Author Topic: Unusual First Names  (Read 125165 times)

Offline chirp

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Re: Unusual First Names
« Reply #99 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.

AVERY, Berks, BLUNDELL, North Meols, BOND, Wilts,  BRUNDRETT, Lancs, CHORLTON, Salford, DUNKLEY, West Haddon, FOGGIN, Yorks, GRANT, Durham,  GRESTY, Salford, GRINDROD, Salford, HUMM, Bethnal Green, MALONEY, Limerick & Lancs,  MARCHANT, Worcs, McPHERSON, Kent, MELLISH, Finsbury, PERRETT, Wilts,  RAGG, Yorks, RAINSFORD, Staffs, RENSHAW, Salford, ROSS, Leicester, TIGHE/TYE, All, WELLER, Berks, WILKINSON, Wes
Early 19th C Hairdressing & Perfumery
Spittalfields Silkweavers
Glass making, S Shields

Offline Guyana

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Re: Unusual First Names
« Reply #100 on: Thursday 27 October 11 13:00 BST (UK) »
Back in the 16th & 17th C, Uriah and Samson wre popular in our family. 
CORDEN - N.Staffs/N.Warwicks
MORGAN - Tamworth/Notts
HIGGS - N. Warwicks
DEEMING - N.Warwicks
LEWIS - N.Warwicks

Offline zempavlob2

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Re: Unusual First Names
« Reply #101 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 ?

Offline avm228

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Re: Unusual First Names
« Reply #102 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).
Ayr: Barnes, Wylie
Caithness: MacGregor
Essex: Eldred (Pebmarsh)
Gloucs: Timbrell (Winchcomb)
Hants: Stares (Wickham)
Lincs: Maw, Jackson (Epworth, Belton)
London: Pierce
Suffolk: Markham (Framlingham)
Surrey: Gosling (Richmond)
Wilts: Matthews, Tarrant (Calne, Preshute)
Worcs: Milward (Redditch)
Yorks: Beaumont, Crook, Moore, Styring (Huddersfield); Middleton (Church Fenton); Exley, Gelder (High Hoyland); Barnes, Birchinall (Sheffield); Kenyon, Wood (Cumberworth/Denby Dale)


Offline Emjaybee

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Re: Unusual First Names
« Reply #103 on: Thursday 27 October 11 18:01 BST (UK) »
We have a Milborough , female and Silvanus, male
Beard Voyce, Scrivens in Worcestershire

Offline davidmil

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Re: Unusual First Names
« Reply #104 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.

Offline meermin

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Re: Unusual First Names
« Reply #105 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.
Burcke/Burke
birth & dead Joannes (marriage 1711 to Vanhouteghem)
birth & dead Edmond (marriage 1713 to Walsch Dunkerque,France
Pohl Julius marriages Wahn,late 19th cent.

Offline Jacquie in Canada

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Re: Unusual First Names
« Reply #106 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.
Canada: Patterson, Brown, Haidenger/Heidinger, Meyer, Johnston(e), Gorsuch, Kitchin/Kitchen
United States: Patterson, Smith, Brown, Vance, Bower(s), Newberry, Best, Love, Gorsuch
England (Northumberland): Brown, Whitfield, Henderson
Scotland (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Fife, East Lothian): Johnston(e), Bell, Galloway, Campbell, Robertson, Williamson, Thomson, Crawford
Germans from Russia: Haidenger/Heidinger, Meyer, Meach, Lorenz

Offline absolom

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Re: Unusual First Names
« Reply #107 on: Monday 31 October 11 15:47 GMT (UK) »
emjaybee  i have a millborough wot area is your research
also got hezekiah           fab ;D
Griffiths,Rowberry,Stokes,Weston