What is your most uncommon name ? #2

[Bill749]

The most uncommon surname in my wife's family was SPARNON - very few in the phone book!  It would seem that everyone with that name is related, all descended from a family of Cornish copper miners - apparently started by an Abbott Sparnon in the 14th century!

The most unusual name in my family, after a run of about 7 Williams, is Birket (various different spellings in different records).   The only clue I can find is the local vicar (some time after my ancestor's birth in the late 1600s) was a Revd Mr Burkett.

Regards, Bill

[davierj]

For the truly exotic................................

  BARZILAI (man of iron) JONES 

Made a change from John, David, Jane and Mary.

Cheers Dave

[Chorlton]

The surname "COMMON" is not very common, but when doing a search for it, I get lots of hits, but mainly to topics like this, where common is written frequently

[patrish]

The most uncommon christian name I have in my ancestry so far is Angel (Male)

[Shropshire Lass]

One of the characters in Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" is called Angel.  It always struck me as an odd choice for a man.

Monica

[Manchester Rambler]

I suppose "Angel" sounds odd in English, because it's never been used much, but the equivalent "Angelo" is fairly common in Italian.  And yet we happily call girls "Angela".

Rambler

[patrish]

The " Angel" is my family was of Jewish descent, evidently it is the Anglicanization of the Hebrew name Anshel.

[Manchester Rambler]

That's interesting - I guess it's a "sound-alike", rather than a translation? 

My faithful names book says Angel and Angela were both used in the 17th century, but were then banned by the Puritans, along with Michael, Raphael and Gabriel.  Angela was resurrected in the 19th century, but Angel was hardly ever used again. 

Probably not an easy name to live with!

Rambler

[DEEGEE]

In our tree we have an gentleman who was named Fergus O'connor Wood on his birth cert'. on later cert's we have him as Fergus O'connor Squire Wood, and then finaly he ended up calling himself Prince Edward Squire O'connor Wood. On his death cert' he was just Fergus Wood.He died in the workhouse, and on his death cert' it says he died with Abcess of the brain. I wonder if this had affected all his life.