Saturday, September 3, 2016

First and Second Names

My sister and i have been discussing names for boys, as she's soon to be a grandmother again.  She was telling me how much she liked the names "William Todd" and hoped her kids would name the new baby that.  I looked at her and said, "No.  You don't want that."  She was very upset until I reminded her that, if named William Todd, the boy's initials would be WTF...  She then immediately agreed with me.  In playing the researcher in my family's genealogy, I've run across names I like, names I hate, names I'm not sure how to pronounce, and names that have made me laugh...
  One of our classic family names is Hatevil - pronounced "hate evil."  Hatevil Hall was given the first name of his maternal grandfather - Hatevil Nutter, from Cornwall, England.   Hatevil was a Quaker in the northeastern colonies.  He had multiple children, and, at that time, all of the sons named their first sons after their father.  The original Hatevil Hall had one son named Hatevil, and twelve grandsons named Hatevil (both with the Hall surname, and second sons of daughters).  Each of those twelve had one son named Hatevil, and zero to twelve grandchildren also named Hatevil - it was pretty frightening there for awhile, with all the Hatevils running about...
   I love Hepzibah Starbuck, who married Captain Hussey, and was then Hepzibah Starbuck Hussey. I have also gotten enjoyment  from the names Eliphalet and Mephibosheth (both males).
    I've also been entertained with a few layers in the Nocks family names -  Back in the late 1600s, one of the Nock men married a woman whose surname was Emery.  That spelling of the name has been passed down as a frequently used first or second name in the Nock/Nocks family.  My grandfather was named Emery Eben, and was known familiarly as "Em." The eldest surviving son of my grandfather was Uncle El - short for Elmer Loren.  Now, Grandpa Em was the son of James Loren, who was known to family and friends as "J-Lo" - back in the 1870's and until his death in the 1930s.  J-Lo's father was Benjamin; and my father was Charlie....My father's siblings were El, Hazel and Joe.  There was also an Uncle Ray and an Aunt Pauline, but they passed away in the Spanish Flu pandemic, before the Dust Bowl happened....
   Now, my parents only had two girls - my sister Kathy Jo, and me, Betty Ann.  I don't know where the name Kathy came from, but the Jo was for Uncle Joe Bob.  I was named after two of my mother's sisters, one who died 10 years before my birth, and the other was a stillbirth when my Mom was 12.  Names make us and shape us - do you know the story behind your name?

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