology, Salome was the daughter of Herodias and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee in Palestine." Is Salome possibly also a Jewish name?
That said they aren't all from the same branch by any shot of the imagination.

It is not Christian Mythology. The Jewish Historian Josephus in Ant. 18. 136f. states that she was the daughter of Herodias, by her first husband Herod Philip. She is NOT named in the Gospels, although she is usually identified with the girl who danced before Herod. She married her father's half-brother Philip the tetrach.

Stan
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: stanmapstone on Tuesday 29 July 08 19:35 BST (UK)
The name could be from the Salome in the New Testament, who is the woman who followed Christ to Jerusalem. Matthew appears to identify her with the mother of St. James and St. John. She is also sometimes identified with the sister of the Virgin Mary.

Stan
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: claireandsi on Tuesday 29 July 08 19:42 BST (UK)
Between me and my other half we have quite a few good names.

On my side - Ainger, Golding, Lancelot, Euphemia, Cornelius, Urbane, Railton, Thirza (as well as lots of Alexanders, Williams, Johns, etc)

On his side - Lemon, Obadiah, Phineas, Major (definitely name, not rank), Skinner, Jabez, Lettice, Keziah, Hyrum, Lorenzo (and no Italian connection whatsoever)

I have wondered where some of these came from, although when you hear some of the names given today, they seem quite tame in comprison
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Just Kia on Tuesday 29 July 08 19:48 BST (UK)
Apologies, Stan. I read that on victorianweb.org, I'm not familiar with a lot of the books (new or old) of the Bible
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: wildtech on Tuesday 29 July 08 19:57 BST (UK)
Just noticed that JustKia has Kerenhappuch in her list and calirandsi has Keziah.  These were two of Job's (Bible OT) daughters after his tribulation.  The third was Jemimah:

Job 42:14  And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch.
Job 42:15  And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Jacquie in Canada on Tuesday 29 July 08 20:11 BST (UK)
Euphemia was quite common a name in Scotland. I've got a number of them in one of my lines.

Some of the unusual ones I've got are Arrinda Bellzora, Hulda, Pyreus and Tychicus.

I've also got a number of ancestors who were named after famous people: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and William Madison (twins), Lafayette, Horatio Nelson, Ulysess S. Grant and the list goes on.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Just Kia on Tuesday 29 July 08 20:37 BST (UK)
I have 5 Jemimia's, 3 Kezia's, 2 Keziah's (all different families - ie not passed on) and there's two Kerenhappuch's (mother and daughter).
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: willow154 on Tuesday 29 July 08 20:57 BST (UK)
Just been given the family tree for the french side of my family (my mother's) and found the name Scolastique VOLANT (1766 - 1812).
All the other christian names are names I've come across before (even Philibert), but this one I've never seen before! ???
Paulene :)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: aghadowey on Tuesday 29 July 08 21:07 BST (UK)
The French form of Scholastica (a saint's name):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Scholastica
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: willow154 on Tuesday 29 July 08 21:10 BST (UK)
Wonderful, aghadowey - thank you so much for that :D
Paulene :)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Suffolk Mawther on Tuesday 29 July 08 21:28 BST (UK)
As many Kerenhappuch's were called Happy as a short form, I always feel for these poor women who may not have been able to live up to their name  :-\

Pat ...
wife of John Fruer .......
mother of Susannah Mary and Robert John Fruer .......
Grandmother of Henry Thurston Fruer ........
At least the family name of Fruer has helped track the family back many centuries.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: aghadowey on Tuesday 29 July 08 21:35 BST (UK)
Have also seen Keren as a nickname for Kerenhappuch.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: grandma on Tuesday 29 July 08 21:43 BST (UK)
Iv,e got a Lucretia in my tree..
Mary.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Iria on Tuesday 29 July 08 21:54 BST (UK)
Hi

Mine

Caleb Harold  Love this name

Isreal Temple

Wilson Kenworthy

And i think my Own

Iria Louise Dyson (Nee Slater ) God Knows where me mum and dad got my name from

Regards

Iria
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: willow154 on Tuesday 29 July 08 22:38 BST (UK)
Nice name though, Iria :)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: stanmapstone on Tuesday 29 July 08 23:13 BST (UK)
Have also seen Keren as a nickname for Kerenhappuch.


Keren-Happuch (Hebrew queren happúk) 'paint-horn' i.e. beautifier or child of beauty.

Stan
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: fek33 on Wednesday 30 July 08 07:23 BST (UK)
Hi,

What wonderful unusual names some of you have in your families  :D

The most unusual first name I have come across so far in my tree is Virtue.

FEK 33
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Margarett on Wednesday 30 July 08 10:11 BST (UK)
I have a Neri and an Enos on my tree,and  have just come across True(f) and Comfort(f) linked to my tree.
Many years ago, when transcribing the 1881 census, I came across quite a few children with the Christian names  Captain and Major in the Black Country.
Margaret
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: grandma on Wednesday 30 July 08 10:39 BST (UK)
My mom,s name was Evadne.
Grandma
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: stanmapstone on Wednesday 30 July 08 10:43 BST (UK)
Was she named after the character Dr. Evadne Hinge in the TV comedy series Hinge and Bracket    :)


Stan
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: grandma on Wednesday 30 July 08 10:59 BST (UK)
No she was born in 1897. Always thought it was a wierd name till I grew up and found the meaning.
She named me Flora which I loathed ,but now I think it,s rather a great name.
Mary
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: stanmapstone on Wednesday 30 July 08 11:53 BST (UK)
Apparently Evadne comes from a minor figure in classical legend who threw herself on to the funeral pyre of her husband.  :o

Stan
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: grandma on Wednesday 30 July 08 16:35 BST (UK)
Googled Evadne and came up with another version from Greek mythology, quite interesting whichever one is correct.
Mary.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: stanmapstone on Wednesday 30 July 08 18:20 BST (UK)
From Greek Ευαδνη (Euadne), which is of unknown meaning, though the first element is derived from Greek ευ "good". In Greek legend Evadne was the wife of Capaneus. After Capaneus was killed by a lightning bolt sent from Zeus she committed suicide by throwing herself onto his burning body.
http://www.behindthename.com/name/evadne


Stan
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: wood.mjm on Wednesday 30 July 08 19:48 BST (UK)

   My Gr.Grandmothers name was Syrena. It was a dream to trace on the Census on Ancestry, just popped up straight away. More that can be said of the Wood side of the family! Just try tracing your Wood ancestors around Leeds.

Woody.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ninkynoo on Thursday 31 July 08 14:58 BST (UK)
Oooo ,this one is a goodie.Just found it in my husbands tree.Just wait till he comes home from work tonight ,I'll give him laugh at my 5 with the name Fanny Buggs.

His Gt Gt Grandmother had a brother with the name John Smith .Perhaps he didn't like having such a common name so ,he and his wife Mary decided to name the youngest daughter ...........Boadicea Aphrodite Diana C Smith  :o :o :o.....now ,one day ,I may just order that birth certificate to see what the C stands for. Any guesses ??????
Poor lass
Lin
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: grandma on Thursday 31 July 08 15:27 BST (UK)
How about Cleopatra.
Mary
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: aghadowey on Thursday 31 July 08 15:33 BST (UK)
I've got Albert Stratford Guildford George Bonmon Canning McLeod born 1868- most of the names from the local landlord, Lord Garvagh.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Just Kia on Thursday 31 July 08 16:34 BST (UK)
I forgot about "Thurstan" my 3great grand aunt-in-law.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ninkynoo on Thursday 31 July 08 19:50 BST (UK)
Funnily enough Mary ,that name did creep into my thoughts and I discounted it as it would mean her parents were being TOTALLY frivolous  ;D ,no ,surely they wouldn't have ....would they .....?
Can't think of anything else ,they were not from the most learned background ,all other siblings had relatively normal names ,though on one census her father is down as John Hershall Smith ,but just the once ,strange.
Hubbie is still  laughing about it .
Poor girl ,I did notice that she never married and is plain Boadicea Diana on her death cert ,bless her heart.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: grandma on Thursday 31 July 08 20:17 BST (UK)
Actually the first Boadicea was quite the gal, led her people in an uprising against the Romans though in the end was defeated. But that,s poor consolation when you have to go through life with a name like that. Wonder what they called her for short? Boady?
Mary.
Title: Did you mean Emphesema?
Post by: GeoffE on Thursday 31 July 08 20:28 BST (UK)
Only the second outing on Rootschat for this name - Ricky found one a couple of weeks ago

Euphrosyne

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphrosyne
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: NadT on Friday 01 August 08 14:42 BST (UK)
I've got a couple of names which do not appear to be the norm in my family lines, we have Euphemia (female), Uriah (Male), there's a few Temperances passed down through one particular line,   There's an Elflada (female) - like to know where that one comes from, Maide (female), Othneil (i'm told that one's of welsh origin).

I think the strangest one though is on my hubby's side.  His great grandfather was one of 8 children, all of which had what i would say were normal names (by that I mean you know roughly the origin).  His great grandfather's christian names were Mescach Edward, which I thought was odd but I've since discovered that Meschach was a common biblical name around the 1860s, he dropped the use of Meschach and called himslef Edward from the age of 20.  His siblings all had names like Robert, Rosa, William, Charles etc. apart from one poor soul who they called Europe Euphrates.  I can only assume their parents saw or read something about travel and were inspired!!

Nad
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: stanmapstone on Friday 01 August 08 15:25 BST (UK)
 There's an Elflada (female) - like to know where that one comes from, Nad

It should be Elfleda, which is the Latinised form of the Old English female personal name Æðelflæd copmposed of the elements æðel noble + flæd beauty.
It was revived briefly in the 19th Century.
"The Oxford Names Companion"

Stan
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: NadT on Friday 01 August 08 15:37 BST (UK)
Thanks Stan

Interesting - I wonder if she was a noble beauty, unfortunately I have no pictures of her.

Nad
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: stanmapstone on Friday 01 August 08 15:47 BST (UK)
There are 60 Elfleda on FreeBmd between 1840-1921.

Stan
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: J.A.M. on Friday 01 August 08 15:53 BST (UK)
I love these weird off topic posts.

Here's a great one from the U.S. branch - Perehena.
I've found that one meaning is 'traditional procession' in Sri Lankan. The family must have spent time in or read about Ceylon in the 19th century.
I guess she could have used Hena instead of that heavy handle.

J.A.M.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: NadT on Friday 01 August 08 16:41 BST (UK)
Stan,

That fits, my Elflada was born 1895.  I guess her parents weren't sure how to spell it though as she's definitely registered Elflada on both her birth and marriage entries.

I wonder what made her parents choose the name, because all her other siblings had pretty run of the mill names like, Henry, Alice, William, Edward etc.  Guess I'll never know - I wish these ancestors of mine would have written down a bit more information about themselves!!

Nad
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ambers on Friday 01 August 08 19:21 BST (UK)
I have a strange one ...Woodbine  :D

Now, was that brand around in 1858   ???

Some other strange middle names in this Mariners  family..Ferinda (4), and Manship ;D

Ambers
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: stanmapstone on Friday 01 August 08 19:53 BST (UK)
Stan,

That fits, my Elflada was born 1895.  I guess her parents weren't sure how to spell it though as she's definitely registered Elflada on both her birth and marriage entries.

Nad

If it is Elflada Brooks, Dec ¼ 1895, she is the only Elflada in FreeBmd  :)


Stan
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: NadT on Friday 01 August 08 20:09 BST (UK)
That's the one Stan.  This is my family on my maternal side - they are from Somerset.  I have her birth and marriage BMD index references and a reasonable amount of census info on the family to enable me to get going.  I need to do a bit more digging around when I get more time.  I'm sure I'll be on the boards here asking for help at some time.

Thanks anyway

Nad
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Trees on Wednesday 17 September 08 16:48 BST (UK)
Just found in the 1841 census Onion Onions 50 Miner in Wolverhampton Staffordshire HO107 999 14 fo 10 p13
Ouch it makes me cry.....with laughter
trees
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: asgaard on Wednesday 17 September 08 18:04 BST (UK)
Makes my Ephraim's, possible Hepzibah (choose a spelling) and Georgiana look tame.

Heather
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: tazzie on Wednesday 17 September 08 18:30 BST (UK)



   How about .....

  Upion Lane  b 1862 q4 Whitby who I came acrooss for another Rootschatters earlier today.

                           Tazzie
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Musicman on Wednesday 17 September 08 19:28 BST (UK)
I have a strange one ...Woodbine  :D

Now, was that brand around in 1858   ???

Ambers


It predates the ciggies!  Woodbine is the common name for the European honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum).  It’s even referred to by Shakespeare: "Beatrice, who even now Is couched in the woodbine coverture."

Not an unusual name – but one I like is my Dad’s Mother’s second name: Sabina (she died when my Dad was 8 years old).

John



Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: vic1 on Wednesday 17 September 08 20:00 BST (UK)
the most unusual name i have is the one which started me off on this never ending hunt-is Dorcas - which is not that unusual in itself  but  my mum kept telling me that she had another more unusual name  and so it turned out when i found her birth - she was Dorcas Geneva -  thing is her sibling s were Florence, Elizabeth, Samuel and George - so why did she  have such a name - my daughters are glad they weren't babies when i found it as they have unusual name and the eldest second name is Dorcas , i would definitely have used  Geneva  but i d never heard of it as a name . i love unusual names.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Digas1 on Wednesday 17 September 08 20:13 BST (UK)
I've got an Ellen Roughsedge with the surname Mercer in the tree.  I thought it may have been her Mother's maiden name but haven't sorted this out yet.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: alftabor on Wednesday 17 September 08 21:47 BST (UK)
One of my ancestors had the Christian name Sebarah
I have wondered whether this was a mis spelling of Deborah or suchlike.
Regards Alf
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Trees on Wednesday 17 September 08 23:08 BST (UK)
Shebarah was possibly a form of the Biblical name Sheba which means promise
Trees
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Siamese Girl on Thursday 18 September 08 19:16 BST (UK)
ONe of my whatever-gt-grannies (too lazy to work it out at the moment) was a Tryphaena (but there are lots of ways to spell it).

I thought "well - that's really odd" but it was really popular in the Lincolnshire village where she lived.

Carole
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: kizmiaz on Friday 19 September 08 14:28 BST (UK)
Several Philadelphia's, a couple of Charity's, a Hope, an Esau, a Staning, one or two Barbary's, quite a few Lettice's, a Grace Contalmaison (named after a WW1 battle), a Hamelton, a Goddard, and a Pierce are the most unusual first names in my tree.

I still like the name Philadelphia Pennyfold from my tree the most. Sounds Dickension to me

Glen
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: blodwen on Friday 19 September 08 14:39 BST (UK)
I have a Lettice (ca. 1575) and a Silance(1775)in my tree.

Viv
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: teadealer on Friday 19 September 08 15:34 BST (UK)
Hi All
Iv'e a Sparky in my tree,i don't know how that came about.
Peter
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: asgaard on Friday 19 September 08 17:08 BST (UK)
I saw a Lettice Person on the Derbyshire Parish Record Marriages.

Heather
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: IndisVanyar on Saturday 20 September 08 07:27 BST (UK)
My most unusual are Penninah (Biblical I believe and, according to a Googled link -  Hebrew, meaning coral; pearl), Milliken, Orchard, Thaddeus, Lancelot, Damaris, Clementina, Kezia.

(Quite a tame bunch when compared to some of these others on this thread  ;D )

Most males in my tree appear to be called William, irrespective of surname!

Nell
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: regross on Saturday 20 September 08 07:43 BST (UK)
Hi,

My grandmother was Verenda, actually her grandmother's maiden name (Verender). I also found a child called Federal born in Western Australia in 1901 the year of Australia's Federation, he was one of my great grandfther's cousins.

Robyn in Wodonga Australia
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Deb D on Saturday 20 September 08 08:08 BST (UK)
Perhaps not so unusual,... but in my case, used ad nauseum, was Marmaduke.  This family also re-used Christopher, Elizabeth, Phoebe and Duncan over and over, in each generation.

Family get-togethers must have been a real hoot.  Call out for Marmaduke, and upwards of eight people were likely to yell "What?"  ;D
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Just Kia on Saturday 20 September 08 12:16 BST (UK)
My cousin called her daughter Lisalotta  ??? and I've just found a cousin of OH called his daughter Ffion.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rewcastle on Tuesday 23 September 08 15:10 BST (UK)
Just been reading a paper from 1776 and came across  Clotworthy Upton Esq.,  ;D Otherwise known as Baron Templetown.



Rewcastle.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Sloe Gin on Tuesday 23 September 08 15:55 BST (UK)
Liselotte (pronounced as Lisalotta) is a German name.  Originates from a contraction of Elizabeth Charlotte.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Siamese Girl on Tuesday 23 September 08 16:02 BST (UK)
Just been reading a paper from 1776 and came across  Clotworthy Upton Esq.,  ;D Otherwise known as Baron Templetown.



Rewcastle.

You get all kinds of odd names when surnames are used as Christian names - my favourite is Pynson Wilmot Longdill ... there were several of them.

It's very useful tracing people. Our family has produced John Bonus Child and Stephen Tutt Hodd - it narrows the search down wonderfully!

Carole
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Just Kia on Tuesday 23 September 08 16:09 BST (UK)
Liselotte (pronounced as Lisalotta) is a German name. Originates from a contraction of Elizabeth Charlotte.

I doubt my cousin would have that kind of knowledge.
I'm more surprised that she didn't pick random letters out of a hat  :o
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Sloe Gin on Tuesday 23 September 08 17:03 BST (UK)
I doubt my cousin would have that kind of knowledge.
I meant she has probably heard it somewhere, rather than made it up herself. 
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Tipps on Thursday 13 November 08 13:50 GMT (UK)
Here's gravestone with some unusual names on.  It seems odd that some of their children have 'traditional' English names and some are more unusual.

"In Loving Memory of
Joseph
The beloved husband of
Betty Chadwick
Who died August 20th 1906 Aged 61 years
Also Betty
Beloved wife of the above
Who died October 9th 1934 Aged 86 years
Also Jehosheba their daughter
Who died February 2nd 1875 Aged 2 years
And 3 months
Also Jane their daughter
Who died February 13th 1875 Aged 3 years
And 6 months
Also William their son
Who died February 13th 1878 Aged 8 years
Also Keziah their daughter
Who died February 21st 1878 Aged 3 years
Also Meshach their son
Who died April 13th 1879 Aged 8 months
Also Abednego their son and beloved
Husband of Ann Jane Chadwick
Who died August 8th 1933 Aged 53 years
At rest"
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: kizmiaz on Thursday 13 November 08 14:25 GMT (UK)
Here's gravestone with some unusual names on.  It seems odd that some of their children have 'traditional' English names and some are more unusual.

"In Loving Memory of
Joseph
The beloved husband of
Betty Chadwick
Who died August 20th 1906 Aged 61 years
Also Betty
Beloved wife of the above
Who died October 9th 1934 Aged 86 years
Also Jehosheba their daughter
Who died February 2nd 1875 Aged 2 years
And 3 months
Also Jane their daughter
Who died February 13th 1875 Aged 3 years
And 6 months
Also William their son
Who died February 13th 1878 Aged 8 years
Also Keziah their daughter
Who died February 21st 1878 Aged 3 years
Also Meshach their son
Who died April 13th 1879 Aged 8 months
Also Abednego their son and beloved
Husband of Ann Jane Chadwick
Who died August 8th 1933 Aged 53 years
At rest"


Very Biblical (apart from Betty!). Either they just opened it a random, or they were very religious.

I would assume they also had another son named Shadrach, since Meshach and Abednego are also mentioned (The Three Young Men from the Book of Daniel)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: rancegal on Thursday 13 November 08 16:55 GMT (UK)
Isn't there a 'Liselotte' in The Sound of Music?

 OH has a 'Silence' in his tree, and I had a great-aunt named Florian
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BumbleB on Thursday 13 November 08 17:09 GMT (UK)
I bet you all thought that Allison was a girl's name - wrong!  I have four males called Allison in my tree.  Two are cousins in the same family (one of them being my great grandfather), and the others are nephew and uncle (one being the brother of gg father's bride).  Quite logical really - "son of Alice"! 

I've also got a few surnames as forenames - Sutcliffe, Wadsworth, Fairbank and Jennings.  And I came across a Beaujolais when transcribing for FreeBMD.

In more recent times (well, last century) I went out with a guy whose middle names were Shakespeare Ruskin!!

BumbleB
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: angelfish58 on Thursday 13 November 08 18:56 GMT (UK)
I recently found a distant rellie of my OH married a Zipperina Mary Thompson but mostly it's just surnames used as forenames including: Wardell, Crosby, Ferry, Johnson, Lumb, Heppell and Liddell.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BumbleB on Thursday 13 November 08 19:08 GMT (UK)
And I forgot the other side - Archbell, Tempest, Edmondson - one poor boy, who drowned in the Howick Falls in South Africa was Tempest Edmondson Archbell!!  It's all good stuff. ::)

BumbleB
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: GeoffE on Friday 14 November 08 15:53 GMT (UK)
ONe of my whatever-gt-grannies (too lazy to work it out at the moment) was a Tryphaena (but there are lots of ways to spell it).

I thought "well - that's really odd" but it was really popular in the Lincolnshire village where she lived.

I came across Tryphena and Tryphosa in a Lincolnshire village (Billingorough) - in fact there were 4 Tryphena TYLERs there 1803-40.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: kooky on Friday 14 November 08 17:08 GMT (UK)
My son in law's gt gt gr parents were Octavius and Fedora.
Octavius' mother was Valeria.
Kooky
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Siamese Girl on Friday 14 November 08 17:08 GMT (UK)
ONe of my whatever-gt-grannies (too lazy to work it out at the moment) was a Tryphaena (but there are lots of ways to spell it).

I thought "well - that's really odd" but it was really popular in the Lincolnshire village where she lived.

I came across Tryphena and Tryphosa in a Lincolnshire village (Billingorough) - in fact there were 4 Tryphena TYLERs there 1803-40.

I wonder why it seems to have been so popular in that area?

Carole
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: rancegal on Friday 14 November 08 19:08 GMT (UK)
Maybe it was a name the Tyler family liked and 'passed down' the family.
    In the marriages I'm currently transcribing, Ekins is used as a forename. presumably by members of one family, so when it crops up, you know which family they're related to. 'Ekins' is also an old Raunds surname.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: beady on Friday 14 November 08 19:25 GMT (UK)
In Lincolnshire marriages ---- A girl with surname Whisker had christian name of Fanny 
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: GAYNOR WILKINSON on Friday 14 November 08 22:00 GMT (UK)
Hi Justkia,

Delyth is a Welsh name meaning pretty. My name is welsh and means fair phantom and is derived from Guinevere.

Regards
Gaynor
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Jacquie in Canada on Saturday 15 November 08 01:29 GMT (UK)
ONe of my whatever-gt-grannies (too lazy to work it out at the moment) was a Tryphaena (but there are lots of ways to spell it).

I thought "well - that's really odd" but it was really popular in the Lincolnshire village where she lived.

I came across Tryphena and Tryphosa in a Lincolnshire village (Billingorough) - in fact there were 4 Tryphena TYLERs there 1803-40.

According to an online Bible encyclopedia, Tryphena and Tryphosa are mentioned in Romans 16:12 as being saluted by Paul in his epistle as two "who labour in the Lord".
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Pejic on Friday 02 September 11 18:50 BST (UK)
Not in my tree, but in my research:

St. Nicholas. Gloucester, Incumbents.

1645. Help-on-high Fox, M.A.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: helenM123 on Friday 02 September 11 19:36 BST (UK)
In my family ancestry I have Aminadab Spivey with brothers Theophilus, Barzallai and Hezekiel. poor things! :o
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Grothenwell on Tuesday 06 September 11 13:07 BST (UK)
Does anyone else have a "Hope Ramsay"? It's for a boy born in 1865, not sure if I'm using freebmd correct but there appears to be only one other.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Trees on Tuesday 06 September 11 13:12 BST (UK)
I have no HOPE but I do have a COMFORT she was a Hakesley
Has anyone else got Britton Froud?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: stanmapstone on Tuesday 06 September 11 13:49 BST (UK)
Do you mean with Hope as a first name? There are numerous people with Hope as a forename on FreeBMD from 1837 to1957, too many to count  :)
Or do you mean "Hope Ramsay" ? There is only one,  Hope Ramsay Robertson      

Stan
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Grothenwell on Wednesday 07 September 11 08:16 BST (UK)
Hi Stan,

Thanks for replying. No it was the boy's forename (i thought Hope would be a girl's name). I presume now that the Ramsay was perhaps a family friend, I can't find it as a surname within the family (so far).

Yes that was the same BMD one I found, mine one does not have the same family surname and not in Liverpool either.

Cheers,

Grothenwell
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: joshii5 on Friday 14 October 11 09:47 BST (UK)
I bet you all thought that Allison was a girl's name - wrong!  I have four males called Allison in my tree.  Two are cousins in the same family (one of them being my great grandfather), and the others are nephew and uncle (one being the brother of gg father's bride).  Quite logical really - "son of Alice"! 

I've also got a few surnames as forenames - Sutcliffe, Wadsworth, Fairbank and Jennings.  And I came across a Beaujolais when transcribing for FreeBMD.

In more recent times (well, last century) I went out with a guy whose middle names were Shakespeare Ruskin!!

BumbleB

That makes sense and I've also seen it prevalent as a male/family name, although it has been used as a female name in the past, eg the female character of 'Alison' in Chaucer's 'The Miller's Tale' written in the late 1300s!

It is bizarre to see the 'Carol' used frequently as a male name the further back you go. Apparently it's a European version of Carl, so Carl/Carla corresponds with Carol/Carola/Caroline. The male director of the film Oliver!, as well as Pope John Paul II, were both Carols. :o
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Sloe Gin on Friday 14 October 11 16:06 BST (UK)
It is bizarre to see the 'Carol' used frequently as a male name the further back you go. Apparently it's a European version of Carl, so Carl/Carla corresponds with Carol/Carola/Caroline. The male director of the film Oliver!, as well as Pope John Paul II, were both Carols. :o

Carolus is the Latin form of Charles, so not so odd when you think about it.  Charles, Karl, Carl, Karel etc, all forms of the same name.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: kesannah on Friday 14 October 11 20:20 BST (UK)
The unusual names in my tree are Kesannah,Fanny Duff(not surname) and Slaneyann
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: PFG on Saturday 15 October 11 11:59 BST (UK)
The most unusual name I've come across so far is Manasseh Brumbill.  It's biblical, but I had to google it to find that out.

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rishile on Sunday 16 October 11 20:42 BST (UK)
I have just come across a female name of Fridiswide.  Has anyone heard of that?

Rishile
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: stanmapstone on Sunday 16 October 11 20:51 BST (UK)
St Frideswide: Oxford's patron saint
St. Frideswide - more properly Fritheswith - was born in the Southern border regions of the Kingdom of Mercia, traditionally at Oxford, http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/frideswide.html


Stan
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rishile on Sunday 16 October 11 20:58 BST (UK)
Thank you Stan.  How strange that they all came from Kent. 

Never mind - it has answered my question.

Rishile
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Mark Stevenson on Monday 17 October 11 16:28 BST (UK)
My favourite first name in my family tree is Newyear.  Guess when he was born?   ;)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: chirp on Monday 17 October 11 19:34 BST (UK)
I have -

Girls: Calpurnia, Emblem and Florence Nightingale
Boys: Titus, Cornelius, Clark, and Beckwith.

Unusual names really are fantastic - makes research easier.

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Guyana on Thursday 27 October 11 13:00 BST (UK)
Back in the 16th & 17th C, Uriah and Samson wre popular in our family. 
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: zempavlob2 on Thursday 27 October 11 15:15 BST (UK)
a male ancestor was named Reginald Clare B.C. GIBBS

not particularly unusual names, apart perhaps from Clare? Only this instance of it in the family tree so googled it and a famous military person General Sir Reginald Clare HART was awarded the VC in1879.

My ancestor was born in 1897 so am wondering if  he was named after the General even though he was born 20 years after the event. A sibling born 3 years earlier, but died in infancy, was also named Reginald Clare GIBBS. So 'Reginald Clare'  had some meaning to the family I guess?

Just wondering if it was common to name children in this way, or was Clare a common name for boys in the Victorian
era ?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: avm228 on Thursday 27 October 11 15:35 BST (UK)
a male ancestor was named Reginald Clare B.C. GIBBS

not particularly unusual names, apart perhaps from Clare? Only this instance of it in the family tree so googled it and a famous military person General Sir Reginald Clare HART was awarded the VC in1879.

My ancestor was born in 1897 so am wondering if  he was named after the General even though he was born 20 years after the event. A sibling born 3 years earlier, but died in infancy, was also named Reginald Clare GIBBS. So 'Reginald Clare'  had some meaning to the family I guess?

Just wondering if it was common to name children in this way, or was Clare a common name for boys in the Victorian
era ?

Clare wasn't a common name for boys, but Clair was not unknown as a male name. As it happens I met a male Clair in the US a couple of years ago (born probably 1960s in Nebraska).

Added: Sir Reginald Clare HART seems to have been born in Co. Clare, so that might explain the name in his case (and then as you say his famed gallantry led to instances of boys being named after him).
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Emjaybee on Thursday 27 October 11 18:01 BST (UK)
We have a Milborough , female and Silvanus, male
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: davidmil on Thursday 27 October 11 18:12 BST (UK)
Yes, my family has used the name Tempest for at least two hundred years, and it is still being given to the lastest arrivals today. :o

The Millers who emigrated to America in 1635 used the names Mehitabel and Thankful, among others.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: meermin on Monday 31 October 11 14:07 GMT (UK)
My grandmother gave her five daughters (including my mother) the same first name: Maria  :P. Perhaps in the hope they would all come when she called them??? ::)
It was rather confusing, so they used to call each other by their second name.

In Limburg, a province in Belgium, a lot of children had the same second name: Ghislain. It was believed that this would protect the child against illnesses.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Jacquie in Canada on Monday 31 October 11 15:22 GMT (UK)
My grandmother gave her five daughters (including my mother) the same first name: Maria  :P. Perhaps in the hope they would all come when she called them??? ::)
It was rather confusing, so they used to call each other by their second name.

I've heard of that being done before. Boxing great George Foreman has 10 kids and all 5 of his sons are named George (George Jr, George III, etc). He also has a daughter named Georgetta and another one whose middle name is George.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: absolom on Monday 31 October 11 15:47 GMT (UK)
emjaybee  i have a millborough wot area is your research
also got hezekiah           fab ;D
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Jill on the A272 on Monday 31 October 11 18:50 GMT (UK)
My husband's 4x great grandmother was the delightfully named Hopestill Roots.

I have two chaps in my tree with the first names of Quick and Steeprock.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: rutht22000 on Monday 31 October 11 21:56 GMT (UK)
I've got a Cinderella, a Dorrit (female) and a Tysilio (who had two daughters called Witta - isnt that something to do with witchcraft?? - and Helida)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bevj on Saturday 05 November 11 21:53 GMT (UK)
I've got girls' names Zannah, Pleasant,  Affra and Lucretia.
(Two girls with the first name Pleasant were called Pleasant Fright and Pleasant Johncock  :o :o - I bet they were pleased to get married!)

Boys' names - I have two in the same family, one called Pierce Nimrod and the other Stamp  ???

My grandfather's middle name was Simla, he was named after an Edinburgh missionary doctor, George Simla Patterson, who seems to have been a family benefactor and possibly Granddad's godfather.  Dr. Patterson had strong links with India, hence the name.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: colin buckle on Sunday 06 November 11 10:08 GMT (UK)
In 1749 my 6x Gt Grandfather married Susan Pearl.

This led to one of their sons being named Pearl and over the next 150 years a total of 5 males that I'm aware of were saddled with that name. I've been in touch with the grandaughter of the last, he only died about 40 or 50 years ago, and he was known to all as Paul.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: suehorne58 on Sunday 06 November 11 18:25 GMT (UK)

In my tree, I have Philadelphia,Pierce,Horatio, a Jubal (variant of Jubilee) and Hephzibah, also seen but not in my tree: Christmas Day!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Monaro Area NSW on Monday 07 November 11 11:00 GMT (UK)
If it wasn't for my husband....my son would have been named Brooke..
I wanted a girl sooo bad and was suffering Post Natal Depression,,,,so named my son Brooke....
Now he is Daniel,,,,,which my hubby chose,,,,,and later I found out hubby chose it because that song was playing on the radio on the way to hospital...

Bored
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Frightful on Friday 06 March 15 17:04 GMT (UK)
The two girls named Pleasant were the same girl. Pleasant Johncock married John Fright  ( my 7x Gt Grandfather ) in 1707. So really the name change was a bit of a mixed blessing.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bevj on Saturday 07 March 15 07:46 GMT (UK)
The two girls named Pleasant were the same girl. Pleasant Johncock married John Fright  ( my 7x Gt Grandfather ) in 1707. So really the name change was a bit of a mixed blessing.

True, but there were at least three other Pleasant Frights besides Pleasant Fright née Johncock  ;D

(They are my 7 x great grandparents too!)

Bev
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Frightful on Saturday 07 March 15 08:26 GMT (UK)
Hi Bev
Wonder what relation that makes us.
I have a fairly comprehensive tree on Genes Reunited. Do you have one on there too ? If not then I could send you a private message on here with a .ged file if you like.
David
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jaybelnz on Saturday 07 March 15 11:39 GMT (UK)
Not a first name from me, but a middle name! My grandmother's middle name was Dreghorn. Whilst also being a Scottish surname, it's also the name of a village in Ayrshire, near Kilmarnock where she was born!

I have found no other Dreghorns in her tree, although her brothers and sister all carry the other ancestor's surnames as middle names.  A puzzle?

When I once read about the traditional Scottish naming patterns, the usual ones were named, but then it said a child could even  be named for the Minister that baptised them, or maybe a place name! 

I'll guess I'll never know where that one came from, but who knows, perhaps one day!

Jeanne 😄
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: maureenshakeshaft on Thursday 12 March 15 18:14 GMT (UK)
I have a Hercules in my grandfathers tree.
His surname was   Prisk-which was embarrassingly mis transcribed on the 1841 census !!!
I had researched the tree for my Auntie in Australia who was coming over to visit -as she was 82 I thought it best not to show her the 1841 census.
Maureen
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rosinish on Thursday 12 March 15 18:56 GMT (UK)
Not enough time to read all but doing a tree for a relative (in-law) I found the forename "Ezskiel".....another biblical name.

At least most of those names have an origin to look back...............unlike some of the more unusual names of today  ;D

Annie
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Treetotal on Thursday 12 March 15 19:08 GMT (UK)
My two most unusual are Providence Butt and Thankful Anthony.
Carol
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bevj on Thursday 12 March 15 19:59 GMT (UK)
I have just come across a very odd name in the Scottish branch of my tree.
I have a girl baptised Jamsie in 1807 in Cummertrees, Dumfries. 
For a long time I thought it was a boy mis-transcribed as James but I have now seen the original record and it is definitely Jamsie, daughter.
There is actually a baptism for another girl called Jamsie on the same page of the parish record.
Would this just be a female version of James?

Bev
Title: Unusual First Names - 'Kizdore'
Post by: DougF24 on Saturday 04 April 15 07:06 BST (UK)
I have one that I've never heard an explanation for.  My father's aunt was known during her entire life (not as Ann, but) as 'Kizdore'.   In one letter, she signed her name as 'Kiz' for short.  (Australians have a habit of abbreviating Christian names.)

If anyone has ever heard of 'Kizdore' I'd be delighted to hear, but I'm not expecting a rush!

Doug (Melbourne, Australia)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: stevew101 on Saturday 04 April 15 07:56 BST (UK)
Few unusual ones from my tree ....

Salome
Israel
Richardus
William Esau (Middle name)
Elias
Jabez
Mickaiell
Reynald
King Fisher
Queen Fisher
* Brother & Sister
Augosten
Johanis
Levi
Jemmice
Wheatley
Rehobaon
Druscilla
Tobias
Wakefield
Hepizabah
Arabella
Barnet

A motley collection of non conformist agricultural labourers.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Jacquie in Canada on Monday 06 April 15 01:32 BST (UK)
Interesting blog entry by Alex Cox at Find My Past about Puritan names:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01f3l/ (http://www.rootschat.com/links/01f3l/)

Jacquie
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jaybelnz on Monday 06 April 15 01:39 BST (UK)
Very interesting!  But what a "mission" calling them all inside for tea!!

Jeanne 😄
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Treetotal on Thursday 09 April 15 23:18 BST (UK)
Interesting blog entry by Alex Cox at Find My Past about Puritan names:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01f3l/ (http://www.rootschat.com/links/01f3l/)

Jacquie


Love it  :D
Carol
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: CarolA3 on Friday 10 April 15 13:25 BST (UK)
Interesting blog entry by Alex Cox at Find My Past about Puritan names:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01f3l/ (http://www.rootschat.com/links/01f3l/)

My 3xgtgrandmother was called Silence :-X

Why do some people laugh when I tell them that ???

Carol
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: majm on Friday 10 April 15 13:40 BST (UK)
A near neighbour's first given name is "Finito" and he always adds, "Innocence" is my younger sister.

Love  "Silence" for Carol's Gran

Cheers,  JM
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: alllegs on Tuesday 12 May 15 17:06 BST (UK)
I have a Manessah Hollowell, that's my most unusual and a couple of surnames for first names, Thompson and Featherstone.

My brick wall always gets me though: William Williams! Why?!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jaybelnz on Friday 15 May 15 15:25 BST (UK)
A few Christian names from me. 

Mungo
Whitefield
Hew
Donia
Banfre
Magdalena
Madenna
Anasta
Lavannah
*************
Jeanne
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Flattybasher9 on Friday 15 May 15 15:29 BST (UK)
"My 3xgtgrandmother was called Silence"

There is an actual reference to that old saying "children should be seen and not heard".

Regards

Malky
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Burto on Friday 15 May 15 22:01 BST (UK)
One of my ancestors is called Joseph Ann (NOT Josephine) after both her parents and her sister was called Salome Asenath if anyone has any ideas about their backgrounds or beliefs I would love to know as they were both born in the early 1800's when Salome didn't seem to be used much!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Treetotal on Friday 15 May 15 22:29 BST (UK)
I have an Azariah..in my tree, not heard this name before.
Carol
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Seoras on Saturday 16 May 15 23:12 BST (UK)
One of my ancestors is called Joseph Ann (NOT Josephine) after both her parents and her sister was called Salome Asenath if anyone has any ideas about their backgrounds or beliefs I would love to know as they were both born in the early 1800's when Salome didn't seem to be used much!

Burto, I expect the Salome may have been named after a follower of Jesus who was present at the crucifixion and not the more famous Salome.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rosinish on Sunday 17 May 15 13:16 BST (UK)
While researching my paternal line I came by the name Sloin MacKinnon b1863 (I have the cert.) which is also on familysearch but whether it's what the name was meant to be is questionable as he was registered by his mother who "made her mark"  ???

I think it's a "1 off"  ???

Sadly he died 1881

Annie
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DavidG02 on Sunday 17 May 15 23:00 BST (UK)
I have an Azariah..in my tree, not heard this name before.
Carol
Very famous name in Australia as Azaria

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Azaria_Chamberlain

Maybe look at  Seventh Day Adventist/Latter day Saints in your background



Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Treetotal on Sunday 17 May 15 23:07 BST (UK)
Oh that's a surprise....mine is from Newfoundland....and a man...thanks for the link.
Carol
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: aghadowey on Sunday 17 May 15 23:09 BST (UK)
While researching my paternal line I came by the name Sloin MacKinnon b1863 (I have the cert.) which is also on familysearch but whether it's what the name was meant to be is questionable as he was registered by his mother who "made her mark"  ???

I think it's a "1 off"  ???

Sadly he died 1881

Annie


Perhaps supposed to be Sloan?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rosinish on Sunday 17 May 15 23:49 BST (UK)
Perhaps supposed to be Sloan?

Hi Aghadowey,

I did wonder that but................... I would doubt it as there is no record on South Uist of any Sloans but.....it may be gaelic however I have never found it anywhere to compare  ;D

I am still unsure having looked at it many times as to whether that name is correct  ???

Anne Marie

Update................ERROR she's Female !!!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Jacquie in Canada on Monday 18 May 15 01:57 BST (UK)
I think it's a "1 off"  ???

Sadly he died 1881

I'm confused. Do you mean Sloin died in 1881 or Mary MacKinnon. I see you have Sloin's death registration attached to one of your posts and it's from 1863 and indicates she died at the age of 7 days. 

There is a death for another Sloin MacKinnon who died 22 Sep 1861 at the age of 50. She had been married to Malcolm MacKinnon and her parents were listed as John Ferguson and Mary Macquin. The informant was listed as Mary MacKinnon, daughter.

The strange thing is that on baby Sloin's birth registration and Sloin Ferguson MacKinnon's death registration they give the informant as Mary MacKinnon but with no mark.

Jacquie
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Seaton Smithy on Monday 18 May 15 03:21 BST (UK)
The most unusual forename I have found in my tree is Redvers pronounced "Reevers".

Apparently it was briefly popular in the late 19th century inspired by General Rt. Hon. Sir Redvers Henry Buller, V.C., a distinguished soldier who had a fall from grace late in his career during the Boer War.  I'm not sure who/what the name inspiration was for this "original" Redvers.

My own Redvers had his own military infamy - he enlisted with the Gordon Highlanders aged about 14 1/2, and was discharged as being underage just short of his 16th birthday.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Erin2012 on Tuesday 19 May 15 06:39 BST (UK)
Bathsheba.

Yes, I know... Not too unusual, but when she married she went from Bathsheba Frost to Bathsheba Pedortha.

Quite a mouthfull!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: FionaO on Sunday 24 May 15 11:28 BST (UK)
I've got a Hector Redvers born around the same time.

But my Granddad is unique (as far as I've found so far) and his first name is Runnert.  Absolutely no idea where it came from.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DavidG02 on Sunday 24 May 15 13:11 BST (UK)
Just found a Parthenia Clayfield

I would suggest she was named after The Parthenon
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Treetotal on Wednesday 03 June 15 14:34 BST (UK)
Looking for a family on Ancestry just now...I found a lady named English Mead b. 1859 in Cornwall....never heard of that one before  ;D ;D
Carol
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Sloe Gin on Wednesday 10 June 15 11:17 BST (UK)
Just found a Parthenia Clayfield

I would suggest she was named after The Parthenon

It's one of the names of the Greek goddess Athena.  Hence the Parthenon was a temple to Athena.
I did a little research into a friend's family, and we found this name running through one branch.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Regorian on Wednesday 10 June 15 12:09 BST (UK)
We had two Tacy's in the 18th Century. Apparently it had been popular in the 17th Century and meant 'silent one', but went out of fashion and was later usually only found amongst Quakers. Not that we were Quakers.

The name threw the parish scribes and spellings were diverse. Evidently the Bishop's men knew the correct form and so Tacy in BT's. In that respect, the church could be quite strict on names. Susannah was a lovely name and very popular in UK and US at least in late 18th and well into the 19th Century. In the BT's I've seen, it's recorded as Susan. My ggreatgrandmother was Susannah Carpenter.

Tacy seems to throw modern transcribers, seem to be Tracy. Essex Girl in white heels? 
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: aghadowey on Wednesday 10 June 15 12:33 BST (UK)
I went to school with a girl named Atherine. From memory I think her mother made it up by taking the 'c' off Catherine but teachers constantly called her Catherine.  ::)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: barryd on Wednesday 10 June 15 12:54 BST (UK)
Admonition Drew
baptized 9 Oct 1768, Stoke Damerel, Devon
died 15 Mar 1846, Camelford, Cornwall parents
William Drew and Joyce GAY
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: barryd on Wednesday 10 June 15 13:22 BST (UK)
I thought there was an Orson Cart. Remembered him when I was a schoolboy but found no evidence that he existed. However I did find an Orson Karte on Electoral Rolls, Southwark.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Anneatki on Friday 12 June 15 12:23 BST (UK)
I was looking for some of my "Laws", & noticed an 1834 birth for Grizzle Frizzel Law. I thought it was an Ancestry mistake, but it was the same on Familysearch.
I ended up having to spend the Credits on Scotlandspeople to see the original - sure enough it is Grizzel Frizzel!
Looking up on the 1841 & '51 Census', she seems to be called Grace,
cheers, Anne  :D
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: aghadowey on Friday 12 June 15 12:48 BST (UK)
Grizzel is a Scottish form of Grace  ;)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Anneatki on Friday 12 June 15 13:03 BST (UK)
Thanks Aghadowey! I learn something every day on Rootschat! What about Frizzel?  ::)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ATGoldsmith on Friday 12 June 15 13:16 BST (UK)
Here's what I've come across in my tree and people I've helped, all found in the United Kingdom:

Freelove
Mahala
Israel
Jasper
Smith (as a first name!)
Zephaniah
Zilpha
Zillah
Zachariah
Dinah
Jemima
Noah

ATG
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: aghadowey on Friday 12 June 15 13:24 BST (UK)
Thanks Aghadowey! I learn something every day on Rootschat! What about Frizzel?  ::)

Frizzel/Frizel/Frizzle, etc. is a surname  :)

www.frizellefamilytree.com/index.php/origin-of-the-name-frizelle
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BW252 on Friday 12 June 15 13:26 BST (UK)
we have a Christiana, Letitia and Helek.    I know Christiana was popular many years ago but Helek?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Lisajb on Friday 12 June 15 13:33 BST (UK)
I have one family with sons Henry, George, Charles....

.....and Azariah  :o
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Wednesday 24 June 15 17:16 BST (UK)
Spanisher. My ancestors brother married a Spanisher Robson.
Kerrenhappuch. I also found an ancestor sibling from Suffolk who wed a Kerrenhappuch.
Lorken Wallaker, I think Lorken is a local surname in the area also used for a forename.
Christiana.


Pity there are not more instances of first names with a common surname such as Kerrenhappuch Smith. lol.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: swanddooli on Wednesday 24 June 15 22:40 BST (UK)
Jabez is mentioned in the Bible, in the book of Leviticus. It means 'born in my pain (or grief)' . Jabez Whitaker is an ancestor of mine. He was born 3 days after the death of his father.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ScouseBoy on Wednesday 24 June 15 22:59 BST (UK)
How do you describe a middle name  which is someone elses  surname?

For example:  My dads middle name was "Nursall"   

I should think his name in total was pretty close to being unique.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Treetotal on Wednesday 24 June 15 23:05 BST (UK)
I have a Lucilla and a very odd Vena-Dora...often mis-transcribed as Vence-Dora.
Carol
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: lydiaann on Thursday 25 June 15 16:50 BST (UK)
I have a Butterworth Butterworth in one tree - very Lancashire.  Also have a Scottish gentleman in my husband's tree who was Elphinstone Sorrie.  At least they are easier to find on censuses - rather than sorting out the 6 Euphemia Cravens that I have in Scotland in 1881...
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ymfoster on Thursday 06 August 15 12:37 BST (UK)
I have Karenhappuk in one tree as a Christian name, wonder if that's where Karen came from.  ;D

Yvonne
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Mark Fullerton on Thursday 06 August 15 15:55 BST (UK)
One of my 5th great grandfathers was named Abednego, but I can't leave out his brothers Shadrach and Meshack.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Lisajb on Thursday 06 August 15 16:10 BST (UK)
I have Karenhappuk in one tree as a Christian name, wonder if that's where Karen came from.  ;D

Yvonne

It's of Jewish origin, Yvonne - Kerenhappuch. You can imagine it would be a bit of a struggle for an enumerator!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ymfoster on Friday 07 August 15 01:20 BST (UK)
I have Karenhappuk in one tree as a Christian name, wonder if that's where Karen came from.  ;D

Yvonne

It's of Jewish origin, Yvonne - Kerenhappuch. You can imagine it would be a bit of a struggle for an enumerator!

Thanks for that Lisajb,  ;D
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Stuart273 on Friday 07 August 15 18:17 BST (UK)
Mine seem to be quite boring on the whole, but one branch of the Green family stands out:

Andrew and Jane called their first child Mary McLaughlan Suttie, their second Janet Anderson, then obviously got bored and called the 3rd girl Andrina Jane, then capped it off with a boy called Denmiln (mother's surname).
Of all of those the one I've not yet been able to track down properly is Mary
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: dancingcar on Monday 10 August 15 16:36 BST (UK)
Neptune, male, I am glad to say it died out  ::)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rosinish on Friday 23 October 15 22:01 BST (UK)
Greenwell Jude (M)

Philadelphia Duff (F)

Annie
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: conahy calling on Friday 23 October 15 23:00 BST (UK)
Not in my own family but just came across it in a baptism record dated 1830

Avarina .. mother of the child being baptized
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rosinish on Friday 04 March 16 18:27 GMT (UK)
One I've just found while searching Menzies (not in my own tree)

Sylvanus Braes Menzies (Male)

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XT87-KSS


Annie
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: tillypeg on Sunday 06 March 16 09:52 GMT (UK)
Tryphena on a Cornish branch, Melina on a London branch.  My 3xgt grandparents had 11 children - 1 to 7's names all began with W then there was Ann, then another W  and then Henry & John.

Another sideways branch had 8 sons - the 7th was Septimus and the 8th had Octavius as his middle name.  Sadly 4 were lost in WWI - three during November 1918.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Muffin41 on Sunday 06 March 16 10:38 GMT (UK)
Tabitha from Surrey branch
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Trees on Friday 15 July 16 05:47 BST (UK)
I have 2 ladies named Ebbet. Both are from Devon.
On was baptised Ebbit married as Abigail had 4 children as Ebet or Ebbet then 2 as Abigail and was buried as Abigail. The other was married as Ebbot had children as either Ebbot or Emblin named a daughter Emlyn was buried as Ilbert.
The daughter married twice as Emlyn and had her children as emlyn but appeared on cencuses as Emma and was burried as Amy.
Has anyone else come across an Ebbot and does anyone know if it is a form of Emma, Emblin, Emlyn, Amy or Abigail?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Monday 18 July 16 15:37 BST (UK)
Unusual first names can be very handy if they sound like a surname. In Suffolk and Essex I have found many cases such as this. Such as a Bush Stock, brother of Thomas Stock from Little Bardfield, my ancestor. Their parents was Samuel and Ann Stock. Cannot find a marriage but Bush could be Ann's maiden name or a family name further back.

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bettyespana on Monday 18 July 16 15:55 BST (UK)
My recently deceased Mum was named Peace Alexandra.Where did it come from? Well she was born on the very day that the Treaty of Versailles was signed & her father whose name was Alexander thought it would be quite significant to add the female variant of his name.No-one else in the family was given the  name until quite recently when one of her Gt.Gt Grandchildren had it included in her names.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ..claire.. on Monday 18 July 16 17:25 BST (UK)
I've been looking at newly found Yeo ancestors in Devon and Cornwall today, and one marriage was this

William Yeo to GARTHERED GAY in 1673

I thought what an unusual name, however when googling the forename it came back with lots of hits

Wasn't that unusual back then :-\

Peace Alexandra - that's a lovely name
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: lydiaann on Monday 18 July 16 18:00 BST (UK)
Don't we have a wonderfully rich heritage with all these fabulous names.  And let's not forget the surnames too:  Strongitharm, Pitchfork and many others, all coming down from our Anglo-Saxon heritage.  I'm so disappointed I was a plain Taylor before marrying a Scot and becoming a MacGillivray!! :( :( :(
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bettyespana on Monday 18 July 16 19:10 BST (UK)
Thank you Claire yes Peace Alexandra is a lovely name.When I was younger I was so glad I wasn't named after Mum,they called me Betty instead & I have never liked it.Funnily enough my Mum was known as Betty not Peace as Grandma added it at her Christening.
Now with the world in the mess it is in I think that Peace as a name should become more popular it may help people to live with each other instead of fighting.

I have Egidia c.1300s & Malise 1200s,Euphaemia in my tree.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ..claire.. on Monday 18 July 16 19:16 BST (UK)

I have quite a few ladies in my tree with the name Loveday - I really like it  :)

Totally agree with what you say about the name Peace, all we seem to read about recently is people fighting/murdering each other :-\
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bettyespana on Monday 18 July 16 19:20 BST (UK)
Loveday yes that is nice,but I have seen that also as a surname.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ..claire.. on Monday 18 July 16 19:56 BST (UK)
That's what I thought when I saw the name Garthered, I thought that was the surname and Gay was the forename.

I wonder if as Coombs suggests that Loveday and Garthered started off as surnames.

Egidia and Malise are unusual names too, but I rather like Euphaemia - it sounds right posh  ;D
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bettyespana on Monday 18 July 16 21:25 BST (UK)
That's what I thought when I saw the name Garthered, I thought that was the surname and Gay was the forename.

I wonder if as Coombs suggests that Loveday and Garthered started off as surnames.

Egidia and Malise are unusual names too, but I rather like Euphaemia - it sounds right posh  ;D
Euphaemia was mistress of James of Scotland & she gave birth to his son.

Malise Forteith was from Orkney (my 17th Gt Grandfather) & was given the title Earl of Caithness & Ross.Egidia was his daughter.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bettyespana on Monday 18 July 16 21:36 BST (UK)
That's what I thought when I saw the name Garthered, I thought that was the surname and Gay was the forename.

I wonder if as Coombs suggests that Loveday and Garthered started off as surnames.

Egidia and Malise are unusual names too, but I rather like Euphaemia - it sounds right posh  ;D
Euphaemia was mistress of James of Scotland & she gave birth to his son.

Malise Forteith was from Orkney (my 17th Gt Grandfather) & was given the title Earl of Caithness & Ross.Egidia was his daughter.

Correction Egidia was'nt Malise' daughter she was further down the line married to Henry St Clare(Sinclair) his 2nd wife.Sinclairs carried the Caithness title on.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ..claire.. on Monday 18 July 16 22:50 BST (UK)

 you can't get much posher than that  ;D

One of my lines were quite well to do and from Orkney ~ the Traills of Westness and Woodwick, married into the Balfour family

I have a very convoluted link to James V of Scotland via his illegitimate daughter Jean/Jane who married Archibald 5th Earl of Argyll

We both have posh genes  ;D
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jaybelnz on Tuesday 19 July 16 00:54 BST (UK)
My Douglas grandmother's middle name was Dreghorn. She was born in Kilmarnock, so not named after the Ayrshire town of Dreghorn.

However, in a census with her and her parents, there is also a wee grandson named William Dreghorn, which says to me that one of her sisters possibly married into the Dreghorn family, but never been able to pin it down!  Oh well, one day!!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bettyespana on Tuesday 19 July 16 06:57 BST (UK)
Compared to today the population was quite sparse so I suppose we all have some connection somewhere in the past to one another.As for being posh well I don't think so because some of the lords & ladies of the land way back then were not very nice to the ordinary people who worked for them.Just landowners really who probably obtained that land by foul means rather than fair.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: lydiaann on Tuesday 19 July 16 09:13 BST (UK)
Euphemia (without the diphthong) was a very popular name in the latter half of the 19th century...it's a common family name through my (Scottish) side, with 6 in one census in the Banchory area (3 generations - granny, 1 daughter, 4 granddaughters).  Thank goodness my dad put his foot down when mum suggested that for me....
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: avm228 on Tuesday 19 July 16 09:51 BST (UK)
My Douglas grandmother's middle name was Dreghorn. She was born in Kilmarnock, so not named after the Ayrshire town of Dreghorn.

However, in a census with her and her parents, there is also a wee grandson named William Dreghorn, which says to me that one of her sisters possibly married into the Dreghorn family, but never been able to pin it down!  Oh well, one day!!

Have you seen that Mary Dreghorn, other surname Walker, died aged 25 in Kilmarnock in 1881?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jaybelnz on Tuesday 19 July 16 10:29 BST (UK)
Thanks for your interest avm.  I've not done any work on this family for some time, I'll have to go back to my tree and look up the info that I have? I know that my grandmother's mother's maiden name was Walker, perhaps this Mary could have been her sister, and after she died, could have taken in the child William Dreghorn, hence him being in the census.  Very interesting! My grandmother didn't have a sister named Mary, but her mother Elizabeth Walker, my GGmother, who married Robert Douglas, may well have.

Now you've got me going, I need a new focus, and this Dreghorn one has puzzled me for a good few years!  That'll keep me quiet on a cold winter's day!

Thank You!  I'll let you know how it goes!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: philipsearching on Tuesday 19 July 16 14:10 BST (UK)
I've been looking at newly found Yeo ancestors in Devon and Cornwall today, and one marriage was this

William Yeo to GARTHERED GAY in 1673

I thought what an unusual name, however when googling the forename it came back with lots of hits

Wasn't that unusual back then :-\

Peace Alexandra - that's a lovely name

I have a Garthuried Ferres marriage in St Allen, Cornwall in 1703.  I had supposed it was a variation of Gertrude (Hamlet's mother).

My all-time favourite ancestor's name is STRANGE BARKER who married Thomas Michell 23 Sep 1610 Great Snoring, Norfolk.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ..claire.. on Tuesday 19 July 16 14:22 BST (UK)

My all time favourite name is another Cornish ancestor

GAVERIGAN TIPPET  :D
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bettyespana on Tuesday 19 July 16 15:35 BST (UK)

 you can't get much posher than that  ;D

One of my lines were quite well to do and from Orkney ~ the Traills of Westness and Woodwick, married into the Balfour family

I have a very convoluted link to James V of Scotland via his illegitimate daughter Jean/Jane who married Archibald 5th Earl of Argyll

We both have posh genes  ;D
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bettyespana on Tuesday 19 July 16 15:52 BST (UK)

 you can't get much posher than that  ;D

One of my lines were quite well to do and from Orkney ~ the Traills of Westness and Woodwick, married into the Balfour family

I have a very convoluted link to James V of Scotland via his illegitimate daughter Jean/Jane who married Archibald 5th Earl of Argyll



We both have posh genes  ;D
Hi Claire,
Looking at my tree on GR which I no longer subscribe to I noticed a familiarity with our connection to James V of Scotland.You noted that there is a connection via an illegitimate daughter Jean/Jane.
Mine is a illegitimate son via James V mistress Euphamie Elphinstone.The son was known as "Bad" Lord Robert Stewart 1533-1593 who was married to a Janet Kennedy c.1558-1596.Robert was the Prior of Holyrood & is known to have fathered at least 7 children.Apparently he also had many mistresses.
betty
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: pharmaT on Wednesday 20 July 16 10:33 BST (UK)
My tree is chock full of Margarets, Marys, Anns, Williams, Roberts and Alexanders.  I do however have an Okeover and an Ainey.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ..claire.. on Wednesday 20 July 16 11:52 BST (UK)
Hi Betty

Jean/Jane was the daughter of Elizabeth Bethune ( or Beaton) another of his mistresses.
Jane is buried alongside her father in the Royal vault at Holyrood Palace.

I rather like the name Okeover, is Ainey a variant of Annie, PharmaT?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: pharmaT on Wednesday 20 July 16 12:22 BST (UK)
Hi Betty

Jean/Jane was the daughter of Elizabeth Bethune ( or Beaton) another of his mistresses.
Jane is buried alongside her father in the Royal vault at Holyrood Palace.

I rather like the name Okeover, is Ainey a variant of Annie, PharmaT?

Ainey is a boy, I have no idea where the name came from.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ..claire.. on Wednesday 20 July 16 12:28 BST (UK)

Ooh crikey ;D sorry PharmaT  :)

I didn't expect that  :)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rosinish on Wednesday 20 July 16 12:39 BST (UK)
I have a Zion......quite unusual.

Annie
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BumbleB on Wednesday 20 July 16 15:04 BST (UK)
I've got a Zion in one my families, who later becomes Esais, with a brother Simeon and a sister Annis.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bicker on Thursday 21 July 16 12:30 BST (UK)
I have enjoyed reading peoples unusual names. If I had been interested in family history before my children were born, my daughter would have been Kezia as I like this name and have two on my family tree born in the 1800s.

My second cousin is called Zeke. Like others I have Redvers but as a first name, Metford Uriah, Adolphus. Two ladies called Tressie, Aquila, Hagar, Mercy and Fortune.

In Somerset I have come across several girls called Lettuce, no doubt not pronounced like the green salad plant. There were several girls born into the travelling families, Penfold and Orchard named Defiance.

Heather
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: lydiaann on Thursday 21 July 16 14:10 BST (UK)
Marrying into my family was an Agathos, who named his son Augustus.  The latter is not so unusual but whence came papa's name?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rosinish on Saturday 24 September 16 02:20 BST (UK)
Not my own (I don't think)...well not yet but came across this;

Easter Mcclusky
24 Jul 1846
Campsie, Stirling

Just glad the surname wasn't McCluckey  ;D

Annie
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Andrew Tarr on Saturday 24 September 16 09:31 BST (UK)
Marrying into my family was an Agathos, who named his son Augustus.  The latter is not so unusual but whence came papa's name?

Definitely looks Greek, and may be their version of Augustus.  Ag- meaning Saint or saintly.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Zoe-Hannah on Saturday 24 September 16 13:17 BST (UK)
Here are a few names in my tree

Thirza,
Mahala,
Ishmael,
Glass,
Cadwaladr,
Ritson
Burslem
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jaybelnz on Saturday 24 September 16 22:40 BST (UK)
I have a Zion......quite unusual. 
Annie

I have a Zion......quite unusual.

Annie

My friend's son has recently named his baby boy Zion. Named after an adult friend.  I think it started to be more popular in the 1970's.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: lydiaann on Sunday 25 September 16 08:52 BST (UK)
Marrying into my family was an Agathos, who named his son Augustus.  The latter is not so unusual but whence came papa's name?

Definitely looks Greek, and may be their version of Augustus.  Ag- meaning Saint or saintly.

It would be quite unusual.  These were a family of lowly origins and were mainly domestic servants, agricultural labourers, gamekeepers, etc.  Not to say that they weren't intelligent but looking at the censuses, none of the family went to school past the age of about 12 (until they had to stay until they were 14 in the 1800s).  Interesting, though...
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: lydiaann on Sunday 25 September 16 15:05 BST (UK)
Found this, in regard to Agathos...

" ...inherently (intrinsically) good; as to the believer, 18 (agathós) describes what originates from God and is empowered by Him in their life, through faith..."

The Greek word for saint is 'agios' (male) or 'agia' (female), so it's obviously the same root;  however, the question still remains...I wonder where they got the idea for the name, as it's not actually a name but an adjective ??? ???
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Andrew Tarr on Sunday 25 September 16 18:48 BST (UK)
...I wonder where they got the idea for the name, as it's not actually a name but an adjective ??? ???

So (I believe) is Augustus, or Benedict or Amanda.  Most names will have been descriptive originally, those meanings have just faded away, or come from an unfamiliar language.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: CarolA3 on Monday 26 September 16 18:28 BST (UK)
Isn't it just the masculine form of 'Agatha'?

Carol
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Andrew Tarr on Monday 26 September 16 23:10 BST (UK)
Isn't it just the masculine form of 'Agatha'?

Yes, it will be; and as Agatha (according to my name book) means Good Woman (Greek) it will simply mean Good Man.  Rather uninteresting really ...  :-[
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rosinish on Saturday 29 October 16 03:32 BST (UK)
Just found this while helping a RC'r;

Heiress Mcgillivray (1807) Aberdeen

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XB7K-5JD

Annie
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Annie65115 on Tuesday 01 November 16 18:45 GMT (UK)
Bungate Bunney was not a Beatrix Potter character, but a child christened in Rothley, Leic, in May 1737   ;D
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bitzar on Sunday 18 December 16 03:09 GMT (UK)
I've just come across 'Onely'...

I thought it must of been transcribed incorrectly until I found her getting married!

bitzar.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Renatha on Sunday 18 December 16 03:24 GMT (UK)
I've put this on another thread in the past, but came across this recently: Thomas and Mary Day had a son born 25 December 1762 and named him Christmas.  ;D I even have proof in 1801 with his signature on a marriage document when he was one of the witnesses!

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bitzar on Sunday 18 December 16 03:30 GMT (UK)
You win Renatha.... love it, lol!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: a chesters on Sunday 18 December 16 05:16 GMT (UK)
Just checking for one of the ancestors and found...... Antrobus as a middle name, first name George :o :o
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Renatha on Sunday 18 December 16 08:26 GMT (UK)
Just came across Gabriel Money BOX in a parish document when looking for someone else!  :)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Annie65115 on Sunday 18 December 16 08:37 GMT (UK)
.

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Shirley Sweetland on Sunday 18 December 16 09:36 GMT (UK)
In my sister in laws tree, 4 brothers:-

Leonidas Polybius
Maximian Alphonso
Octavius Frederick
Julius

Their father was a R N Commander
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Mowsehowse on Sunday 18 December 16 13:04 GMT (UK)
Seems like Redigon is faily unusual.  ???
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Doddie on Monday 19 December 16 13:40 GMT (UK)
Unusual first names I have come across: Archelaus, Jabez and Jacobin (at least I think that's the correct spelling).

Regards

Doddie
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Renatha on Tuesday 20 December 16 12:30 GMT (UK)
From my German line I've been adding on Ancestry - Anonyma LEHR 1814-1814 and Anonymus LEHR 1820-1820 - I guess they were stillborn and not actually given names?  :'(
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Trees on Wednesday 21 December 16 17:55 GMT (UK)
Having found one to hsng on our Australin branch I now keep finding others but where does Hurtle come from as a first name given to  a son of a verydevote  Methodist family/ ???
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Vance Mead on Wednesday 21 December 16 18:46 GMT (UK)
I have a male ancestor with the name of Precilla or Pricilla Mead. Born 1548 in Watford, Herts. It was a male name that continued in the family for several generations. They were also known as Tilly, Prissly, Tillius, etc and lived in Ridge and Bishops Hatfield.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Sprouted on Wednesday 21 December 16 18:57 GMT (UK)
I have come across a Christmas Johnston recently whilst searching the gro index!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: andrewalston on Wednesday 21 December 16 19:12 GMT (UK)
Antrobus as a middle name...
Pretty common as a surname, especially in the area around the place, just south of Warrington.

It even got used for a character in the Archers.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Renatha on Wednesday 21 December 16 22:06 GMT (UK)
Having found one to hsng on our Australin branch I now keep finding others but where does Hurtle come from as a first name given to  a son of a verydevote  Methodist family/ ???

I became curious about this too when I read your post Trees, not having heard the name here myself and did some Googling with little result - just confirmation it is a Christian name and no-one knows where it came from. I found the question asked and one answer which just adds to the mystery.  ??? Anyway check it out...

http://newsfeed.rootsweb.com/th/read/GENANZ/2006-01/1138622915
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: a chesters on Wednesday 21 December 16 22:42 GMT (UK)
Thanks for that Andrew. I will have to do more checking of that branch.

I cannot remember right now which branch, but there is one which comes from the general Liverpool region.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Treetotal on Wednesday 21 December 16 23:01 GMT (UK)
Just been doing research for someone else and found the Christian names, Major and Mahala which I haven't come across before.
Carol
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Trees on Thursday 22 December 16 08:15 GMT (UK)
Many thanks    Renatha I see someone on the link thought it Cornish my lot were all Cornish Australians so may be it has Celtic rootes
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Renatha on Thursday 22 December 16 08:51 GMT (UK)
Yes that could be it Trees, I hadn't read all the other responses. Another mystery which cannot simply be answered by google!  ???
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DavidG02 on Thursday 22 December 16 10:15 GMT (UK)
Just been doing research for someone else and found the Christian names, Major and Mahala which I haven't come across before.
Carol
Mahala is in my Brighton family. Starts ( as far as I can tell ) 1806 and goes down a few generations.

Hurtle I have heard as a 1st name in Oz. Mainly from before the 2nd War
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DavidG02 on Wednesday 25 January 17 00:12 GMT (UK)
Anybody found a Frisworth? Female name

Frisworth Floar married a John Gibbins in Rutland in 1748. Looking it seems it was a hand me down name as well. Did a quick search and not many Frisworths around
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Mowsehowse on Wednesday 25 January 17 08:11 GMT (UK)
Anybody found a Frisworth? Female name

Frisworth Floar married a John Gibbins in Rutland in 1748. Looking it seems it was a hand me down name as well. Did a quick search and not many Frisworths around

 :o  Never ever heard of Frisworth!!  Perhaps it was a surname that became a first name?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DavidG02 on Wednesday 25 January 17 08:26 GMT (UK)
:o  Never ever heard of Frisworth!!  Perhaps it was a surname that became a first name?
Must admit I had a look at the image and it could be Grisworth on one but there is a clear marriage cert with Frisworth. Mostly around Whissendine as well
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: fringe on Saturday 11 March 17 18:24 GMT (UK)
I have an Abishai Wilde who had brothers Nicholas, Ignatious, Emmanuel and Zurishaddai along with a sister, Salomana.   One of Nicholas' offspring married a Bathia Leech (female).
Abishai had twin sons who he named William Ewart Gladstone and John Milton Granville

My sister went to school with both a Pearl Buttons and a Pearl Barley.

But my favourite:  Do you think it wise to call your son Orson, Mrs Carte?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jaybelnz on Sunday 12 March 17 00:29 GMT (UK)
 ;D ;D ;D. - Took me a minute or two, but very good!!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Westy11 on Wednesday 24 January 18 03:01 GMT (UK)
:o  Never ever heard of Frisworth!!  Perhaps it was a surname that became a first name?
Must admit I had a look at the image and it could be Grisworth on one but there is a clear marriage cert with Frisworth. Mostly around Whissendine as well

Serendipitious as I have just discovered Frisworth MASON is one of my maternal 7th great grandmothers.

Westy 
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: tdgower2 on Wednesday 24 January 18 19:54 GMT (UK)
Has anyone had a 'Maretta'? My 3x Great Grandmother was called Maretta Ann Slater. She was commonly known as Annie.

Cheers, Tom
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Westy11 on Friday 23 March 18 14:29 GMT (UK)
Just come across the marriage between Waterhouse Crymble LINDSAY [Esq] and his lucky wife Elizabeth LEE on 12 Aug 1784.

I wonder if Waterhouse Crymble had a nick name or maybe he simply went by his surname? ;D

Was his naming prophetic ???
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Trees on Friday 23 March 18 17:02 GMT (UK)
How about Careless Guest who married in 1809 in Sedgley Staffordshire
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: lydiaann on Saturday 24 March 18 09:20 GMT (UK)
...and we all shake our heads at the awful names 'made up' by some famous celebrities for their new offspring!! ??? ???
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Saturday 24 March 18 20:18 GMT (UK)
If my ancestor James Smith had the middle name of Brooklyn or Romeo then it surely would have helped me find his baptism lol.  ;D
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Lisajb on Saturday 24 March 18 21:45 GMT (UK)
My great Aunts daughter was called Cressie. Checked the birth registration expecting to find Cressida (rather exotic for the small village they lived in), but no, registered as Cressie.  Poor girl she died very young from diabetes.

My mum in law thought for years that her name was Philomena. She had occasion to obtain her birth certificate to get a passport, only to find she’d been registered as Phyllis.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Treetotal on Saturday 24 March 18 23:03 GMT (UK)
How about Careless Guest who married in 1809 in Sedgley Staffordshire

Love it.....ever asked anyone the question..."Have you got a Careless Guest in your Family"  ;D

It reminds of when I asked a fellow researcher of one of my lines if they had a Providence Butt  ;D ;D
Carol
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: CarolA3 on Sunday 25 March 18 07:02 BST (UK)
I believe Careless is one of those words whose meaning has shifted over time.  The modern equivalent would probably be Carefree, which sounds much more positive.

You'd want a Carefree Guest in your home - maybe even invite them to stay permanently ;D

Carol
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Geoff-E on Sunday 25 March 18 18:32 BST (UK)
I believe Careless is one of those words whose meaning has shifted over time.

I had a friend who was a CARELESS.  He seemed to think the name had derived from CARLOS.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Trees on Thursday 29 March 18 09:29 BST (UK)
Interesting my Careless was a lady I thought it likely to be from a surname as there were several Careless families in the Sedgley area ::)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Chilternbirder on Thursday 29 March 18 10:05 BST (UK)
If my ancestor James Smith had the middle name of Brooklyn or Romeo then it surely would have helped me find his baptism lol.  ;D
Same here, apart from two Reubens. But where would the fun of the chase be in everyborther and cousin didn't seem to decide decide "this year all boy children in the family will be called William".
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Thursday 29 March 18 22:47 BST (UK)
If my ancestor James Smith had the middle name of Brooklyn or Romeo then it surely would have helped me find his baptism lol.  ;D
Same here, apart from two Reubens. But where would the fun of the chase be in everyborther and cousin didn't seem to decide decide "this year all boy children in the family will be called William".

True. If our complete genealogy as far back as we could trace was handed to us on a silver platter with bells on it would be quite boring.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: a chesters on Thursday 29 March 18 23:13 BST (UK)
If my ancestor James Smith had the middle name of Brooklyn or Romeo then it surely would have helped me find his baptism lol.  ;D
Same here, apart from two Reubens. But where would the fun of the chase be in everyborther and cousin didn't seem to decide decide "this year all boy children in the family will be called William".

My problem is which Joseph Turnbull married which Mary in Cumberland about 1815-1820. :-X :-X
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: conahy calling on Friday 30 March 18 11:42 BST (UK)
http://lafcadiohearngardens.com/story-lafcadio-hearn/

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn
His father was Irish and his mother was Greek.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Trees on Saturday 31 March 18 18:39 BST (UK)
Not strictly unusual a but taken all together quite a mouth full and the poor girl signed all her names in full at her marriage while her husband stuck to one initial and his surname!
Sarah Mitchell Winifred Leslie. Her next sister had a modest three names and her baby sister only had to contend with two...I if they had been blessed with yet another daughter she would have been down to a single name amd would a fifth simply have been K or B or somesuch ::)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: clairec666 on Sunday 01 April 18 10:47 BST (UK)
I have a family of mariners in my tree who named their son Ocean. I thought that was pretty cute :)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jaybelnz on Sunday 01 April 18 11:21 BST (UK)
I have a friend whose son's name is Ocean! 

My Mum's full name was Jessie McMillan Mason McAughtrie!  The two middle names were very helpful in my research, McMillan and Mason were both my great grandmother, and great great grandmother! Just love those Scottish Naming patterns!!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Yonks Ago on Sunday 01 April 18 11:28 BST (UK)

A grandson of a lady i know is called Z..he was  a last child for his parents

Yonks
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: JohninSussex on Sunday 01 April 18 22:52 BST (UK)
I have a family of mariners in my tree who named their son Ocean. I thought that was pretty cute :)

Among the relatives who were named in Matilda Sampson's will was one Septimus Ocean Lamb.  In the census he is recorded as "born at sea" so fair enough.  More than that, apparently he was born on HMS Ocean. 

At least a relative with any of these unusual names is easier to track on the ancestry sites.     
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: gazania on Tuesday 03 April 18 02:10 BST (UK)
I  have come across "Original".  Just now I saw a will for "Thankfull Sturdee" who gave his occupation as an assistant to the Master Shipwright in HM Yards at Portsmouth.  I wonder if his workmates called him "Ta" (Tar).
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jaybelnz on Tuesday 03 April 18 04:28 BST (UK)
gazania, your name "Thankful Sturdie" reminds me of the names given to people in a "so called" Christian community in NZ, but in fact it's really a very dangerous cult! 

APOLOGIES - Have modified to remove the name of the Cult and their people.  Thanks for the heads up Carol!



Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: CarolA3 on Tuesday 03 April 18 05:58 BST (UK)
Are the people you've listed still living?  Posts on this board can be viewed by anyone and will come up on internet searches.

Carol
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jaybelnz on Tuesday 03 April 18 08:42 BST (UK)
😱😱 Yes, didn't think it through, but I've now removed the names etc from my orginal post on the previous page! Thanks for the reminder!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: marcie dean on Monday 09 April 18 17:18 BST (UK)
isnt delyth a welsh name Gaelic the otthers are very old fashioned names i thought long since defunct
what were the years noted against their names , if any.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: tillypeg on Friday 13 April 18 15:34 BST (UK)
Two Williamson sisters - Vyotte Gwynline Sara (1904-1912) and Margaret Victoria Waihoura.  Looking on Google, the only reference to Waihoura seems to be a book by William Henry Giles Kingston about a Maori girl, 1873. 

I have only recently started looking at this line of my tree again and was astonished last night to find that Margaret Victoria Waihoura Williamson's name came up in the Google search - she was murdered in 1964 and no-one was ever prosecuted for the crime.  There was an appeal in 2014 on the 50th anniversary of the murder which featured in the Huddersfield Examiner.  Apparently she was known as Vicky.  The article makes for very sad reading, two boys found her body on Christmas Day.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: pharmaT on Saturday 14 April 18 10:00 BST (UK)
Two Williamson sisters - Vyotte Gwynline Sara (1904-1912) and Margaret Victoria Waihoura.  Looking on Google, the only reference to Waihoura seems to be a book by William Henry Giles Kingston about a Maori girl, 1873. 

I have only recently started looking at this line of my tree again and was astonished last night to find that Margaret Victoria Waihoura Williamson's name came up in the Google search - she was murdered in 1964 and no-one was ever prosecuted for the crime.  There was an appeal in 2014 on the 50th anniversary of the murder which featured in the Huddersfield Examiner.  Apparently she was known as Vicky.  The article makes for very sad reading, two boys found her body on Christmas Day.

Oh that is so sad.  Good chance that the murderer is no longer with us and will never be caught.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: marcie dean on Tuesday 05 June 18 23:43 BST (UK)
my nephew named his son wyatt.? poor soul. he woulf=d be about 3- maybe 4 now must be starting school soon. he has the blackest curly of hair and crystal blue eyes that are between Chinese and Japanese thick lashes that turn upward and eyes that are shaped like an almond as his mother is one or the other her name is sky.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Lisajb on Thursday 07 June 18 13:29 BST (UK)
One I've just come across is Weeks Pincot.

He married Mary Stinchcombe in Hawkesbury, Gloucestershire in 1751. Ancestry have the register images which I have peered at, and it does look like Weeks, but....

An online tree has him b 1728, d 1812, but this also has Mary marrying someone else in 1759.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jim234j on Sunday 10 June 18 01:14 BST (UK)
On my wife's tree one of her ancestors had 14 children.
The twelfth was a girl and she was named Twelvetta
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BonnieDownUnder on Sunday 10 June 18 04:27 BST (UK)
Researching an WW1 Honour Roll there is listed a Hibiscus Musa Textilus Stephen - nicknamed
Hibie - born in Queensland, Australia, 1891.
His sister, born the next year, was named Passiflora Quadrangularis!!
Bonnie
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bradburyd on Sunday 10 June 18 17:40 BST (UK)
I once had a client called Sundance Wildfire.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: a chesters on Monday 11 June 18 07:01 BST (UK)
Just come across Tacchens Andrew in the 1861 census for Cornwall.

Where it came from I have no idea.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: tillypeg on Monday 11 June 18 18:31 BST (UK)
A boy named Try born to Frederick & Mary Ann Lewis in 1841.  He was their 6th child of 7 (4 males & 3 females) and died in 1844.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: cristeen on Monday 11 June 18 18:54 BST (UK)
Think my most unusual one is probably Ogle. Full name Ogle Russell Lafont, Ogle was the surname of his great grandmother
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Pattersontribe on Monday 11 June 18 22:19 BST (UK)
Hi, I have an Enoch Bretherton, Charles Jabez Brooks, Noah Crapper, Shem, old testament names from non-conformist families (in my case, although these names can also be Jewish in origin). This is actually a good thing because non-conformist records seem to be more thorough than conformist. Funny how Church of Scotland is the usual church past the borders but non-conformist in Manchester. Makes it easier to find my relatives in Manchester though!
Ive also seen Grizel, Lilias and Nicholas for girls names.  I guess they make a change from the usual suspects like the hated "Jean" that invariably became Janet or Jane  or "Ann" that confusingly became the same! 
Victoria Patterson
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: barryd on Tuesday 12 June 18 01:11 BST (UK)
For those who like all things porcelain was Noah any relation to the more famous Thomas?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Annie65115 on Tuesday 12 June 18 12:17 BST (UK)
I know of a Crapper family who had sons called Noah and Shem - where were yours, Victoria?

There was a big Crapper clan in the villages to the northwest of Sheffield in the 19 century.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Mart 'n' Al on Tuesday 12 June 18 14:22 BST (UK)
I don't know what the content filter will make of this comment but a couple of years ago on here I was recommended a book, "Potty, Fartwell and Knob" : Extraordinary But True Names of British People.

It really is very funny.

Martin
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Pattersontribe on Tuesday 12 June 18 15:38 BST (UK)
Well Barryd, Ive got to say no, my Crappers are Oxford Crappers and not related, apparently to the Yorkshire ones that have a  "porcelain" involvement. I must say I was a touch disappointed... Victoria
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Pattersontribe on Tuesday 12 June 18 15:49 BST (UK)
Annie65115, My Shem and Noah were from Oxford, St Peter le Bailey to be exact. Noah had a daughter Sarah Crapper who married John Brooks and had John Hadden, Sarah (my direct ancestor),Charles Jabez, Aaron and Hannah. I love that I have a Noah in my family. I think he 's maybe my 5 or 6 great-grandfather. My grand-dad Noah. Names could be really interesting in those days! And spelling didn't matter, names were usually written by other people and changed every time. Kind of makes the made up ones of today seem dull and quite usual. Victoria
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Mart 'n' Al on Monday 30 July 18 11:06 BST (UK)
Think my most unusual one is probably Ogle. Full name Ogle Russell Lafont, Ogle was the surname of his great grandmother

Cristeen, I have just discovered that I have two ancestors who have Ogle as a first name. I'd be interested to hear more about your connection with the family as I am trying to work out how my ancestors, Watsons, ended up having the name Ogle.

Martin
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: cristeen on Monday 30 July 18 12:33 BST (UK)
Hi Martin, The connection is way back in a branch of my husband's line. Ogle Russell Lafont was a descendant of Rev Thomas Ogle, vicar of Carham. He was apparently descended from the second son of the 4th Lord Ogle. This branch of the Ogle family were of Causey Park, Morpeth. The Rev Thomas was bondsman for my OH 5xG grandfather and probably married him at Carham in 1746. Thomas Ogle's daughter, Jane married a merchant from London called John Lafont. Their son, John married my OH's indirect descendant, Jane Steavenson (daughter of the man who married in Carham 1746)
There is a Google book 'A History of Northumberland by John Hodgson 1827, which contains a fair amount of information on the family. I haven't delved too deeply into this branch so have no corroboration. I do know the Ogle family were quite widespread in Northumberland, minor landed gentry. Here is a link to the book
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lIuAejPVbEwC&pg=PA135&lpg=PA135&dq=ogle+family+history+cawsey+park&source=bl&ots=j4GRqQACDR&sig=vcT0zSQieLexY97NLhReIzaEvCw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwib3OOC08bcAhVnCcAKHUhxBIwQ6AEwCHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
and a snippet from the family pedigree I am using as a guide only, slowly confirming/discounting various items!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DavidG02 on Wednesday 01 August 18 13:11 BST (UK)
Not an unusual first name but an unusual combination.

On the Lincolnshire page there is a post about Louth records. There is an Adam Eve listed on the 1823 ratings list. Tickled my fancy
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: tillypeg on Wednesday 01 August 18 16:18 BST (UK)
Cor blimey, as one used to say..... ;)  the other day I was "looking into" the family tree of a lady known as "Auntie" in my OH's family, but not actually related, as you do. ::)  I was about to post on here then, that I'd found a person whose first name was Milestone.  Didn't bother that day but today as I entered his name into my FTM tree, up popped the message saying I'd reached 2400 persons in my tree - quite a milestone.  How's that for a coincidence?  Milestone was the maiden name of the child's paternal grandmother.  His full name was Milestone Thompson (mother's maiden name) Dobson.  An earlier child was named William Milestone but he died in infancy.

Looking at FreeBMD entries there seems to be only one other person saddled with Milestone as a first name, or should that be Millstone... though there is a female Milistone.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Liviani on Thursday 02 August 18 14:52 BST (UK)
I have a Theodosia and daughter Philadelphia. Both born St Cyrus, Kincardineshire, Scotland. Both female.

Daughter Philadelphia was named after Theodosia's mother who was born Philadelphia Hodges, born London, England.

Theodosia's siblings had common names; Jane, William and James.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Trees on Sunday 05 August 18 02:03 BST (UK)
Yesterday found we have a Zenas Dunn his name is really hashed about by  census transcribers etc from Zenns to Fennus through Lenus and more
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Erato on Sunday 05 August 18 03:35 BST (UK)
I have a Martha Washington Centennial Liberty Price, born in July 1876.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: redroy on Monday 06 August 18 07:48 BST (UK)
Hi, the most unusual names I have found in my family so far are:-
Amos (M)
Belah (M)
Moses (M)
Temperance (F)
Kerenhappuch (F)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Sloe Gin on Tuesday 07 August 18 00:23 BST (UK)
Apart from the usual categories of "rarely heard nowadays" and "obviously from a surname" names, I have a few oddities among ladies who married twigs on my tree. 

Daucha and Darnigo, and the splendidly named Evangeline Emmeline Eugenie, who named her daughter Dulcibella Eugenie.

From my main line I can only offer Etheldra, a name I haven't encountered elsewhere. 
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: philipsearching on Tuesday 21 August 18 16:13 BST (UK)
Looking through a newspaper for a WW1 casualty my eye was drawn to a first name in another article which made me wonder WHY?

I can understand naming a child after a biblical character, one of the seven Virtues, a town, a national hero, or a famous event, but why would anyone name their daughter Reservoir?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Erato on Tuesday 21 August 18 17:25 BST (UK)
"why would anyone name their daughter Reservoir?"

Dunno.  Why would anyone name their daughter Circuncisión?  But I did know a woman of that name in Iquitos, fondly know as Doña Circo [which in itself is a little odd since circo means circus].
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Sloe Gin on Tuesday 21 August 18 17:57 BST (UK)
Looking through a newspaper for a WW1 casualty my eye was drawn to a first name in another article which made me wonder WHY?

I can understand naming a child after a biblical character, one of the seven Virtues, a town, a national hero, or a famous event, but why would anyone name their daughter Reservoir?

I have seen Reservoir in Gypsy families. 
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: philipsearching on Wednesday 22 August 18 03:17 BST (UK)
"why would anyone name their daughter Reservoir?"

Dunno.  Why would anyone name their daughter Circuncisión?  But I did know a woman of that name in Iquitos, fondly know as Doña Circo [which in itself is a little odd since circo means circus].

It does seem bizarre, but there is a tradition of naming children after Catholic festivals.  My Peruvian wife has ancestors (mostly with the first name Maria) named Asuncion, Circunsicion, Exaltacion, Natividad and others.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: gezzers on Monday 07 January 19 10:53 GMT (UK)
I too have Garthuried Ferres of St.Allen, cornwall - she married my gggreatgrandfather - been trying to find out more about her but have hit a brick wall - many times - then came across your post
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Yonks Ago on Monday 07 January 19 11:14 GMT (UK)
gezzers

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~blanchec/genealogy/StAllenMarriagePt1.htm

not sure if thats her but could be a family name

Yonks
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: GenesA on Monday 07 January 19 12:12 GMT (UK)
One of the most unusual ones I’ve come across is Deidamia. She was born in 1795 and her niece (also Deidamia) was born in 1819.

Prudence is also a rare one in my tree, along with Stirland and Freeman (which turned out to be maiden surnames of grandmothers ect.)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: gezzers on Monday 07 January 19 13:21 GMT (UK)
Posts: 600
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Re: Unusual First Names
« Reply #294 on: Today at 11:14 »
Quote
gezzers

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~blanchec/genealogy/StAllenMarriagePt1.htm

not sure if thats her but could be a family name

Yonks

yes I have that thank you - but as to her parents were... give in, as of now, even variants of her maiden name or surname come up with nothing certainly not in St.Allen parish or near-by parishes.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: philipsearching on Monday 07 January 19 15:37 GMT (UK)
I too have Garthuried Ferres of St.Allen, cornwall - she married my gggreatgrandfather - been trying to find out more about her but have hit a brick wall - many times - then came across your post

Greetings, cousin, and a warm welcome to Rootschat.

I have sent a personal message with all I know about Garthuried/Gartred/Gertrude.

All the best
Philip
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jaybelnz on Tuesday 08 January 19 03:18 GMT (UK)
The christian name Banfree, on a census transcription!  I recall thinking "What???  When I eventually found the original, her name was actually Winifred! 
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Annie65115 on Tuesday 08 January 19 09:08 GMT (UK)
I found a child named “tweezer” on Ancestry in the 1851 census - except she wasn’t called that, it was a transcribing error. Any guesses (without looking!)?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jaybelnz on Tuesday 08 January 19 20:13 GMT (UK)
Teresa??  I'm just thinking if someone who maybe has a speech impediment would say it that way to the census taker  ;D

Jeanne
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Annie65115 on Wednesday 09 January 19 21:42 GMT (UK)
Good guess, but it was actually Louisa!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jaybelnz on Wednesday 09 January 19 22:40 GMT (UK)
 ;D ;D ;D I was walking "awound"  like Michael MacIntosh, telling myself it "weally was Teweasa"!!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Gadget on Thursday 02 May 19 17:14 BST (UK)
I've just discovered a 3rd cousin once removed called Ivo (on his birth and marriage record)  I thought it was a mistake and it was really Ivor/Ifor as he was Welsh. However, I now find out that it is a real name

https://nameberry.com/babyname/Ivo

Have other heard of this ?


Gadget
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: philipsearching on Thursday 02 May 19 17:32 BST (UK)
I've just discovered a 3rd cousin once removed called Ivo (on his birth and marriage record)  I thought it was a mistake and it was really Ivor/Ifor as he was Welsh. However, I now find out that it is a real name

https://nameberry.com/babyname/Ivo

Have other heard of this ?


Gadget


Mainly for Vikings!  Ivo does appear now and then in Scandinavian countries, but the only other Ivo I have heard of is a comedian called Ivo Graham.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: conahy calling on Thursday 02 May 19 19:59 BST (UK)
Corona.
She was born in 1922 and named after a rhododendron.
Link to Corona Norths obituary below.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-corona-north-1070446.html
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Annie65115 on Friday 03 May 19 09:17 BST (UK)
I've been doing a tree for a friend and have found Docytheus Twigg. That first name has been spelled in many different ways on various forms and on occasion I think he gave up trying to spell/explain it; he was "Thayus" on the baptismal record of one of his children, and "Daniel" in 1851 when either he or the enumerator called defeat entirely!

The only other similarly named person I can find lived in a different county well over a century beforehand. You'd think with such an unusual name, I'd be able to find Docytheous's baptism, but no; and neither can I find a link to the previous one.

He didn't hand the name down to any of his children --- I can't think why not  ::)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Sloe Gin on Friday 03 May 19 21:12 BST (UK)
I've just discovered a 3rd cousin once removed called Ivo (on his birth and marriage record)  I thought it was a mistake and it was really Ivor/Ifor as he was Welsh. However, I now find out that it is a real name
https://nameberry.com/babyname/Ivo
Have other heard of this ?

Mainly for Vikings!  Ivo does appear now and then in Scandinavian countries, but the only other Ivo I have heard of is a comedian called Ivo Graham.

No, I think it's more Mittel-Europa.  It's of Germanic origin, although the French Yves is a version of it.  Uncommon in England but it does crop up, usually in upper-class families.  The current Earl of Darnley is an Ivo. 
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: andrewalston on Friday 03 May 19 22:13 BST (UK)
Ivo Peters (1915-1989) was a well-respected railway photographer. You will have seen his work used in numerous TV programmes.

He used to chase around the country in a 1950s Bentley, the registration of which is now attached to another Bentley in my part of the world.

Must look up where his ancestors were from!

Just checked - his father, Ivo Adolph Peters, was born in Germany.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: clayton bradley on Friday 03 May 19 22:53 BST (UK)
Local paper today, couple celebrating birth of new daughter, named Dolly, older brother named Teddy.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: barryd on Saturday 04 May 19 03:56 BST (UK)
I thought I better give name, rank and number(s).

Admonition Drew (female), (Mrs Jory), Bap. 9 October 1768, Stoke Damerel, Devon.
Buried 15 March 1846, Camelford, Cornwall.   
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Wednesday 08 May 19 16:26 BST (UK)
I come across someone with the first name of Humiliation in Suffolk.

While not a unusual name, I descend from Sampson King of Appleton, Berkshire who died in 1634. Could well be a family name. Berkshire is quite picturesque. Appleton is lovely.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: carom on Wednesday 08 May 19 17:09 BST (UK)
My grandmother had a friend called May Williams who married Sydney Christmas!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Flemming on Wednesday 08 May 19 17:16 BST (UK)
I found someone the other day whose maiden name was Argument.

Also on GRO an entry for 'SMALL, Willie' which appealed to the juvenile in me.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: pharmaT on Wednesday 08 May 19 17:33 BST (UK)
I found someone the other day whose maiden name was Argument.

Also on GRO an entry for 'SMALL, Willie' which appealed to the juvenile in me.

LOl I am still laughing at "Currie, Ruby Murray" that I came across.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Sandy_W on Wednesday 08 May 19 17:35 BST (UK)
I've been researching a friend's family history and found an ancestor called Gould Grant (bap 1717 in Dorset), who had a brother called Vine Grant. Gould and his wife had nine children, one son was also called Vine and one daughter was called Unity.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Richard Knott on Friday 19 July 19 07:54 BST (UK)
I saw this on a walk yesterday.

Neither of the first names in unusual, but what a bizarre/tongue twisting combination.

Richard
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Gillg on Friday 19 July 19 11:18 BST (UK)
Zilpah/Zilfer (F)
Mellicen/Milleson/Mellicent (M)
Mercy (F)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Kiltpin on Friday 19 July 19 15:21 BST (UK)
In the RAF, I worked with a bloke called Prickhard. His was an only child and his loving parents gave him a single first name - Richard. 

So, of course, he was universally known as Dick Prick Hard. 

Regards 

Chas
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Friday 19 July 19 16:28 BST (UK)
Harry Horace Harris, a toungue twister ndeed.

A Sexcy Williams married in Somerset.

I have come across a Thomas Thomas. But also a Thomas Thomas Thomas baptised. Looking at the original PR's it is deffo Thomas Thomas Thomas baptised to a John and Eliz Thomas I think.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: a chesters on Saturday 20 July 19 04:22 BST (UK)
In the RAF, I worked with a bloke called Prickhard. His was an only child and his loving parents gave him a single first name - Richard. 

So, of course, he was universally known as Dick Prick Hard. 

Regards 

Chas


Nearly as good as a bloke I worked with years ago. His name was, I kid you not.. Richard Woodcock.  Needless to say, there were several variations to it, mostly rude  :P :P
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Annie65115 on Saturday 20 July 19 17:40 BST (UK)
Ap9logies if I posted this 30+ pages ago! When I was at school I knew someone called Justin Quick  ;D
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: pinefamily on Monday 22 July 19 00:34 BST (UK)
Zipporah is one of the more unusual ones in my own trees.
Thomas Thomas, and William Williams I have seen quite a bit. They remind me of Catch-22's Major Major, who was promoted to the rank of major.
Very disappointingly they renamed this character in the new television series I believe.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Kiltpin on Monday 22 July 19 15:55 BST (UK)
They remind me of Catch-22's Major Major, who was promoted to the rank of major.
Very disappointingly they renamed this character in the new television series I believe.
 

Not in the series I am watching on a Thursday evening. He is building a model wooden ship in his office and hiding from everyone. 

Regards 

Chas
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: philipsearching on Wednesday 24 July 19 00:21 BST (UK)
FamilySearch has:
Onetimus Stockdale LEWIS born 4 Dec 1858, bapt 20 May 1860 St Mary, Chester

Assuming the spelling is correct (and I can't see a birth on FreeBMD!) I wonder if his parents ever got as far as Septimus or even Decimus.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Sloe Gin on Wednesday 24 July 19 00:51 BST (UK)
FamilySearch has:
Onetimus Stockdale LEWIS born 4 Dec 1858, bapt 20 May 1860 St Mary, Chester

Assuming the spelling is correct (and I can't see a birth on FreeBMD!) I wonder if his parents ever got as far as Septimus or even Decimus.

It's Onesimus. 

https://www.behindthename.com/name/onesimus
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: philipsearching on Wednesday 24 July 19 03:16 BST (UK)
FamilySearch has:
Onetimus Stockdale LEWIS born 4 Dec 1858, bapt 20 May 1860 St Mary, Chester

Assuming the spelling is correct (and I can't see a birth on FreeBMD!) I wonder if his parents ever got as far as Septimus or even Decimus.

It's Onesimus. 

https://www.behindthename.com/name/onesimus

Not quite as much fun as Onetimus - but still quite rare.
Maybe I should look out for Twosimus and Threesimus  ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: pinefamily on Wednesday 24 July 19 05:55 BST (UK)
I was thinking that's all it took to conceive.  ::)
On a serious note, is Onesimus a variation on Onesiphorous?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Henry7 on Wednesday 24 July 19 15:35 BST (UK)
A long time ago (in the 1940s) I heard an old retired teacher telling my parents about a man who had decided to name his son Mahershalalhashbaz; he believed it was the longest name in the Bible.

The teacher had been appalled and had tried to talk him out of it - whether she succeeded or not I can't remember.  She lived near Morpeth in Northumberland, and this might all have occurred many years before she told the story.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Andrew Tarr on Wednesday 24 July 19 23:21 BST (UK)
I have come across a Thomas Thomas. But also a Thomas Thomas Thomas baptised. Looking at the original PR's it is deffo Thomas Thomas Thomas baptised to a John and Eliz Thomas I think.

Anyone with Welsh connections will not think T.Thomas or W.Williams at all unusual.  Wales has relatively few 'standard' surnames, and many of them appear with similar or identical given names: Evans, Davies, Roberts, Jones, Rees, Morgan - to name a few more.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Ayashi on Thursday 25 July 19 06:35 BST (UK)
I found a Mahershalalhashbaz TOBBELL (I think that was the surname) on the census once (probably Northumberland). I was looking for somebody else at the time and had to go find the original image to see if that was right. How do you shout that at a kid when he's done something wrong, or you want to call him in for dinner or something? Perhaps unsurprisingly on the next census he was "Mashek".
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Henry7 on Thursday 25 July 19 12:02 BST (UK)
Thanks, Ayashi.  It looks as if his father really went ahead with his daft plan.

Surprised the name wasn't shortened to 'Marshall'; I had a second-cousin-once-removed (in Scotland) with Marshall as a first name, but he was always known as 'Mash'.

Harry.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Sloe Gin on Thursday 25 July 19 13:35 BST (UK)
I was thinking that's all it took to conceive.  ::)
On a serious note, is Onesimus a variation on Onesiphorous?

Looks like it; not the same guy though.
https://www.behindthename.com/name/onesiphorus
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Trees on Saturday 27 July 19 11:27 BST (UK)
My late father had Marshall for his second name and his brother had Giles for his second name Marall and Giles were the sirnames of his grandparents.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: marcie dean on Thursday 16 January 20 18:11 GMT (UK)
I was thinking that's all it took to conceive.  ::)
On a serious note, is Onesimus a variation on Onesiphorous?
i would not like that name it sounds like a disease!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jim234j on Thursday 16 January 20 20:45 GMT (UK)
One of the first  names in my wife's family line is a odd one.
They had 13 children and named the 12th  Twelvetta.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Liviani on Thursday 16 January 20 20:53 GMT (UK)
I have a Philadelphia and her daughter Theodosia in my tree.


Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DianaCanada on Saturday 01 February 20 01:43 GMT (UK)
My most unusual name is my gr gr grandmother, Thomason Potten, named for her father Thomas. Believe Tamsin would be a variant.  My mother always referred to her as Thomasina.
Also have Neri (male), Isaiah, Jabez, Elijah, and Trayton as direct ancestors.

I’ve always liked one of my kids’ ancestors’ name - born in New Hampshire in 1818 and given the name Sophronia Stickney Peabody.

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: barryd on Saturday 01 February 20 03:15 GMT (UK)
Admonition Drew baptized 9 October 1768 Stoke Damerel, Devon.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Saturday 01 February 20 15:06 GMT (UK)
I have a Philadelphia and her daughter Theodosia in my tree.

No Theodosia's but I have a few Philadelphia's in my tree, all in Sussex. Seemed to be a more common forename in Sussex.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DianaCanada on Saturday 01 February 20 15:19 GMT (UK)
I have a Philadelphia and her daughter Theodosia in my tree.

No Theodosia's but I have a few Philadelphia's in my tree, all in Sussex. Seemed to be a more common forename in Sussex.

I also have a few Philadelphias in my tree, all in Sussex.
A distant cousin in the 1800s, was named Ansley, think this is rather pretty, but not sure of the exact pronunciation, long a or short?  She had lots of siblings including a Tamar.  Sussex folk.
Also have a Shelomith born ca 1830, Sussex again.

My Sussex people have more interesting names than my Lancs or Yorks families. I do have a Lord and Squire Tattersall in Burnley. 

I saw a Norman Conquest in the FreeBMD. He must have been teased!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: tillypeg on Saturday 01 February 20 19:29 GMT (UK)
Not mine but found these Bennison children whilst looking for some of my connections, all Whitby registrations and MMN Lawson.

Christianna Lidvina 1890
Linus Otto Wenceslaus 1896
Vitus Callibar 1897
Willibald Gualbert 1899
Zeta Winifreda 1901
Philippa Aileen Elvire 1902

In 1911 the family are at Egton Bridge.  William Bennison is a gamekeeper.  Mary Bennison had had 12 children, 11 living at time of census.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Tabbicat26 on Sunday 02 February 20 15:52 GMT (UK)
2 comments on earlier posts and 1 new one:

1) I have a Philadelphia in my tree, she was born 1811, Withyham, Sussex.  I'm told she was named after the wife of the local squire.

2) Mahershalalhashbaz was the name God told the prophet Isaiah to give to his son

3) My great x 3 grandmother, born 1783, Exton, Hampshire, was given the name Fortune
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Sunday 02 February 20 16:11 GMT (UK)
I have a Philadelphia and her daughter Theodosia in my tree.

No Theodosia's but I have a few Philadelphia's in my tree, all in Sussex. Seemed to be a more common forename in Sussex.

I also have a few Philadelphias in my tree, all in Sussex.
A distant cousin in the 1800s, was named Ansley, think this is rather pretty, but not sure of the exact pronunciation, long a or short?  She had lots of siblings including a Tamar.  Sussex folk.
Also have a Shelomith born ca 1830, Sussex again.

My Sussex people have more interesting names than my Lancs or Yorks families. I do have a Lord and Squire Tattersall in Burnley. 

I saw a Norman Conquest in the FreeBMD. He must have been teased!

I have a Philadelphia Dinnage born 1798 in my tree, born in Horsham, Sussex. She was known as Phyllis in some records.

I even found a Catherine Eltham Coombs, birth registered in Eltham. Unusual to have a birthplace as a middle name, wish that was more common though, make our quests a bit easier.

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Annie65115 on Monday 03 February 20 09:19 GMT (UK)
I’ve recently come across someone in the 1800s with the first name of Farewell.

-oh, I should have looked on freebmd before I posted- it seems it’s not that unusual a name! Interestingly they were nearly all in the wider Sheffield area. Given the local accent, I wonder if it might have been pronounced more like “furrell”.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Trees on Saturday 18 April 20 06:41 BST (UK)
Has anyone any idea where Friseweda originates please I have several also called Frisses, Frissis , Friciss in the 17 and early 18th century and am curious about its meaning and origin
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Annie65115 on Saturday 18 April 20 15:57 BST (UK)
Possibly a corruption of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frithuswith
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Sloe Gin on Saturday 18 April 20 17:39 BST (UK)
Yes, Frideswide.  More about her here:

http://www.berkshirehistory.com/legends/frideswide01.html
http://www.berkshirehistory.com/legends/frideswide02.html

And here is the church dedicated to her at Frilsham
http://www.berkshirehistory.com/churches/frilsham.html

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: IgorStrav on Saturday 18 April 20 19:07 BST (UK)
Yes, Frideswide.  More about her here:

http://www.berkshirehistory.com/legends/frideswide01.html
http://www.berkshirehistory.com/legends/frideswide02.html

And here is the church dedicated to her at Frilsham
http://www.berkshirehistory.com/churches/frilsham.html

We've got one in Oxford too.....  ooh just googled, she's the patron saint of Oxford.  Who knew?

https://www.osneybenefice.org.uk/church/st-frideswides
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DavidG02 on Saturday 18 April 20 20:25 BST (UK)
Corona.
She was born in 1922 and named after a rhododendron.
Link to Corona Norths obituary below.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-corona-north-1070446.html
Timely
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Sloe Gin on Saturday 18 April 20 21:30 BST (UK)
Yes, Frideswide.  More about her here:

http://www.berkshirehistory.com/legends/frideswide01.html
http://www.berkshirehistory.com/legends/frideswide02.html

And here is the church dedicated to her at Frilsham
http://www.berkshirehistory.com/churches/frilsham.html

We've got one in Oxford too.....  ooh just googled, she's the patron saint of Oxford.  Who knew?
https://www.osneybenefice.org.uk/church/st-frideswides

Me, I knew.  Same one. 
We learned about her in primary school because she is on a window in the parish church.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Trees on Saturday 18 April 20 22:35 BST (UK)
Many thanks Igor and Sloe Gin (great to bump in to you both seems years since the olde Inne) , and Annie it makes a deal of sense my Frissis/Friscis etc are all from the Withey and Cassington districts
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Nova67 on Sunday 19 April 20 05:29 BST (UK)
I have just found a Cockcroft Crabtree. That seems unfortunate ;)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bykerlads on Thursday 30 April 20 20:16 BST (UK)
I have probably already contributed my greatgrandmother's name  to this or a similar thread. We have recently by chance solved the mystery of her unusual name, or so we believe
She was Hosetta Wimpenny, born Holmfirth West Yorks, mid 1800's. No named father, mother unm'd.
Hosetta is a  so very unusual, even unique name that it had always puzzled us.
Until a relative on the female line, had a dna test, and found traces of Iberian/Spanish ancestry, in an otherwise entirely North European profile.
Lightbulb moment!  Hosetta, the Spanish pronunciation of Josetta, little girl of Jose.
Still seeking our Spanish greatgrandfather, though. Jose, certainly, but who and why was he, apparently fleetingly, in the Holme Valley?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: IgorStrav on Thursday 30 April 20 21:32 BST (UK)
I have probably already contributed my greatgrandmother's name  to this or a similar thread. We have recently by chance solved the mystery of her unusual name, or so we believe
She was Hosetta Wimpenny, born Holmfirth West Yorks, mid 1800's. No named father, mother unm'd.
Hosetta is a  so very unusual, even unique name that it had always puzzled us.
Until a relative on the female line, had a dna test, and found traces of Iberian/Spanish ancestry, in an otherwise entirely North European profile.
Lightbulb moment!  Hosetta, the Spanish pronunciation of Josetta, little girl of Jose.
Still seeking our Spanish greatgrandfather, though. Jose, certainly, but who and why was he, apparently fleetingly, in the Holme Valley?

What a fascinating story - did you quarter the 1861 Census in Netherthong for anyone called Jose?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Friday 01 May 20 14:05 BST (UK)
Wold have bene great if they used more unusual names, then again if they did, it would be more instances of those with such names, and would still involve trying to work out which one is which. I did mention the wife of an ancestor's sibling called Spanisher Robson. If more used Spanisher as a forename it would be more Spanisher Smith's everywhere.

I have an ancestors cousin called Melbourne Auber.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Nic. on Friday 01 May 20 15:14 BST (UK)
I recently came across a Smoker Andrews on 1881 census, he’s nothing to do with my tree but his name stuck in my memory.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ms_canuck on Friday 01 May 20 17:46 BST (UK)
I have an Ughtred James Paul in my tree - he's a first cousin/3x removed.  He was born in Jersey, Channel Islands.  I looked up the origin:

The surname Ughtred was first found in Suffolk where the surname is descended from the tenant Uthret, recorded in 1066 and again in the Domesday Book census of 1086. However, some of the family were found at Towthorpe in the East Riding of Yorkshire in ancient times.

Also found a Hephzibah Lister.  Looked that one up too and she was the daughter of King Hezekiah (Old Testament) and mother of Manasseh.  In Hebrew, her name means 'my delight is in her'.  In one census, she is recorded as Esphey which would seem to be a short form used by her family.

Cheers

Ms_C

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bykerlads on Friday 01 May 20 17:57 BST (UK)
Uhtred is the fictional name of the hero of the Netflix series The Last Kingdom. About the invasion of the Vikings and the gradual creation of a united England.
It is meant to be a Viking name, I think, so rather appropriate rhat the name should appear in Suffolk.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Sloe Gin on Saturday 02 May 20 03:03 BST (UK)
Uhtred is the fictional name of the hero of the Netflix series The Last Kingdom. About the invasion of the Vikings and the gradual creation of a united England.
It is meant to be a Viking name, I think, so rather appropriate rhat the name should appear in Suffolk.
He is apparently named after a real ancestor of Bernard Cornwell.
https://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-10-22/how-bernard-cornwell-sought-inspiration-from-his-own-family-history-for-viking-drama-the-last-kingdom/
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: venelow on Saturday 02 May 20 05:41 BST (UK)
My grandmother's sister was called Miretta.

23 examples in the GRO Index 1843 - 1974.

I have no idea where my great grandmother came up with that name.

Known as Aunty Nettie.

Venelow
Canada
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Pejic on Saturday 02 May 20 14:08 BST (UK)
Google might give you some clues - a character  in a 1904 book for instance.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bevbee on Sunday 03 May 20 11:45 BST (UK)
In my family we had a Haddock - poor man.  ::)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ms_canuck on Sunday 03 May 20 17:41 BST (UK)
Just came across this one today...Ruhamah

From Hebrew, meaning "the one who has been spared". In the Bible, Hosea is told by God to name his daughter Lo-Ruhamah; later, God tells Hosea to call his daughter Ruhamah, because she has been spared. The name is more commonly spelled without the final "h" in English, as well as in modern Israel.

Some were 'correcting' it to Rosannah, but clearly Ruhamah is right.

Ms_C
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: philipsearching on Monday 04 May 20 13:32 BST (UK)
I have an ancestors cousin called Melbourne Auber.

And I have one named Auckland.

No antipodean connection in that line though.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: IgorStrav on Monday 04 May 20 13:36 BST (UK)
I have an ancestors cousin called Melbourne Auber.

And I have one named Auckland.

No antipodean connection in that line though.

Durham connection though?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rosinish on Thursday 07 May 20 13:26 BST (UK)
I have a Beulah (female) born 1900s although a 'marry-in'

Annie
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Thursday 07 May 20 15:15 BST (UK)
I have an ancestors cousin called Melbourne Auber.

And I have one named Auckland.

No antipodean connection in that line though.

Cannot find any with my Melbourne Auber either. Wish there was some more occurrences of such first names in Essex as I find Essex research can be very hard due to the higher frequency of the same surnames. Even with the new records on Anc and FindMyPast, there still seems to be so many people with the surnames (on top of Smith and Brown) Wood, Hurrell, Mead, Moss, Warner, Cornwell, Taylor, somuch so that when I do find a maiden name of a spouse, it is often a name I have in my Essex line somewhere else. On top of the usual bog standard first names such as John, Thomas, Mary, Ann, Elizabeth, Sarah, James. Sufolk seems to be much easier to research.

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Crumblie on Thursday 07 May 20 16:06 BST (UK)
I have an ancestors cousin called Melbourne Auber.

And I have one named Auckland.

No antipodean connection in that line though.



Durham connection though?

Was he a Bishop?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Annie65115 on Tuesday 19 May 20 14:57 BST (UK)
I've just come across the Medhurst family in Leicestershire in the mid 1800s.

The parents, Benjamin and Sarah, gave their first daughter the name Mary and a later one, Clara. One son was called Simeon. Then they went off piste with subsequent children called:

Shiloh; Hessuth(or Kossuth - even the registrar couldn't cope with this one); Messiah; and Cherubim (all boys)

and for their two other daughters, Angel, and Zipporah.

I'm imagining a particularly fiery preacher in their local chapel!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Annie65115 on Tuesday 19 May 20 14:59 BST (UK)
I wonder if the neighbours ever said, "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rosinish on Friday 11 March 22 12:23 GMT (UK)
I've just found a Salisbury Whisker marrying in 1855 Ayr, Scotland.

I have Whisker (unusual surname in itself) in my tree, a marry-in of Irish descent.

Annie
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bevbee on Friday 11 March 22 14:06 GMT (UK)
Oh I love that one. Salisbury Whisker conjours up an image of a very upright man with a thick full beard. 😀
Much better than the Posthumous Thomas I came across recently. ☹️
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Erato on Friday 11 March 22 14:23 GMT (UK)
I came across a prosperous New York grocer in 1870 named Westminister [sic] Abbey.  He had one son named Westminister, Jr. but all the other kids had ordinary names.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rosinish on Friday 11 March 22 22:52 GMT (UK)
Oh I love that one. Salisbury Whisker conjours up an image of a very upright man with a thick full beard.

This was a female which was surprising.

Annie
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: bevbee on Saturday 12 March 22 07:47 GMT (UK)
Oh goodness, that's a surprise! I'll need a completely different image. 😄
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: forthefamily on Thursday 28 April 22 18:38 BST (UK)
I was doing my husband's tree today and came across a Butterworth Butterworth. His brother Thomas married on of my husband's relatives way back when.

I thought it was a mistake and looked on the Lancashire OPC and lo and behold there were others starting in 1813. On Free BMD there are five from 1845 to 1892.

mab :)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DianaCanada on Friday 29 April 22 01:32 BST (UK)
I was doing my husband's tree today and came across a Butterworth Butterworth. His brother Thomas married on of my husband's relatives way back when.

I thought it was a mistake and looked on the Lancashire OPC and lo and behold there were others starting in 1813. On Free BMD there are five from 1845 to 1892.

mab :)

Was this in the Burnley area?  I have come across quite a number of these “double names” there.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: forthefamily on Friday 29 April 22 13:38 BST (UK)
Looked again....

Baptism on the Lancashire OPC: 1813 Haggate, 1822 Gambleside, 1823 Clap Gate 

Birth regs on FreeBMD: 1845 Bury, 1877 Ashton, 1878 Bury, 1883 Bury, 1892 Salford

These are just the Butterworth Butterworth combo.

There are others such as William Butterworth Butterworth and Thomas Butterworth Butterworth.

They are all over and the father's have various types of occupations. It would be interesting to know if they are all related :)

I Googled the surname and it came up with this......"Butterworth Name Meaning:
English (Lancashire and Yorkshire): habitational name from places named Butterworth in Lancashire (near Rochdale) and in West Yorkshire. Both are so named with Old English butere 'butter' + worð 'enclosure'."

mab
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: philipsearching on Monday 02 May 22 03:01 BST (UK)
I Googled the surname and it came up with this......"Butterworth Name Meaning:
English (Lancashire and Yorkshire): habitational name from places named Butterworth in Lancashire (near Rochdale) and in West Yorkshire. Both are so named with Old English butere 'butter' + worð 'enclosure'."

Butter enclosure?  Oh how I wish they had been named Dairy Dairy.  ;D ;D
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Monday 02 May 22 13:29 BST (UK)
I have a possible relative called Cordiel Gater of Lambourn, Berkshire.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DianaCanada on Monday 02 May 22 14:10 BST (UK)
I have a possible relative called Cordiel Gater of Lambourn, Berkshire.
[/quot

One of my relatives married a Gater, but no funny name combinations.

Notice a few Alison Gaters in FreeBmd - no doubt shortened to Allie Gater!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: andrewalston on Tuesday 03 May 22 08:58 BST (UK)
I've just been researching a family who went in for the unusual.

James and Mary had a Mary Ann and a James, but also Lazarus, Rhoda, Gaius, Mainley, Eunice, Justus John and Stephen Purim.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Mimble on Thursday 05 May 22 20:27 BST (UK)
One of the things I have tried to find out was why my father was named Eric Campbell Morgan. Campbell was not a family name. Both Grandma and Grandpa were people of faith, my grandma belonged to a  non-conformist chapel and my grandpa to a high church, St Mary Redcliffe, in Bristol. 
I have often wondered if the Campbell name was in honour of a famous preacher, and then I discovered that there was someone called George Campbell Morgan,  “The Prince of Expositors” who lived and worked in the right time and area.  I feel sure this is it. It's one of those things you wish you had asked your father or grandmother but too late now.


Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Stanwix England on Sunday 15 May 22 15:39 BST (UK)
I've just found a woman called Irving Kirharp. Doesn't roll off the tounge does it? Irving was her mother's maiden name.

She then married and became Irving Kirkpatrick.

It's all made her very easy to follow though, among all the Mary's and Elizabeth's so I'm not complaining!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Gallicrow on Friday 17 June 22 14:36 BST (UK)
Some feminine version of masculine names sound quite nice and have become widespread. For example Roberta, Georgia, Stephanie. However one which always make we wince when I come across it is Thomasina - it's almost as though the baby was initially thought to be a boy and then after a few months its parents realized it was a girl and had to hastily modify her name.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Raybistre on Friday 17 June 22 15:42 BST (UK)
I have a Fridiswede Hooper born about 1704 in Somerset. She would have seemed to have been known as Friday. ( Frithuswith, commonly Frideswide (c. 650 – 19 October 727; Old English: Friðuswīþ), was an English princess and abbess. ). Interestingly, although I couldn't find the name in FreeBMD, there were over 50 births, male and female, for the name Friday.
Ray
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: fiddlerslass on Friday 17 June 22 17:26 BST (UK)
I have a family, surname of Martin, having children in the mid 19th century,  whose politics can be known from the names they gave their children. Many were named after Chartist leaders, so there's

Fergus O'Connor Martin, Robert Frost Martin, William Frost Martin and Thomas Slingsby Duncombe Martin.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: g eli on Friday 17 June 22 19:13 BST (UK)
These are all relatives of some sort, Alethea, Felix, Letitia. Caleb, Evangeline, Emmeline, Lucretia Willoughby Sabina and Vashti, I often wonder was there a reader in the family, where did these names come from?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Pejic on Saturday 18 June 22 17:26 BST (UK)
I have a Vashti and Caleb sister and brother in Berkshire born 1865 & 1870, I thing they are Biblical names.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Mvann on Saturday 18 June 22 18:30 BST (UK)
These are all relatives of some sort, Alethea, Felix, Letitia. Caleb, Evangeline, Emmeline, Lucretia Willoughby Sabina and Vashti, I often wonder was there a reader in the family, where did these names come from?

That reminds me, I have a felix toe on my tree. Also a Heath Roe
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: KGarrad on Monday 12 September 22 07:25 BST (UK)
Have just started on a friend's tree.
Her grandfather was William Himalaya West!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: ALAMO2008 on Monday 12 September 22 14:16 BST (UK)
Birth Certificate Registered in March Quarter 1883 of Alpha Pepper
Registered with 25 Christian Names each beginning with a Letter of every of the Alphabet except P
Because her Surname began with the Letter P

(https://i.postimg.cc/15S02jBc/20200529-113647.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DavidG02 on Monday 12 September 22 14:49 BST (UK)
Nickname Bett
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Treetotal on Thursday 15 September 22 23:35 BST (UK)
Nickname Bett

 ;D ;D ;D

Carol
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Gillg on Friday 16 September 22 10:13 BST (UK)
Straying a little from the unusual name theme, I had a schoolfriend whose father had named his four children by names with increasing number of syllables, so that he didn't forget the order in which they had been born - John, Philip, Monica and Elizabeth.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Forfarian on Friday 16 September 22 17:53 BST (UK)
Just out of sheer curiosity, there is a widely repeated story, which may just be an urban myth, that a couple somewhere, somewhen, bestowed on their unfortunate offspring the names 'Depressed Cupboard Cheesecake'.

Does anyone know if this is true? And if so where and when?
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DianaCanada on Friday 16 September 22 18:03 BST (UK)
I have an ancestral line with this surname but don’t know if this youngster, age 9, is related to me :
English French, 1911 census in Waldron, Sussex with parents Harry and Fanny. 

Didn’t find a French English on FreeBMD!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Ruskie on Friday 16 September 22 22:42 BST (UK)
I have an ancestral line with this surname but don’t know if this youngster, age 9, is related to me :
English French, 1911 census in Waldron, Sussex with parents Harry and Fanny. 

Didn’t find a French English on FreeBMD!

Brith registered Sept 1/4 1901
FRENCH English
Uckfield (Sussex)
2b 122

 :)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DianaCanada on Saturday 17 September 22 01:06 BST (UK)
There was another English French registered in nearby Hailsham 9 years earlier.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Ruskie on Saturday 17 September 22 02:36 BST (UK)
There was another English French registered in nearby Hailsham 9 years earlier.

Oh was there? I limited my searches for the one you mentioned. The families must have both had the same idea.

No matter how unusual the name there are often others.  :)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DianaCanada on Saturday 17 September 22 09:45 BST (UK)
There was another English French registered in nearby Hailsham 9 years earlier.

Oh was there? I limited my searches for the one you mentioned. The families must have both had the same idea.

No matter how unusual the name there are often others.  :)

Haven’t looked into it, but possibly they were related.  The earlier English’s father was Samson, quite unusual in itself!  And my mistake - he was born 19 years earlier, not 9.
The 1871 lists another English French, age 9, b. Bexhill, living in Heathfield, Sussex.  He does not seem to be registered though.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: beyondsunrises on Tuesday 27 September 22 00:08 BST (UK)
The most unusual for me:

Mehetabella
Brewer (first name!)
Tieleman
Quinrinus
Melchisedech
Good (first name from the Puritan era)
Atlas
Willia
Jone
Gratia
Mathurin (French Huguenot)
Dudley (first name)
Turlogh
Giolla
Deopham
Cardrutt
Anisia
Laurencia
Virtue
Urian
Mabelia
Jerman
Bezallel
Zerubbabel
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Ruskie on Tuesday 27 September 22 00:14 BST (UK)
Beyond,

Some of yours sound like characters from Harry Potter.  :)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Erato on Tuesday 27 September 22 00:17 BST (UK)
I came across this name yesterday  -  Mangeline, affectionately shortened to Mangy.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Ruskie on Tuesday 27 September 22 02:05 BST (UK)
I came across this name yesterday  -  Mangeline, affectionately shortened to Mangy.

 ;D

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: JohninSussex on Tuesday 27 September 22 08:10 BST (UK)
The most unusual for me:

Mehetabella
Brewer (first name!)
Tieleman
Quinrinus
Melchisedech
Good (first name from the Puritan era)
Atlas
Willia
Jone
Gratia
Mathurin (French Huguenot)
Dudley (first name)
Turlogh
Giolla
Deopham
Cardrutt
Anisia
Laurencia
Virtue
Urian
Mabelia
Jerman
Bezallel
Zerubbabel

Dudley (first name) is not unusual at all.  When Peter Cook and Dudley Moore came on the box, I doubt if people thought "what an odd name" as we did when the first Kylie appeared along with Jason Donovan.

Jone is perfectly common in old records as a spelling of Joan.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jackella on Tuesday 27 September 22 10:25 BST (UK)
Sapientia - what a wonderful name!  She first appears at her marriage in 1688 and then goes on to have nine children.  Because of the rarity of this name I have been able to trace forward many of her descendants and connected them back to the original family.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Jebber on Tuesday 27 September 22 10:27 BST (UK)
Free BMD record 9421 births registered with the forename Dudley, so hardly unusual.
 Virtue is also very common.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: KGarrad on Tuesday 27 September 22 14:59 BST (UK)
Just out of sheer curiosity, there is a widely repeated story, which may just be an urban myth, that a couple somewhere, somewhen, bestowed on their unfortunate offspring the names 'Depressed Cupboard Cheesecake'.

Does anyone know if this is true? And if so where and when?

Apparently born in 1972, in Kent?
According to a book entitled "Do Ants Have Assholes?: And 106 of the World's Other Most Important Questions", page 21.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rena on Tuesday 27 September 22 15:02 BST (UK)
All the given names in my trees are normal run of the mill, except maybe for Pemly in Norfolk, which I presume was a local dialect for Pamela.  If my main Scottish line deviates from naming sons John, Robert and, William, I might suffer a cardiac arrest lol.

At the time my research was  mainly in the northern parts of the UK, where I had the task of trying to untangle many William and Mary marriages in Yorkshire.  I got stumped when a strange given name appeared in a document.  One William of Yorkshire had married a Keziah.  Another chatter recognised it as quite normal in the southern part of England.  I then discovered it's a biblical name.

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rena on Tuesday 27 September 22 15:06 BST (UK)
Just out of sheer curiosity, there is a widely repeated story, which may just be an urban myth, that a couple somewhere, somewhen, bestowed on their unfortunate offspring the names 'Depressed Cupboard Cheesecake'.

Does anyone know if this is true? And if so where and when?

Apparently born in 1972, in Kent?
According to a book entitled "Do Ants Have Assholes?: And 106 of the World's Other Most Important Questions", page 21.

At one time in the 20th century if a Registrar didn't agree to the couple's odd choice of names for their baby he would insist they choose a different one.  That news didn't stay hidden in the registrar's office;  it often found its way into the daily newspapers.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: aghadowey on Tuesday 27 September 22 19:00 BST (UK)
Back in the 1700s in Massachusetts some of the family became captives of Mohawk Indians and received new names-
Silas = TANNHAHORENS "he splits the door"
Timothy = OSEROKOHTON "he passes through the year" and his wife OSENNENHAWE "she bears a name"
Gonatebenteton "she has been abandoned"
and my personal favourite-
KANIARONKWAS "she gathers snakes"
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Kiltpin on Tuesday 27 September 22 19:07 BST (UK)
At one time in the 20th century if a Registrar didn't agree to the couple's odd choice of names for their baby he would insist they choose a different one.  That news didn't stay hidden in the registrar's office;  it often found its way into the daily newspapers.
 

In the mid 60s, in Germany, the registrar had 2 lists - 500 boy's names and 500 girl's names. Not on the list = not registered. At that time, there were many hundreds of thousands of Turkish "guest workers" and their families living there. Practically all the baby boys were called Michael, because Mohammed was not on the list. 

Regards 

Chas
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BettyofKent on Tuesday 27 September 22 19:40 BST (UK)
On Geneanet I found a Royal Hunt WANSTALL, born in America.  With those forenames I would love to claim him as one of my Kent Wanstalls, but I've just been looking for him on the censuses & he was a Native American (Arapaho) born in Wyoming & living on a reservation.
I'm going to keep looking just to try & satisfy my curiosity, as Wanstall doesn't sound very Native American, nor does Royal come to that.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Rena on Tuesday 27 September 22 21:00 BST (UK)
At one time in the 20th century if a Registrar didn't agree to the couple's odd choice of names for their baby he would insist they choose a different one.  That news didn't stay hidden in the registrar's office;  it often found its way into the daily newspapers.
 

In the mid 60s, in Germany, the registrar had 2 lists - 500 boy's names and 500 girl's names. Not on the list = not registered. At that time, there were many hundreds of thousands of Turkish "guest workers" and their families living there. Practically all the baby boys were called Michael, because Mohammed was not on the list. 

Regards 

Chas

I didn't know about the Michaels, but I did know that those who had a permit to work were allowed a permit to live in the country.  Once the work ended they had no right to live in a house or the country.  Then one year Germany was hit by a very bad slump in fortune and there was no work.  Forty-one year old people with Turkish heritage were expected to leave the country and go back to a "home" they knew nothing about.    I remember the British government was amongst other governments who voted that Germany had to change its law.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Annie65115 on Tuesday 27 September 22 21:10 BST (UK)
If we're coming up to date, what about the Kosovan babies named Tonibler, as a thank you to one T. Blair after the Kosovan war?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/20/kosovan-albanians-name-children-tony-blair-tonibler (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/20/kosovan-albanians-name-children-tony-blair-tonibler)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Albufera32 on Wednesday 28 September 22 10:17 BST (UK)
The most unusual name I have in my tree is "Jeanornella" Ure.

She was at least the sixth daughter in the family. There is definitely a Jean already born and living (my 3xG Grandmother) and although I have not found the birth record for a Helen (ie Nellie) her mother's name was Helen so it seems likely there was a Helen already as well, possibly one who died in infancy. I have a mental image of the parents trying to think of a name and mother Helen saying something like "We can't call her Jean or Nellie"

The name is NOT a transcription error - she has a daughter with the same name born in 1863, and the birth register distinctly has both mother and daughter as "Jeanornella". I suspect the daughter disliked the name however, since on her marriage she gives her own name as simply Jean, whilst her mother is listed as Nellie. Her first daughter is named as "Jane Ure" Bennie.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BumbleB on Wednesday 28 September 22 16:14 BST (UK)
Not in my tree but I've just been transcribing again - Andrewartha - 2 instances, one in 1869, died the same year, and 1871, all in the Penzance RD, and the only instances showing on FreeBMD.

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Treetotal on Wednesday 28 September 22 16:34 BST (UK)
They make my Venadora or Vence Dora depending on which document you read seem quite normal  ;D
Carol
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BumbleB on Wednesday 28 September 22 16:40 BST (UK)
Yes, and I'm not even sure which gender they were  :-\
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Treetotal on Wednesday 28 September 22 16:52 BST (UK)
A misheard Andrew Arthur perhaps?  ;D ;D
Carol
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BumbleB on Wednesday 28 September 22 16:58 BST (UK)
Could be - GRO gives the sex as male for the 1869 birth registration and 1871 - same mother's maiden name for both entries.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: arthurk on Wednesday 28 September 22 17:23 BST (UK)
Andrewartha is a Cornish surname.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BumbleB on Wednesday 28 September 22 17:27 BST (UK)
Thank you, arthurk.  Makes sense then using a surname as a forename!!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Thursday 29 September 22 18:55 BST (UK)
I have a Parmenas as an ancestor, his dad was a feltmaker in Bermondsey, but he was from the Midlands originally, thanks to his apprenticeship records from 1696. I wonder if Parmenas' mother had a Cornish connection in the family as Parmenas is said to be a Cornish name.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BumbleB on Saturday 01 October 22 15:14 BST (UK)
Another unusual one - Lemenda.  Not many of them on FreeBMD.

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BumbleB on Thursday 20 October 22 16:24 BST (UK)
And another one which I transcribed today - Ages - birth and death registered in 1869.

BUT then I looked again on FreeBMD for forename "Ages" and there are loads of them  :-[

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DavidG02 on Thursday 01 December 22 20:54 GMT (UK)
Couple of twigs suggested by a will on my Gibbins/Ward line have seen me chase down a Wright Payne (and yes this family was) who had a Damaris - transcribed on some as Demarius and Demarias etc

I found out Damaris is a female name and is mentioned once only in the Bible - present when Paul of Tarsus preached in Athens ( Acts 17:34)

Ironically she married a Monk

Added: A quick search of this site suggests its less rare than I thought
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Geoff-E on Friday 02 December 22 15:34 GMT (UK)
And another one which I transcribed today - Ages - birth and death registered in 1869.

BUT then I looked again on FreeBMD for forename "Ages" and there are loads of them  :-[

Although there are a small number of similar names to be found in censuses, none of them seem the match the ones in the births on FreeBMD.  I would suspect mistranscription/misspelling somewhere along the line.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BumbleB on Friday 02 December 22 16:56 GMT (UK)
Geoff-E - yes I think you may be correct in assuming mistranscription sometimes.  I found an Ages Holder registered in 1853 - later an occasional copy A with forename as Agnes on the GRO website. 
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Sloe Gin on Saturday 03 December 22 12:11 GMT (UK)
I found out Damaris is a female name and is mentioned once only in the Bible - present when Paul of Tarsus preached in Athens ( Acts 17:34)

It's an uncommon name but familiar to many as Damaris Hayman (https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jun/14/damaris-hayman-obituary), who died last year, had a long and prolific career as a character actress.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jbml on Tuesday 10 January 23 08:52 GMT (UK)
My great x10 grandfather Nebuchadnezzar Ashby is an interesting one. It's spelled differently every time it is found in the parish registers ... and the computer search tools do NOT recognise them as variant spellings!! What gets me is it's a biblical name. You'd think the clerks might just look in their books! I'm sure that it's never spelled "Nabugodanezer" in the bible ...

However, for the most amazing name ever, not a relative, but the man for whom my great x3 grandmother was a servant before she married my great x3 grandfather, I give you ....

MURFIN BLOTT!

(It's real ... he's buried in the same graveyard as my great x3 grandparents, and I occasionally visit his grave when I go to theirs. The Murfins and the Blotts were two of the great landholding families of 18th and 19th century Huntingdonshire so I'm guessing he was a scion of the union of both lines. I've never bothered to research him and find out, however ... )
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DavidG02 on Friday 27 January 23 08:31 GMT (UK)
In 1851 making her - yes listed as married woman - born c1825

Found Science Kearnsley in hospital accounts
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BettyofKent on Friday 10 February 23 16:33 GMT (UK)
Words fail me with this one, the poor child has the middle name of  Ringdingdiddyiddyumdumda

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/my-neighbours-name-stupid-asked-29172999 
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BumbleB on Friday 10 February 23 16:40 GMT (UK)
Words fail me with this one, the poor child has the middle name of  Ringdingdiddyiddyumdumda

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/my-neighbours-name-stupid-asked-29172999

BUT it might prove to be a good password in the future!  ;D

Poor child  :-X
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Friday 10 February 23 18:22 GMT (UK)
Words fail me with this one, the poor child has the middle name of  Ringdingdiddyiddyumdumda

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/my-neighbours-name-stupid-asked-29172999

I so wish my James Smith (c1791-1849) ancestor had a middle name like Ringdingdiddyiddyumdumda.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BumbleB on Friday 10 February 23 18:40 GMT (UK)
Words fail me with this one, the poor child has the middle name of  Ringdingdiddyiddyumdumda

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/my-neighbours-name-stupid-asked-29172999

I so wish my James Smith (c1791-1849) ancestor had a middle name like Ringdingdiddyiddyumdumda.

You can't win them all!!!!   :-X
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Friday 10 February 23 18:57 GMT (UK)
Words fail me with this one, the poor child has the middle name of  Ringdingdiddyiddyumdumda

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/my-neighbours-name-stupid-asked-29172999

I so wish my James Smith (c1791-1849) ancestor had a middle name like Ringdingdiddyiddyumdumda.

You can't win them all!!!!   :-X

True. He died in 1849 and said "Not born in county" in 1841. And he had the commonest surname in the UK.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BettyofKent on Friday 10 February 23 20:02 GMT (UK)
It might not be helpful once ancestry transcribers had got their hands on it, the mind boggles what they would do with it  ;D



I so wish my James Smith (c1791-1849) ancestor had a middle name like Ringdingdiddyiddyumdumda.

Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Tickettyboo on Friday 10 February 23 20:15 GMT (UK)
Words fail me with this one, the poor child has the middle name of  Ringdingdiddyiddyumdumda

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/my-neighbours-name-stupid-asked-29172999

BUT it might prove to be a good password in the future!  ;D

Poor child  :-X

Perhaps a cousin of Rama-lama-lama-ding-dong?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI7wMWM9IqQ

Boo
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Saturday 11 February 23 15:29 GMT (UK)
I have a Gertrude Georgeanna Wallaker, my 2xgreat gran. Born in Essex to an Oxfordshire mother and a father of part Suffolk ancestry, as was the case for many of my Essex people.

Her married name was Taylor. But her unique first name middle names made me easy to trace her after she married.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BumbleB on Sunday 05 March 23 15:53 GMT (UK)
Just doing a bit more transcribing - how about

Hardcastle Worsley

as his  :-\ first names - poor little mite died at the age of 4.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: DianaCanada on Sunday 05 March 23 16:11 GMT (UK)
Just found this one yesterday when looking for a more prosaic Sarah:

Phfurmutus Marcroft, baptized Salford, Lancs. in 1908.

FreeBMD has the name as Pafurmutua (not much better!)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jbml on Sunday 05 March 23 16:21 GMT (UK)
Words fail me with this one, the poor child has the middle name of  Ringdingdiddyiddyumdumda

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/my-neighbours-name-stupid-asked-29172999

Remind me never to play "My Red Letter" against HIM!
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: jbml on Sunday 05 March 23 16:23 GMT (UK)
And another one which I transcribed today - Ages - birth and death registered in 1869.

BUT then I looked again on FreeBMD for forename "Ages" and there are loads of them  :-[

"Ages" is just a chickenless Agnes (no N's)
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: BettyofKent on Sunday 05 March 23 16:46 GMT (UK)
I recently came across someone with Spartacus as a middle name.
FreeBMD shows 3 people with it as a first name.
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: LizzieL on Tuesday 21 November 23 10:44 GMT (UK)
Looking at marriages today, I found a bride with the forename Fortune. Not too unusual, except her surname was Hunt. She married a William Nurse in 1778. Would have been more interesting she had married a Mr Teller !
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: Lincolnshire Yellowbelly on Tuesday 21 November 23 11:55 GMT (UK)
One of my ancestors married a man who had three christian names, the final one being "Posthumous". (The first two were "Horatio" and "Nelson").
Title: Re: Unusual First Names
Post by: coombs on Tuesday 21 November 23 12:38 GMT (UK)
Makes them easier to trace though, such unusual forenames.

Such as a Nebuchadnezzar Smith. Or a Kerrenhappuch Smith. I have an ancestor sibling who wed Kerrenhappuch Prentice.