If it helps any, I have a large number of ancestors with the unusual names mentioned like Thankful, Hopeful, etc. Mine seemed to have lived mostly In Braintree, Massachusetts, America and were from Barnstaple, Dorset England. The earliest I see their names are c1615 in Barnstaple and from 1633 - 1800 in Massachusetts or The Massachusetts Bay Colony, which was very very Puritan. The following brief explanation and name lists was found in a Google search. Puritan Names Although many C16th and C17th Protestants were content with Bible-sanctioned names, the more extreme Puritans did not consider even these pure enough. They invented their own abstract 'virtue' or 'slogan' names, some of which entered the common stock. Most of these could be used for either sex but the few modern survivals (Charity, Joy, Mercy etc.) are usually feminine. Virtues Abstinence Accepted Amity Arise Ashes Assurance Belief Charity Clemency Comfort Confidence Constancy Constant Continent Delivery Desire Diffidence Diligence Discipline Discretion Donation Dust Eart Earth Elected Experience Faith Faithful Fear Felicity Forsaken Fortune Given Godly Grace Gracious Handmaid Helpless Honesty Honour Hope Hopeful Humble Humiliation Humility Increased Joy Just Justice Lament Lamentation Love Meek Mercy Obedience Patience Peaceable Perseverance Piety Providence Prudence Purify Redeemed Reformation Rejoice Remember Renewed Repentance Resolved Return Salvation Steadfast Temperance Thankful Tribulation Troth Truth Verity Virtue Wrestling Slogans Be-courteous Be-faithful Be-thankful Faint-not Faith-my-joy Fear-not Fear-the-Lord Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith Fly-debate Fly-fornication Freegift From-above God-reward Hate-evil Help-on-High Hope-for Hope-still If-Christ-had- not-died-for- thee-thou-hadst- been-damned* Jesus-Christ-came- into-the-world- to-save Job-raked-out-of-the-ashes Joy-again Kill-sin Learn-wisdom Love-well Make-peace More-fruit More-trial Much-mercy No-merit Praise-God Safe-deliverance Safe-on-high Search-the-scriptures Seek-wisdom Sin-deny Small-hope Sorry-for-sin Stand-fast-on-high The-Lord-is-near The-peace-of-God Weep-not What-God-will Zeal-for-the-Lord Zeal-of-the-land Hope this helps. Donna TILLINGHURST Casey If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. Pearl Buck