I wonder if the advantage of an unusual names when the person was grown may have been counter-acted by the emotional damage done to many of them during their school years - children can be so cruel. I noticed that someone included Shannon as a name that could cause problems, but that is a quite common name for girls in the U.S. Culture/sub-culture/geography has a lot to do with it. We need to not be judgmental about names that relate to different cultures. I was recently told quite indignantly that a certain first name could only belong to an African-American male. No amount of discussion would convince my boss that in fact it belonged to a Caucasian female - but it did. The now old-fashioned style of using a mother's maiden name as a middle name is still not unusual in the U.S. When I was pregnant, our proposed name, were it a son, was Kent Gardner Robinson. Kent is a not unusual name in the U.S., and Gardner is my maiden name and not unusual (though not common) as a first or middle name. My mother, in the U.K., was horrified. Why, she wanted to know, would we call a child after a county and give it a surname as a middle name? Just as well it was a girl! I do, however, worry a bit about how a woman in a recent college class got through school and remained sane with the first name of Stormy. Happy hunting!   Diana Robinson (nee Gardner) Now in Rochester, NY, USA -----Original Message----- From: bristol_and_district-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:bristol_and_district-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of bristol_and_district-request@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 3:00 AM To: bristol_and_district@rootsweb.com Subject: BRISTOL_AND_DISTRICT Digest, Vol 4, Issue 205 Please remember to snip (delete) all subjects that you are NOT replying to and ensure that the subject line reflects the subject you are replying to. Today's Topics: 1. Re: Do we think when we name our children? (Janet Cuff) 2. Re: Do we think when we name our children? (Tony Harrison) 3. Re: Do we think when we name our children? (Charani) 4. Re: Do we think when we name our children? (Roy Stockdill) 5. Re: Do we think when we name our children? (Roy Stockdill) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2010 00:43:23 -0700 (PDT) From: Janet Cuff <bgmjcuff@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: Re: [B&D] Do we think when we name our children? To: bristol_and_district@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <628095.9689.qm@web28004.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 The mind boggles! a teacher friend of ours,?after years of?watching new infant pupils struggle with writing?difficult names called her two boys Ben and Tom?- you couldn't get any easier than that could you. Janet ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2010 23:23:36 +0100 From: Tony Harrison <a.harrison1000@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [B&D] Do we think when we name our children? To: <bristol_and_district@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <D16261003311410BB2250FA75FFCD775@Tony> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Hi Liz When my granddaughter was baptised 2 years ago there was another baptism carried out, the little girl was baptised as Miami Blue Smith Regards Tony ----- Original Message ----- From: "Liz" <e.newbery@btinternet.com> To: <bristol_and_district@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 9:06 PM Subject: [B&D] Do we think when we name our children? > Some names picked out from Ancestry - 1916 - 2005 > > Little Girl Reitsyv > Little Dad Smith > Little One Taylor > Little Ram > Little Pixie Geldof - we all know that one! > Little Wriggler Adaway > Summer Eve Adams > Summer Rose Adams > Hope Summer Adams > Summer Easter Rawlings > Pretty Brewer > Pretty Girl Lee > Chelsea Girl Dean > Baby Girl Gillham > Gypsy Girl Lee > Girl Power > Gypsy Girl Prince > Sunny Girl Senjack > Spring Blossom Buckle > Spring Plant > Bliss Winter Evans > Winter Rose Meadows > Del Boy Bexley - Yes, true! > Sunny Boy Booth > Danny Boy Botterill > Grubby Iva D Sa > Artist Pilgrim Noel > Emmanuel Love of God O Oloyede > Honey Kitten Wingate > Tom Cat Proctor > Leaf Garland > Cedar Leaf Kraus > Leaf Oakes > Willow Leaf P A Plumridge > Autumn Beach > > And last but not least...how about this one!!! > > Somerset Arthur Leigh-Wood - yes, honest just look. Born Somerset Feb > 2003. > > I just wonder how some children cope when they start school. > > Liz > www.btinternet.com/~e.newbery > OPC for Street, Somerset > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > BRISTOL_AND_DISTRICT-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:03:25 +0100 From: Charani <familyhunter@family-hunter.co.uk> Subject: Re: [B&D] Do we think when we name our children? To: bristol_and_district@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <4C062C6D.9030300@family-hunter.co.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1251; format=flowed Janet Cuff wrote: > > The mind boggles! a teacher friend of ours, after years of watching > new infant pupils struggle with writing difficult names called her > two boys Ben and Tom - you couldn't get any easier than that could > you. My son still struggles with one of his middle names (Jeffrey) :(( It took him a while to master his surname but there wasn't anything we could do about that! I think some of the modern names do go too far. It seems some parents don't think beyond the moment. I dread to think what little Vixen will go through when she gets to school. Then there's Kestrel and Shannon in my dau's class, both mid teens. OTOH, there are some wonderful biblical names that would cause children problems today if they were still in use. I imagine they caused some children to stumble over them when they were popular. And how little Sufferance would suffer if that Puritan name were still around! -- Charani (UK) OPC for Walton, Greinton and Clutton, SOM Asst OPC for Ashcott and Shapwick, SOM http://wsom-opc.org.uk ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:42:22 +0100 From: "Roy Stockdill" <roy.stockdill@btinternet.com> Subject: Re: [B&D] Do we think when we name our children? To: <bristol_and_district@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <4C06439E.4720.1E39DA@localhost> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII On 1 Jun 2010 at 21:06, Liz wrote: > Some names picked out from Ancestry - 1916 - 2005 > > Little Girl Reitsyv > Little Dad Smith > Little One Taylor > Little Ram > Little Pixie Geldof - we all know that one! < There is absolutely nothing new about parents giving their children what might seem to some of us bizarre and barmy forenames! As a very regular contributor to Practical Family History magazine, I have often written about this in my column "Roy's Ramblings" and also in more serious features. Some time ago I had an article published about the unusual names given by Victorian parents to their offspring. I did a lot of research at FreeBMD and counted up the numbers of children who were given names like Horatio Nelson, Oliver Cromwell, Robin Hood, Charles Darwin, William Shakespeare, Florence Nightingale and even Napoleon Buenoparte (lord knows whose side those parents were on!). Victorian parents were also fond of naming children after famous battles, thus if you trawl FreeBMD you will find lots of kids named after Crimean War battles and during WWI you will find Verdun as a forename or middle name. As a journalist I once met the elder brother of Richard Burton, who was called Verdun Jenkins (Jenkins being Burton's real name) and a lovely fellow he was, too. I have a theory that parents who gave their children outlandish and unusual names, while perhaps knowing they might risk ridicule at school, genuinely believed that it would give them a head start in life and lead them to success. Were Victorian parents who called their offspring Horatio Nelson and Oliver Cromwell really any different to modern pushy parents who name their children after footballers, actresses and models? As for Pixie Geldof, when I was a features executive on a very large Sunday newspaper I was for a while in charge of the late Paula Yates and I recall her describing to me why she gave her children such unusual names like Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches Honeyblossom and Pixie. It was for precisely the reason I have described, i.e. she believed that people with unusual names would stand out in a crowd and be noticed, thus giving them a head start on the herd. Given the fact that everybody knows who they are, I am forced to agree that Paula was probably right. Really, isn't it all part of the modern cult of celebrity and the desire of the young, backed by their parents, to be famous without actually having to work for it? In my next message I will post some of the more outlandish names to be found at FreeBMD in Victorian times, which will prove my point that there is nothing new under the sun! -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:03:07 +0100 From: "Roy Stockdill" <roy.stockdill@btinternet.com> Subject: Re: [B&D] Do we think when we name our children? To: <bristol_and_district@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <4C06649B.13606.9F16DE@localhost> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 All of the following entries can be found in Bristol registration district or nearby at FreeBMD (at Bristol except where stated)?.. Horatio Nelson Bromhead (birth 1838) Horatio Nelson Tilsley (marriage 1839) Horatio Nelson Taylor (marriage 1867) Oliver Cromwell Milsom (marriage 1868) Oliver Cromwell Holder (death 1902) Arthur Wellesley Percivall (birth 1853) Arthur Wellesley Westlake (marriage 1894) Arthur Wellesley Pike (birth 1909) [Arthur Wellesley was the Duke of Wellington, hero of Waterloo] Florence Nightingale Rippon (birth 1856) plus 10 others for Florence Nightingale including another Florence Nightingale Rippon in 1875 Inkerman Bailey Clarke (marriage 1882 - Crimean War battle) Alma Honeycombe (birth 1854, the year of the Battle of Alma) Alma Mary Polyblank (birth 1854) [Both the above births were registered in the Dec quarter and the battle took place in September] Byron Canning (birth 1904) Byron Pearce (marriage 1907) Tennyson H Penny (birth 1913) Tennyson Bodel (marriage 1919) Isambard Capper Hunt (birth 1910 - named after Isambard Brunel?) Percy Brunel Milsom (birth 1874 - could he have been a son of Oliver Cromwell Milsom, above?) William Wilberforce Jose (marriage Clifton 1862) William Wilberforce Vick (birth Clifton 1870) William Wilberforce Britton (birth Keynsham 1880) William Wilberforce Snook (birth Barton Regis 1882) Richard Shakespeare Granger (birth Keynsham 1890) Ewart Gladstone Hollier (birth Barton Regis 1883) Ewart Gladstone Jones (birth 1894) Ewart Gladstone Poole (birth 1898) Ewart Gladstone Blackmore (birth Barton Regis 1898) [plus several others called Ewart Gladstone in the Bristol area] George Disraeli J Robbins (birth 1882) And finally, you will find several entries for (presumably male) children with the forename King. However, I particularly like King KING, whose birth was registered at Stroud in the Dec quarter of 1844. Sadly, I cannot find any trace of him afterwards. Probably he was too embarrassed to use the name and gave himself another! I imagine listers will find many other examples. -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE ------------------------------ End of BRISTOL_AND_DISTRICT Digest, Vol 4, Issue 205 ****************************************************

Of course, we have to remember names such as Evylan, Vivian, Beverley, Somerset... (;-) Edna - Ottawa

liverpud wrote: > Of course, we have to remember names such as > Evylan, Vivian, Beverley, Somerset... And Lyn(n) All boys names that are generally regarded as girls names now - with the exception of Somerset. Vivian, Beverley and Lyn(n) are still in use though. -- Charani (UK) OPC for Walton, Greinton and Clutton, SOM Asst OPC for Ashcott and Shapwick, SOM http://wsom-opc.org.uk

On 3 Jun 2010 at 12:10, Diana Robinson wrote: > I wonder if the advantage of an unusual names when the person was > grown may have been counter-acted by the emotional damage done to many > of them during their school years - children can be so cruel. > Well, if you believe the supposed theory behind the famous Johnny Cash song, A Boy Named Sue, it simply made them tougher! Over here we had a famous wrestler called Big Daddy, a 24-stone Yorkshireman whose real name was Shirley Crabtree. When he died a few years back the national papers claimed in his obituary that his father had called him Shirley because it would make him a fighter. This was rubbish! I knew him when I was a young journalist and Shirley was a family surname used as a forename - it was his dad's name as well. > I noticed that someone included Shannon as a name that could cause > problems, but that is a quite common name for girls in the U.S. > The 1881 census of England and Wales has only five people with the forename Shannon and four of them were male. -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE