Mark writes: "I'm sure that each of them was picked for solid -- and, in many cases, deeply theological -- reasons." and he is eminently correct. It's not so much that I judge these names to be "weird", as celebrate that they are different from the "standard twelve authorized names" that I was facetiously complaining about on the list a couple of years ago. I rejoice when I come across unusual names, especially when they show up in a possible Mayflower line, for then I can be more certain that I have the correct person in the correct place; sorting through the multiplicity of, say, Hannah Snows, or Nathaniel Mayos, and trying to find out if Mercy Brown, Mary Brown, Molly Brown, and Polly Brown are all referring to the same person (or four, or six, or eight) can be fun ... only sometimes it seems more like work these unusual names also serve as a marker, for they may recur a generation or two later, and they may "cross" from one surname to another -- backtracing ancestors by analyzing the naming patterns of the children is an art rather than a science, but it has led some of our esteemed researchers to records that they might otherwise have missed -- when, for example, "Nymphas" as a given name suddenly shows up in a family, I scrounge around to find out where it came from and why there is suddenly a child with this name (still a mystery to me; I'd like to know the "solid reason" for the Hinckleys to pick that name. The only other Nymphas in my database was born in the same era, so it might have been derived from a book, newspaper, or unrelated person of the time; I know many children were named after a doctor or minister or neighbor, or the commanding officer of a military unit) Nymphas' mother was Lydia Phinney, and there's a possibility of a Warren line there; his father's family descends from the "wrong" Soule ... Candy (now ready to get back to more specifics on Mayflower lines)

Candy Hughes wrote: ***(still a mystery to me; I'd like to know the "solid reason" ***for the Hinckleys to pick that name. The only other ***Nymphas in my database was born in the same era, ***so it might have been derived from a book, newspaper, ***or unrelated person of the time; I know many children ***were named after a doctor or minister or neighbor, or ***the commanding officer of a military unit) *** ***Nymphas' mother was Lydia Phinney, Hi Candy, Ebenezer Goodspeed and Lydia Crowell had dau's Reliance Goodspeed, grandmother of Nymphas Hinckley, and Lydia Goodspeed, mother of Nymphas Marston. Anything there, or is that the one in your database? Nymphas is a biblical name, but you're right, it doesn't seem to have been too common. There was a sequence of Nymphas Marstons, I think. I don't know anything about these people, I was just interested in the name.