Curiosities of Puritan NomenclatureBardsley, Charles Wareing Endell
History
Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature
Bardsley, Charles Wareing Endell
Names, Personal -- English
Mr. Bowditch adds "_Search-the-Scriptures_" to his list of names that
crossed the Atlantic. This tallies with Search-the-Scriptures Moreton, of
Salehurst, one of the supposed sham jury already treated of. He quotes
also _Hate-evil_ Nutter from a colonial record of 1649.[61] Here again we
are reminded of Bunyan's Diabolonian jury, one of whom was _Hate-bad_. It
is all but certain from the date that Hate-evil went out from the old
country. The name might be perfectly familiar to the great dreamer,
therefore. _Faint-not_ Wines, Mr. Bowditch says, became a freeman in 1644,
so that the popularity of that great Puritan name was not allowed to be
limited by the English coast. In this same year settled _Faithful_
Rouse--one more memorial of English nonconformity.
English Puritanism must stand the guilty cause of much modern humour, not
to say extravagance, in American name-giving. Puns compounded of baptismal
name and surname are more popular there than with us. Robert New has his
sons christened Nothing and Something. Price becomes Sterling Price;
Carrol, Christmas Carrol; Mixer, Pepper Mixer; Hopper, Opportunity Hopper;
Ware, China Ware; Peel, Lemon Peel; Codd, Salt Codd; and Gentle, Always
Gentle. It used to be said of the English House of Commons that there were
in it two Lemons, with only one Peel, and the Register-General not long
since called attention in one of his reports to the existence of Christmas
Day. We have, too, Cannon Ball, Dunn Brown, Friend Bottle (London
Directory), and River Jordan, not to mention two brothers named Jolly
Death and Sudden Death, the former of whom figured in a trial lately as
witness. The _Times_ of December 7, 1878, announced the death of Mr.
Emperor Adrian, a Local Government Board member. Nevertheless, the
practice prevails much more extensively across the water, and the reason
is not far to seek.
Mr. Bowditch seems to imagine, we notice, America to be a modern girl's
name. He says administration upon the estate of America Sparrow was
granted in 1855, while in 1857 America C. Tabb was sued at law. America
and Americus were in use in England four hundred years ago (_vide_
"English Surnames," 2nd edit., p. 29), and two centuries ago we meet with
"America Baguley, 1669, his halfpeny,"
on a token. _Amery_ was the ordinary English dress.
EPILOGUE.
DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES: THEIR RISE AND PROGRESS.
I. ROYAL DOUBLE NAMES.
"But two christian names are rare in England, and I only remember now
his Majesty, who was named Charles James, as the Prince his sonne
Henry Frederic: and among private men, Thomas Maria Wingfield and Sir
Thomas Posthumus Hobby."--Camden.
If we take this sentence literally, the great antiquary, who knew more of
the families and pedigrees of the English aristocracy than any other man
of his day, could only recall to his mind four cases of double Christian
names. This was in 1614.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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