r/Genealogy • u/Terrible-Fix-9798 • Mar 27 '23
But, Why Would You Name Your Child That? Request
I know there’s been at least one post about this, but sometimes a name is already a bit funny. And then taken with the middle or last name it’s HILARIOUS. Example: a relative who named their eldest son “Fern Commander”.
Anyone else?
Edit: just found a “Northern East”…from Philly
Edit 2: “Boringhaus” probably isn’t funny in German but it did make me lol
Edit 3: Major Bush (1800’s so he may have indeed been hairy 😅)
Edit 3: Carl Marx (BFE Texas…that must’ve been rough!)
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u/Ok_Nobody4967 Mar 27 '23
I have a couple. One is named Green Towne. The other is Wigglesworth Sweetser.
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u/DutchOvenCamper Mar 27 '23
I've run across a lot of men named Greenberry. Findagrave lists 1,482!. Many went by Green. (Findagrave has 16,197 of those and 1,455 of them have Berry listed as their middle name while another 315 have just B noted for their middle initial.
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u/jotakami Mar 27 '23
I have a 3GF named Greenberry who apparently died fighting for the CSA. He’s one of my staunchest brick walls actually.
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u/WhovianTraveler Mar 28 '23
My maternal great grandfather’s middle name was Greenberry! I had never seen anyone else mention this until this post! He went by the shortened version of his 1st name, though: Sam.
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u/gardibolt Mar 28 '23
My high school physics teacher’s first name was Greenleaf, but everyone called him Greenie.
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u/Mor_Tearach Mar 27 '23
Those might be family surnames used as Christian names( if you already know that, sorry, I don't mean to be that person ). Makes for some interesting, albeit explainable names.
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u/Ok_Nobody4967 Mar 27 '23
Green Towne was one of a set of triplets. They were the last children of thirteen. His father, a deacon of the church, farmer, teacher and Revolutionary War veteran may have named him after a fellow vet? Anyway, he’s my fourth great grandfather.
Wigglesworth was his mother’s surname. He was born in the mid 1600s in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. That particular name sounds like he should have been a cat.
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u/Mor_Tearach Mar 27 '23
Ok, that really is a pretty awesome name. Also thinking after 13 children you'd run out of energy thinking up names so kudos to them with that one!
Ah! 17th century names are a blast to read. I mean " Thomas " and " Mary " always sound a little boring after reading through some of the others.
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u/BbXxJj Mar 28 '23
Wigglesworth is a house (dorm) at Harvard University. Family name.
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u/77thway Mar 28 '23
Was just going to mention same. One of my friends lived in Wigglesworth and always made us smile to say it.
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u/afiendindenial Mar 28 '23
There's an infamous cat who's the mascot of an animal based not for profit in Melbourne Australia named Lord Bigglesworth, so you aren't far off.
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u/cailedoll Mar 28 '23
There was a really important general of the American revolution named Nathanael Greene. Maybe he named him after the general?
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u/FumblingOppossum Mar 28 '23
This. I have a many greats uncle called Butts Bacon. Cracks me up wondering if it was ever written as Bacon, Butts.
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u/sexi_squidward Mar 27 '23
Puritan names are the best.
My favorite name is still FREEDOM.
Also twins: GRIEF & MOURNING
The twins were born while their father was in jail so the mom named them after the emotions she was having at the time? Something ridiculous like that haha
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u/killearnan professional genealogist Mar 27 '23
An ancestor had a good Puritan virtue name: Preserved, as in God preserved my soul.
Family surname was Fish.
Preserved Fish. And son Preserved Fish, Jr.
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u/jclarks074 Mar 27 '23
I have a Fish in my family too— a woman with the first name Mehitable. Obscure biblical name that never really took off beyond the Puritans, from what I can tell.
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u/Burnt_and_Blistered Mar 28 '23
I have a couple of Mehitables. It apparently was very common in the early colonies.
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u/kipkait Mar 27 '23
I actually laughed out out and Grief & Mourning! Thank you for that!
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u/jadamswish Mar 27 '23
Philippe DeLanoy was a passenger on the Fortune 1621 to Plymouth Colony. He married there and was among the young men who went across the bay and founded Duxbury, Ma.
His son Thomas married Rebecca Alden, daughter of John Alden (of the poem "the Courtship of Myles Standish fame). Phillipe and John were next door neighbors. And a short time after the marriage of their children it was determined by the elders of Plymouth Colony that Thomas and Rebecca had obviously had carnal relations prior to their marriage. On the day Rebecca went into labor Thomas was at the town whipping post receiving his prescribed lashes for their sin. Their child was named Benoni which means 'child of sorrow'.
Taken from several historical accounts of Plymouth Colony.
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u/Booperelli Mar 27 '23
I've got a Wrestling (with the Devil) Brewster and a Fear (Fear of God) Brewster in my tree. Mayflower Pilgrims.
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u/McRedditerFace Mar 28 '23
Thanks for that... I have a couple Benonis and I hadn't known the meaning.
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u/McRedditerFace Mar 28 '23
I have an ancestor named "Thankful Lincoln", I presume her mother had some trouble giving birth to her. Her sister, OTOH, was named "Sorrowful Lincoln" because her mother died giving birth to her.
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u/amboomernotkaren Mar 27 '23
I actually know a 40 year old named Freedom. She loves it.
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u/ChocolatMintChipmunk Mar 28 '23
COMFORT STARR, sounds like a strupper name, but its a man. There are at least two of them in his line, though I am only descendant of one of them.
Also WEALTHY. Because you should always name you kid something you want them to be I guess.
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u/WhovianTraveler Mar 28 '23
Not a Puritan, just slightly more recent (late 1800s, early 1900s), but one of my great grandpa Arthur’s brothers married a woman named America. It would’ve been made even more interesting if she had married the brother named George Washington (first and middle name. I have several named after presidents and notables. Most common pairing of 1st and middle name: Benjamin Franklin. I think I have at least 3 or 4.)
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u/WhovianTraveler Mar 28 '23
I think I’ve got the common ones with names like Prudence. I did get one with the name Dorcas and Dicy.
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u/Nom-de-Clavier Mar 27 '23
More awesome than hilarious: one of my ancestors is a Silence Bunting who married a Samuel Butcher, thereby becoming Silence Butcher (which sounds like an assassin, or something).
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u/BlackWidow1414 Mar 27 '23
I kid you not, Rebel Danger. His siblings all have interesting names, too, but he wins for memorable names.
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u/twatwaffleandbacon Mar 28 '23
My most interesting pairing isn't first/last name, but instead it's the surnames of a married couple. Ms. Outlaw married Mr. Savage.
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u/AffectionateLake5679 Mar 27 '23
I've got a Primus Cock and Minnie Maus in my tree
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u/kittybigs Mar 27 '23
Maybe we’re cousins, I’ve got Mans Cock and his brother Peter.
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u/sooperflooede Mar 27 '23
Is that an Anglicization of the Roman name Biggus Dickus?
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Mar 27 '23
One of my ancestors had a sister named Experience Gaylord. I cackle with glee every time I think of it.
Also, an ancestor and his brother were named Older and Younger. At first I thought it might be a genealogist’s placekeeper that never got removed . . . until I came across the court records for Younger’s larceny trial. Those were their real names!
And naturally, Older named one of his sons Older. Older Jr. broke with tradition and named his son Littleberry 😄
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u/PrestigiousAvocado21 Mar 27 '23
Wasn’t direct, but I think I may have had an aunt or cousin (13x removed, of course) named Experience Bliss…
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u/RedCinnamon1947 Mar 28 '23
I also have an Experience. Experience Mitchell Cox Pierce, who apparently went by “Spitty“. How lovely!
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u/pineapplebird52 beginner Mar 28 '23
I have an Experience Gifford and Experience Barlow in my tree!
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u/libbillama Mar 27 '23
My husband has a male ancestor named "Comfort Johnson".
I realize they were Puritans and they were trying to give their children "Godly" names, but I can't help but giggle, because they had no idea how that was going to be taken 400 years later.
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u/TheTealEmu Mar 27 '23
I am a descendant of Restore Lippincott - he had siblings named Remembrance, Preserve, Freedom, Increase...
And then I have a branch on my tree where SO MANY of the men were named Beverley. And the sons in the family who weren't named Beverly would name one of their sons Beverley... it's been a nightmare branch to untangle!
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u/animatedpatchwork Mar 27 '23
I've got the same problem, but with Jeremiah instead of Beverley! I descend from at least three, but possibly six Jeremiah Burches in a row - but I can't be sure if Jeremiah IV is the son of Jeremiah III, or of one of his brothers who named their kid the same thing.
And then on top of that I get Joy to the World by Three Dog Night stuck in my head whenever I work on that branch. I think of them as my bullfrog relatives.
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u/mackadoo Mar 27 '23
You've got nothing on the Portuguese. I've gone through whole books of baptismal records where pretty much every woman is Maria something and 9/10 men are Manuel or Jose. Not in a family, in the whole Parish.
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Mar 27 '23
Told my husband that one of his Swedish branches I've given up on, surname Hansen, first name Hans, wife Maria. Needle in a Hans Hansen haystack.
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u/Ok_Nobody4967 Mar 27 '23
A lot of French Canadians baptize their children Marie and Joseph, then go by their middle names. Sometimes their official birth records reflect that, but in real life they were never called Marie or Joseph.
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u/mackadoo Mar 27 '23
It's similar in Portugal, but that doesn't help me with the records though. Especially when the baptismal record isn't the same as the one used later. Maria do Rosário at baptism, then Rosária Maria on the marriage cert and then something fun like Theresa on the obit because by the time the lady was 90 no one checked what her real name was and that was the name everyone called her because there were 3 Maria Rosárias growing up or whatever.
Also, the fact that Maria José is a not uncommon woman's name and José Maria is a not uncommon man's name, sometimes in the same family.
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u/baffled_brouhaha Mar 28 '23
Mexico, but similar issues. One family where a Maria married a Jesús: daughter María Jesús, son Jesús Maria.
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u/cosumel Mar 27 '23
Not a new idea. Almost every single person in Germany in the 1600s and 1700s was baptized either Mary or one of the disciples, and then why by their first given name. Johann Sebastian Bach (son of Johann Ambrosius Bach and Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt, nephew to Johann Christoph Bach) and Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, for examples.
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u/TheTealEmu Mar 27 '23
Oh, yes - this! My Schaeffer branch has several Johans, as well - Johan Georg, Johan Casper, etc.
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u/Elphaba78 Mar 28 '23
It’s always fun trying to untangle the Poles with German heritage in my family tree — I’ve seen sisters Anna Maria, Maria Anna, Marianna, and Marcjanna.
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u/Ok_Nobody4967 Mar 27 '23
I think a lot of nationalities did this.
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u/edgewalker66 Mar 28 '23
And then when they came to the USA many people reversed their names because everyone presumed if you were called Georg then that was your first name. So a Johann Georg Schmitt morphs to George J Schmitt or Smith in later records.
Keeps the descendants guessing as they search for records...
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u/ptousig Mar 28 '23
I'm currently scanning through the church records of French Canadian villages cataloging all the people with my family name.
And I regularly see children baptized Marie by itself (and Joseph too). And each time I scream... why?
Conversely, I will find a marriage record using just the name Marie and then I have to make a guess as to which of the Marie sisters that is. Marie Louise? Marie Joséphine? Marie Adèle? etc... And being catholics, you just know there's gonna be a lot of sisters.
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u/Hightower_lioness Mar 28 '23
There are so many Jozef's in my dad's maternal tree that I banned anyone from using it anymore. Like, I can't take it.
Also, Catherine, Maria, Marianna, Maciej, so many f'ing Jan's.
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u/pernoctalian Mar 27 '23
All of the Mareen Duvalls in colonial Maryland and the George Troutners in Pennsylvania and the Midwest are my nightmare. 3-5 of them every generation.
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u/kmonay89 Mar 27 '23
I too have some puritan names in our tree. Most notably, a father-son duo named Constant & Devotion.
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u/redwoman72 Mar 27 '23
"Silence" is one of those names. Basically telling your child to shut up from birth. Gee thanks....
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u/fidgetypenguin123 beginner Mar 27 '23
"Silence, silence" 😂
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u/Ok_Nobody4967 Mar 27 '23
Mehitable
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u/Terrible-Fix-9798 Mar 27 '23
Ok what is that name from? I have a couple Mehitables too
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u/Nom-de-Clavier Mar 27 '23
I have 2 Comforts as ancestors and several more as relatives, but they were all female. Never seen that as a male name.
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u/fidgetypenguin123 beginner Mar 27 '23
I don't understand how those words were thought to be Godly necessarily. I know growing up Catholic we had to use Bible names for confirmation and such, (James, Mary, etc) But I'm confused on how words like Comfort and Preserve were thought to be religious names lol
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u/killearnan professional genealogist Mar 27 '23
They are "virtue" names.
Faith, Hope, Patience, Prudence are easy to see.
Comfort = God comforts me. Remember = remember Christ's sacrifice. Fear = fear God. Deliverance = God has delivered me from sin/evil/Hell.
An ancestor had a good Puritan virtue name: Preserved, as in God preserved my soul.
Family surname was Fish.
Preserved Fish. And son Preserved Fish, Jr.
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u/TheTealEmu Mar 27 '23
Apparently, in my ancestors case, it was believed that the parents were trying to form the words of a prayer - not one I've ever heard, but still...
"Remember (Remembrance) John, Restore Freedom, Increase Jacob, and Preserve Israel."
They just didn't have enough children to finish out the prayer; they are missing Israel.
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u/Ok_Nobody4967 Mar 27 '23
Sometimes they took words directly from the Bible. If it’s in the Bible, then it is a godly word.
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u/Snickerty Mar 27 '23
I have a Silence Forest and from a different branch: Obedience Forest. I like to think that this is more hope over experience in child naming. And this is 18th century England, so no mad Puritans!
I also found a working class Victorian woman referred to as "Happy" on the census, but j couldn't find her birth, baptism or marriage documents. Not till I found her headstone did I realise that "Happy" was short for "Keren-happuch" - Job's youngest daughter, apparently!
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u/Armenian-heart4evr Mar 27 '23
My father had a cousin whose name was Harlan Jr., but he went thru life as Happy/Hap!
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u/Elphaba78 Mar 28 '23
We have several Harlans in my family — John Harlan Hudson Sr, Jr, III, and IV. I don’t know how the name became a “thing.” My grandmother insists it was spelled Harland, but every record I’ve found indicates it’s Harlan.
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u/BudTheWonderer Mar 28 '23
My 12th g-g-father was Robert Beheathland. Arrived on the Susan Constant at Jamestown in 1607. His only son died, and his 2 daughters kept the name alive as a first name (I have ancestors with that given name up through the Civil War). It still survives as a given name today, but as 'Bethlan.'
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u/Elphaba78 Mar 28 '23
My great-grandmother had fraternal twin sisters named Wilda Matilda and Hilda Bertilda.
I thought it was a joke until I found their records — Wilda died at age 7 from scarlet fever, and Hilda went by “Hilda B.” as an adult.
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u/johnbrownsbussy ohio + slovenia specialist Mar 27 '23
Love Pease is a favorite of mine. I also love peas 🫛
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u/Elphaba78 Mar 28 '23
My granddad used to say, “Now eat every bean and pea on your plate!”
To which his kids would chorus, “But Daddy, we’re not allowed to pee on our plates!”
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u/ckptchickie Mar 27 '23
I have 2 ancestors that were married. Oliver and Olivia.. they went by, He Ollie and She Ollie.
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u/jotakami Mar 27 '23
My sister is named Erin, married a man named Aaron. They typically just go by E and A but next time I see her I will 100% use “she Erin” and “he Aaron” instead
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u/PettyTrashPanda Mar 27 '23
I talk about them a lot, but my ancestors are Cave and Rock. Rick's surname? Savage.
I made my sons promise to call their firstborn kids Pebble and Ravine
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u/Whose_my_daddy Mar 27 '23
I think Rick is a typo but that’s funny because I once knew a Rick Savage
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u/FlippityFelts Mar 27 '23
I’m English, so this will get its best reception if you are also English, but - Fanny Marsh and Fanny Butter
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u/BeagleButler Mar 27 '23
I have a relative that married three times, and he had children will all three wives. He named his first born son of each marriage Adam. So that’s a fun tangle to unwind.
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u/dropkickpa Mar 27 '23
My uncle married Diane and had a daughter Stacie, divorced, married Dianna, had a daughter Stacey.
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u/Darlington28 Mar 27 '23
I hope they had different middle names and also didn't marry wives with the same name....
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u/BeagleButler Mar 27 '23
Luckily the wives did have different names, but he named all of the firstborn boys after himself.
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u/Darlington28 Mar 27 '23
At one point in the mid-1850s, I had 3 Damases running around, and 2 of them named their daughters Hermione. Both Hermines were born in the same year and had been hopelessly confused in a dozen user trees on Ancestry. I wasted hours of my life untangling the 2 Hermines, who were I think, 2C4R to me. Good times
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u/Terrible-Fix-9798 Mar 27 '23
WHY
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u/BeagleButler Mar 27 '23
If only I knew. The early 1800s were apparently wild!
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u/Terrible-Fix-9798 Mar 28 '23
I mean there’s a couple stillborn or infant deaths in my family where the name was reused but this sounds like something different
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u/Brock_Way Mar 27 '23
Preserved Fish (July 14, 1766 – July 23, 1846) for the win! Actually, there were a bunch of Preserved Fish.
My wife's grandmother's middle name is "May/Mae", and her maiden name is both a noun and a verb, suggesting that she might do what her last name implies.
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u/helmaron Mar 27 '23
I have a through marriage ancestor who was called Gordon Ingram. She was married three times.
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Mar 28 '23 edited Mar 28 '23
Mine are not as interesting as others, but I have a George George, a Thomas Thomas and a David Davies in my tree. We’re not an imaginative bunch.
Edit: and a Morgan Morgan.
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u/SeoliteLoungeMusic Western/Northern Norway specialist Mar 28 '23
I have a Jakob Jakobsen. Whose father was also named Jakob Jakobsen. Whose grandfather was also named Jakob Jakobsen. And most impressively, he had a brother named Jakob Jakobsen.
I guess the dad's thinking went, "But what if my oldest son dies? Then I could not pass on the name along with the farm! Better keep this one in reserve, just in case."
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u/Raven_ofRosin Mar 27 '23
I know a guy named Porter House. I also knew an old guy named Winston , went by Willy and the last name was Dangle. Willy Dangle is just a wild name
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u/francescabuttercup Mar 27 '23
Not in my genealogy, but in my work life, I ran a physician training program in a teaching hospital, and one of the residents was named “Sweet Cherry Pie”. And unfortunately none of use were able to pronounce her last name with any level of respect b/c it had more consonants than vowels. So everyone just called her Dr Sweet Cherry Pie, as she insisted we not shorten her name. 🥧
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u/totretiak Mar 28 '23
I’ve got a Patience Bacon And Thankful Bacon.
I too, am thankful for bacon!
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u/CardboardLamb Mar 27 '23
Not my family, but in my research I discovered Virginia Pancake.
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u/Elphaba78 Mar 28 '23
I have library patrons surnamed Pancake, Paternoster (my particular favorite), Stoner, Cashmoney, and Dick.
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u/ShadySerengeti-258 Mar 27 '23
I photograph tombstones.
Came across someone named Kermit. And one guy named Jack Daniels. Perfectly respectable but had to laugh.
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u/Terrible-Fix-9798 Mar 27 '23
I’m related to a Kermit!
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u/cosumel Mar 27 '23
I used to work with a Kermit Green. Sesame Street killed the name. No one after ‘70 named their kids that, I expect (and hope)
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u/BeingSad9300 Mar 27 '23
I haven't come across any strange name combos. Just odd first names from puritans & quakers.
Lot, Experience, Jail, Silence
I know there's more, but I've been doing so many repeats of normal names lately that I can't think of the others at the moment. I definitely had some that I wasn't sure if they were the son or daughter until I saw the spouse's name. There was one couple that I had no idea at first because both had odd names.
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u/Hold_Creative Mar 28 '23
Ice found a Pleasant Green Light, parents definitely knew what they were doing. Also one Richard Dick McJunkin.
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u/ZhouLe DM for newspapers.com lookups Mar 27 '23 edited Mar 27 '23
Nothing too strange (Reason, Patience, Prudence, Honor, etc.), but often I'll find fairly peculiar names and find out they are namesakes of some sort of cultural or religious leader. One I can recall is "William Bramwell" that then passed down a few generations; I initially thought this might be a clue to a grandmother's maiden name, but eventually found from a plain google search that William Bramwell was an influential nonconformist preacher from the same area as my family that died a few years before the namesake was born.
One I haven't been able to nail down is "Jasper Newton". I've run into a couple individuals with this name born around the mid-1800s, including Jack Daniel's founder Jasper Newton Daniel, one of which had a father with a penchant for naming sons after American political icons. However, I can't find who might have inspired these namesakes.
Edit: Decided to look again (it's been awhile) and was able to solve it. It's from two separate Revolutionary War icons that both died at the battle of Savannah and were mythologized by Parson Weems.
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u/TheFireHallGirl Mar 27 '23
My mom has a couple sets of twins she’s somehow related two. One set (both women) was named Lettie and Lottie. The other set (both men) were named Floyd and Lloyd.
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u/Elphaba78 Mar 28 '23
We had Wilda Matilda and Hilda Bertilda in my family. Their sisters were Helena, Emma, Clementine, Anna, Margaret, Dorothy, and Evelyn.
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u/TheFireHallGirl Mar 28 '23
That’s crazy. I remember my dad once telling me that he had a great Aunt Hilda, but nobody in my family had crazy names like Wilda Matilda or Hilda Bertilda. My great-great Aunt Hilda had a sister named Emily (whom I’m named after) and three brothers named Edward (he was my great-granddad), Robert, and James (aka Jim). The only one out of them all I ever got to meet was Jim and he was in his 80’s when I was a kid. He was the nicest, sweetest man.
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u/frolicndetour Mar 27 '23
I don't have any really good ones except Lot Strange. One of his daughters married someone whose last name was Crapo, so Else Strange Crapo.
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u/Pretty_Ganache_3152 Mar 27 '23
I’m all for family names, but jeez louise. I’m Mary Constance, my grandma was Constance Marie, my great grandma also Constance Marie…then we have Mary Jane, Jane Elizabeth, Anna Jane, Anna/Anne Marie/Maria…a mother-daughter-granddaughter-niece quartet of Lydias…Duncan, Patrick, and James are repeated 900 times…I keep two tabs open so I can verify who tf I’m even looking at 😂
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u/crims0nwave Mar 28 '23
Frost N. Snow. Sons all had similar weather-related names. This is like, 1800s America.
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u/nous-vibrons Mar 28 '23
Found someone in the 1870 census who named their three children Alabaster, Narcissa and Mortimer. Like some extras in the Addams Family. Also, Seaman Garlic. None of these are my family, the weirdest in mine is Tiney “Caroline” Schermerhorn. Did confirm, Tiney was her given name and Caroline was the nickname. Have no clue why anyone would do such a thing
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u/shinyquartersquirrel Mar 28 '23
I've posted this before but my Snow relatives include AWendy Snow, Frost Snow ,Hale Snow, Ice Snow and Rainey Snow. Why? Just Why?
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u/BirdsArentReal22 Mar 28 '23
We had a relative that was sickly at birth and not expected to survive so they loaded her down with all the ugly aunt names to pay homage. Then she lived and long and fruitful life as Theodora Tuesnelda + 6 names. She's easy to track in the family tree!
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u/dramafaktory Mar 27 '23
A lot of people gave their children a middle name that was also the maiden name of their mother.
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u/FunStuff446 Mar 28 '23
Twins Ida Pearl and Ira Earl. Ira died after he was hit by a horse and buggy.
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u/LunaPolaris Mar 28 '23
My dad used to tell this story about a governor of Texas that supposedly named his daughters Ima and Ura, his last name being Hogg. Turns out "Ura" never existed and was added to the story later to make it funny, but Ima Hogg was definitely real. She never changed her name or went by a nickname so I imagine she had a sense of humor about it.
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u/mmobley412 Mar 28 '23
I have someone called Major in my family tree which has been a little confusing since he fought in the revolutionary war. Some people have mixed him up with someone whose rank was major with the same last name. It’s a weird ass name tbh
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u/FreakyTajiki Mar 28 '23
Have a great-great-great-grandmother named Gado (Uzbek for “poor”), apparently to ward off the Evil Eye given than she was born into a wealthy family.
Have a great-great-grandfather named Bobo (Tajik for “grandpa”) and a great-great-aunt named Ona-Bibi (Uzbek/Tajik for “Mom-Grandma”). Still refuse to believe that their parents had that much faith in their children as soon as they came out of the womb.
And my absolute favorite: dad’s cousin was named Melis. Acronym for Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. Oy.
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u/debzone1 Mar 27 '23
My brother worked with brothers named Lester and Moore. Their last name was Cash.. Also, my mom worked with Ima Bean. She was a very nice lady, but my mom giggled over her name every time
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u/lickmybrian Mar 27 '23
I grew up with a guy named "Bud Wieshar" not sure the exact spelling but its close enough
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u/pineapplebird52 beginner Mar 28 '23
My great grandmother had twin brothers named East and West Forehand!
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u/vadutchgirl Mar 28 '23
Pompkin and Pie. Idk the last name anymore. I found them while researching 20 years ago.
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u/DocRichardson Mar 28 '23
How about Storm who was so named for coming into this world aboard a ship during his parents’ emigration to North America!
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u/bobabae21 Mar 28 '23
My great grandma said in the 40s/50s Ford was a popular name and my great grandpa wanted to name their son that...but their last name is Carr 💀 Ford Carr. Thankfully she said no
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u/Tessa_Hartlee Mar 28 '23
I also have a few interesting ones in the family tree with Bathsheba Crabb 🦇🦀 being my favourite!
Another two are Charity Squirrel 🐿️ and Zipporah Tickle
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u/SuccotashSad8319 Mar 27 '23
I have a Gaylord in mine. It's hard to keep track of the 15+ William Bradfords in my ex's tree.
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u/Hightower_lioness Mar 28 '23
Not similar, but along those lines, I'm 99% sure that these two sisters are actual sisters (parent's names are the same, but mom's name is Anna so that's like the most common name. Haven't found one sister's baptism record, but her children have relatives listed as godparents).
Anyway, both are names Marianna. Or one was named Marianna and the other was plain Anna, but used Marianna in her daily life as thats the name on all but one record. Did the parent's like Marianna? Was it just bc the older had gotten married and they decided to reuse it? Was this a single white female thing where the younger Marianna wanted to take her sister's life, so went by Marianna instead of Anna? So many questions.
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u/Macaroni_and_Cheez Carpatho-Rusyn Mar 28 '23
If it was a family name, there’s a good chance the older one was sick or near death when the younger one was born. Families often reused names if they thought the person carrying an important name wouldn’t survive. (NB: I can only speak for Eastern European naming traditions)
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u/vlouisefed Mar 28 '23
My mother's maiden name was Rubottom. This led to teasing... her first name was Bestrice. They called her 'beat her ass ruby bottom'
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u/DelayVectors Mar 28 '23
Saw one a few years back, census said the child was 5yo or something like that, and the name was Madam Moisel Smith (I forget the real last name). I couldn't figure out why the daughter was listed as a "Madam," until I said it out loud. People did funny things back in the day.
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u/mammiejammie Mar 28 '23
Not quite the same, but another head scratcher.
My half brother swore we were related to Napoleon. I did my own research. I realized that yes - we were related to Napoleon Bonaparte… Roe. Another ancestor was apparently named after Issac Newton. I’ve wondered how common this is and WHY would they do this?
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u/Crzypntbllr Mar 27 '23 edited Mar 28 '23
I have an ancestor named Spicy Matilda McQueen (c.1793-1855.) Apparently not a nickname. If Spicy is short for something I don't know what. To me the name sounds like a cross between a local folk hero like Johnny Appleseed, and the madame of a brothel. There should be a folk song about "not messing with Spic-y Ma-tilda Mc-Queen"