Let’s Talk About: Names, Yesterday & Today

Picking a name for baby has always been a delightful challenge. Surely it has always been so. I have a family of four siblings born in the early 1700s in Connecticut named John, Mary, Elizabeth…………… and Bazeleel.  Bazeleel? Yep, a Bible name for sure.

We might think that names for baby popping up today are kinda crazy but it was the same decades or centuries ago (as proved by the above example, no?).

Doing some “pay-it-forward” work for the St. Clair County Genealogical Society in Illinois (where some of my ancestors hail from), and helping index and proofread early birth records, I’ve come upon these names…. and they are first names:

Orben, Noal, Truthadoris, Honey, Ermil, Calliem, Argana, Bornodna, Yarlotts, Falenda, Mortha and Ceeylia.

How long ago were these names, you ask? 1916! 

I’m quite sure that a list compiled in 2122 of some of today’s names might sound just as “interesting.” Agree? 

3 comments on “Let’s Talk About: Names, Yesterday & Today

  1. Sandra J Gaffney says:

    Speaking of current names just ask a Kindergarten teacher.

    • Sandi Gaffney says:

      I name my daughter after Katharine Hepburn and Katharine Graham in other words her first name is spelled with an “a” not an “e”. Watch for famous Katharine’s.

  2. Kathleen Sizer says:

    Ah, a genealogist’s dream come true! Yes, Donna, today’s names are also very interesting. As a genealogist I find it funny when someone gives a child a given name without understanding the meaning, i.e. Kennedy – from the Gaelic ceann = head and eidigh = ugly, thus naming their son or daughter “ugly head”. Hope that child never finds out.

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