In 2014 I featured a series of blog posts introducing you to 2,014 names. For the most part they were names that were brand new to me as well. Some names may be more familiar but I found the meaning or origin or some other aspect of the name made it worthy of inclusion here. You may love some of the names, you may hate some, but hopefully you enjoy learning about all of them.

Sunday, September 30, 2018

A Dash of Cornish Names

GIRLS

Adnis - a Cornish version of Agnes, according to Rev. John Bannister in his book A Glossary of Cornish Names.

Moudlin - a Cornish version of Magdalene, according to Bannister.


BOYS

Ackey - a Cornish nickname for Hercules or Archelaus, according to Bannister.

Atty - a Cornish nickname for Arthur, according to Bannister.

Mehal - a Cornish version of Michael, according to Bannister.

Zaggy - a Cornish nickname for Zachariah, according to Bannister.

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Where is the good of attempting to recover the meaning of a host of names of which very few persons ever heard, and still fewer care?

Some people just say very well what I think or feel or believe. Here is an example.





from A Glossary of Cornish Names by Rev. John Bannister

A Few Names From Africa

GIRLS


Bayenkhu - Tumbuka (a tribe of Africa), meaning "where will they go?" According to the book  Zambian Traditional Names by Mwizenge Tembo a name with this meaning is given to a child whose parents have no place to call home. 

Chatyalani - Nsenga (a tribe of Africa), meaning "waste of time". According to Tembo's book this name is given when a family "has had too many children die. [It is] mocking or taunting death to "take this baby to the bush too". 

Kasiwa - Tumbuka, meaning "to be alone" or "orphaned", According to Tembo's book a name with this meaning is given to a child who is orphaned.




BOYS


Alilenji - Chewa (a tribe of Africa), meaning "why should you cry?" According to Tembo's book a name with this meaning is given to a child who will have everything, and therefore, no reason to cry.

Chawezi - Tumbuka, meaning "a gift"

Lelani - Chewa, meaning "raise your children". According to Tembo's book a name with this meaning is given as a message to parents and community to raise their children with pride and to show that the child is considered a blessing.

Some Hittite Names

GIRLS


Harapsili - Hittite

Hastayara - Hittite

Puduhepa - Hittite




BOYS


Hantili - Hittite

Hattusili - Hittite

Mursili - Hittite

Zidanta - Hittite

Friday, September 28, 2018

Why not these names?

GIRLS


Sinella - I will have to see if this is a relative on my Carleton line, she is supposed to have been a Plantagenet that married Adam de Carleton.


As for meaning, I wonder if this name is the same as Synolda, which I have featured elsewhere on my blog.




BOYS


Fearnot - name of a New England colonial inhabitant (last name was King).

Lucilius - one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the state of Maine in 1906




NOT SURE OF GENDER


Ozem - another New England colonial inhabitant (last name was Strong)

Provided - another New England colonial inhabitant (last name was Needham)


Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Name Harvest

GIRLS


Agiltrude - Germanic, meaning "formidable maid".

Ancelote - Latin, meaning "hand-maid".

Apka - Latvian form of the Greek name Agatha, meaning "good".

Arnhilda- Germanic

Bertwine - Germanic, "bright friend"

Britomart

Dionetta - a form of Dionysus

Dowsabel

Girlint

Jodoca

Liliola

Rosiphele

Myrtilla



BOYS


Dam-qi-ili-shu  - Babylonian, meaning "his god is friendly".

I-ba-lu-ut - Babylonian, meaning "he shall live".

Ib-shi-i-na-ili - Babylonian, meaning "he was in the god"

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Just Enough Names for Now

GIRLS


Adosinda - a form of the name Adalsinda, which comes from the Gothic "ath" shortened from "athal" meaning "noble birth" and "sind" meaning "path".

Josea-

Waitstill-



BOYS


Adolbo - Basque, a form of the German name Adolph.

Hobard- 

Mansfield-

Willielmus-

Sunday, September 23, 2018

A Variety of Names

GIRLS

Bethulia

Dulcibella - meaning "sweet and fair"

Duessa - meaning "double-minded"

Fredelinda - meaning "peaceful maid"

Himmeltruda - meaning "heavenly truth"

Miraflora - Latin, meaning "a thousand flowers" from "mille" meaning "thousand" and "flora" meaning "flowers"

Praxidice - Greek meaning "doing justice"

Tryphosa - meaning "pampered" or from "phos" meaning "light" and therefore meaning "thrice brilliant"


BOYS

Gotobed

Saturday, September 15, 2018

Such an Assortment of Names!

GIRLS

Ardella

Bexey

Desdemonia

Luacine



BOYS

Anfride - name of a descendant of one of the Norman conquerors of England, but I don't know if it is Norman or not.

Drayton -came across this as the name of a post master in 1830, Drayton Jones, Barkhamstead, Connecticut.

The name means "oak hill" according to A Glossary of Cornish Names by Rev. John Bannister.

Hampton

Herrick

Misner 

Simpson


NOT SURE OF GENDER

Lisadore


Well-named Family

While researching a name for this blog, I came across a couple of families with very cool names I wanted to share, so here they are:

William Williams, a Welsh immigrant to Virginia in the 18th century settled finally in South Carolina and had a son named Frederick who fought in the Revolutionary War.

Frederick had a son named William Williams who married a woman named Martha Wells.

William and Martha were early pioneers in Kentucky and they had Elizabeth, Simpson, Frederick, Ann, Samuel, Richard, William, Mary, Abner, Daniel, and Hampton.

Frederick married Bexey Orton (whose father Johnza Orton had the name I was researching) in Illinois (Bexey had come from Indiana). They had Cordelia, Harriet, Christopher, Desdemonia, Clarinda, Franklin, Frederick, and an unnamed baby.

Samuel married and came with his wife and children to Utah: Luacine, Leonore, Lisadore, Parley, and Eliza. Since Parley is a name commonly given by Mormons in honor of an early Mormon of the time period when Samuel was living, and since he lived in Illinois about the time the Mormons were there and then fled to Utah, I'll assume that he had become a Mormon and came to Utah with the rest of the church members.

I found this family interesting because my father's Welsh ancestor also came to Illinois before moving West. On another line of his family, the Buchanans moved from Virginia to Kentucky and then Illinois, where they joined the Mormon church and moved to Utah about the same time period as Samuel Williams.

I am very curious about the name Lisadore, is it the name of a boy or a girl? Isadore is a boy's name but Lisadore feels like a girl name. But back in those days they often gave boys names that today feel like girl names. I am also curious about Bexey. Is this a form of Bessy or Betsy or a nickname for Rebecca or is it something else altogether? I've seen Desdemona but I don't think I'd seen Desdemonia before. Luacine is another name that interests me. Simpson and Hampton are two names you don't often see as first names, but they follow the trend in the 1800s of using a family surname as a first name. I think I have seen Clarinda before.

very well-named family!

UPDATE  4-9-2020

I came across one Parley Williams in the 1904 volume of Who's Who in America, born in Perry County, Illinois and living in Salt Lake City, Utah when the book was published. His name was Parley Lycurgus Williams born April 7, 1842 son of Samuel Williams and his wife Andromache (maiden name Moore). He was educated in private and public schools and at McKendree College, Illinois 1860-62. His address in Salt Lake was 177 13th East Street and his office at the Deseret News building. He was a lawyer, admitted to the bar in 1868. He was a Unitarian and a Democrat. He married Katherine Sharp in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1876. He was a member of the Utah legislature, 1894-95. He had been district attorney for Wyoming Territory in 1870-71. He was counsel for the Oregon Short Line Railroad from 1872, as well as for the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and director of the Malad Valley Railroad Company, St. Anthony Railroad Company, and Yellowstone Railroad Company. He was a member of the Bar Association and a delegate to the large Universal Congress Lawyers and Jurists in St. Louis in 1904. He was a Grand Master of Masons in Utah 1887-88 and belonged to the Alta Club, the University Club, and the Country Club.


My opinion, given that he was born in 1842 is that he may well have been named for Parley P. Pratt (early Mormon figure) so perhaps his parents were Mormon, but I don't know if they stayed Mormon or not. It's apparent that he did not.