Old fashioned names new again....

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

Texas and the south in general tend toward odd names.

At Texas A&M, I worked for an Extension Director (very nice gent) named Zerle Carpenter. One of the Program Directors was Uel Stockard.

A native Texas gent I worked with told me that when he was in grade school in the late 40's, there was a girl in his school whose parents gave her the appalling first and middle names "Doll Baby".

A teacher won her undying gratitude with calling the role on the first day of school. When she hit that name, she said "I'll just call you Dolly".

The girl instantly siezed on that, and was called Dolly for the rest of her life.

Ha, for a minute there I thought the guy's name was Extension Director. lol

 

[jamespowers]

Here's another old-fashioned Chilean name (from the last 50 years):

-------------------------Madenusa

That's right. As in "made in U.S.A." lol


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Hey, Madenusa is better than Medusa. Talk about an old name. lol

Regards,

J

 

[Rosie]

In the 18th and 19th centuries, groups of British and American immigrants arrived in Chile and did very well for themselves, mostly as bankers, shipping agents, railroad engineers and mining engineers. (The Irish did pretty well, too. In fact, the Chilean republic's own "founding father" was an early 19th century general named -- ready for this? -- Bernardo O'Higgins.

Anyway, the success of these immigrants inspired working-class Chileans to give their children English first names. Today these names are considered old-fashioned, but they still appear from time to time. Hence, it was not uncommon 50 years ago to run into Chileans named Nelson Gonzalez and Washington Lopez! lol

Upper-class Chileans didn't use English first names. Instead, they married the rich British and American immigrants and acquired their last names. Hence, the most powerful man in Chile is ... Augustin Edwards Eastman.

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Hey, I had a Nelson Martinez in my class three years ago.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

He may have been Chilean.


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[Tony in Tarzana]

One of my all-time favorite books is Remarkable Names of Real People, by John Train, published in the 70s, with a sequel in 1979.

Here's some truly wonderful ones that sound like roles for W.C. Fields or characters in a Marx Brothers film:

Marmalade P. Vestibule

Sounds like the subject line of a recent spam e-mail. lol

 

[jamespowers]

Sounds like the subject line of a recent spam e-mail. lol

Nah, in those you are more likely to get something like Spanky D. Bottoms.

Regards,

J

 

[Rosie]

He may have been Chilean.


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Actually, his parents are from the Dominican Republic originally. His little sister was in my class this year. But, Nelson seems to be a common name for boys in the Latino community.

 

[skinnychik]

I work with a Luv Lee Russell. Her sister is Charm. Mom is a doctor who may have self-medicated a little in the 60s...glaucoma maybe.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Those are hippie names, I think. I knew a few hippies back in my day and they either named their kids names like Rainstar or Meadow -- or they named them old fashioned biblical names - Joshua, Elijah, Sarah, etc.

When certain movies were hits, lots of kids were named after a character (i.e, the popularity of "Tammy" in the early 60's) or a star (Lots of female Kims from the mid-50's, when Kim Novak became popular). A film as popular as Bell, Book and Candle spawned kids named Kim, Gillian, and, for cats, Pyewacket. Lots of Holly's and Audreys from Breakfast at Tiffany's. Tons and tons of Jennifers from Love Story.

I have a neice named Michele, who was born about a year after the Beatle's popular hit. I have another neice named Jennifer Dawn, the middle name coming, I believe, from the popular Four Seasons song, "Dawn, Go Away I'm No Good For You."

Early feminists would sometimes trade in their surnames names for something from the natural world, trees or flowers or even states and places. People are still doing that, but now it's the first name. Cheyene or Denver.

karol

 

[decodoll]

Tons and tons of Jennifers from Love Story.

Yeah....tell me about it....

Jennifer Lynn

 

[scotrace]

Career-picking at birth

The neighbors named their daughters Cheyenne, Fantasia and Jade. It's like they peered into the cribs and said "Yup. Gonna be strippers."

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Another thing that has happened: I grew up in a part of Des Moines called "Little Italy" and so many of my neighbors and playmates had Italian surnames, and also first names, Vincenzo, Roberto, Gina, etc.

However, within a generation, I noticed that there were young kids with names like Tiffany Talarico and Todd Marasco. I thought to myself, just watch -- Todd Marasco will grow up and marry Tiffany Talarico and they will say, oh heavens, we are losing our Italian heritage! And they will name their kids Giuseppi, Theresa Maria, Giovanni, Angelo, etc., etc.

Now, my neice, the above-mentioned Jennifer Dawn, married an Italian American, whose name is Jeff. But their children are named Gianni and Cinzia.

karol

 

[jamespowers]

The neighbors named their daughters Cheyenne, Fantasia and Jade. It's like they peered into the cribs and said "Yup. Gonna be strippers."

lol lol lol Tell me about it. Then there is Synthia.

Regards,

J

 

[jamespowers]

However, within a generation, I noticed that there were young kids with names like Tiffany Talarico and Todd Marasco. I thought to myself, just watch -- Todd Marasco will grow up and marry Tiffany Talarico and they will say, oh heavens, we are losing our Italian heritage! And they will name their kids Giuseppi, Theresa Maria, Giovanni, Angelo, etc., etc.

That probably happens a lot. My grandfather had a very heritage sounding name and it had been in the family for generations. My father had the idea to use it for me. My grandfather absolutely refused. He said "choose something else. Its bad enough I have the name." I am REALLY glad he stepped in. Funny thing is that now I am giving my son my father's name. He's not around to protest. I doubt he would anyway.

Regards,

J

 

[Lincsong]

Was it Francis? Evo? Joaquin? Ignatius? Robespierre?

My grandfather had a very heritage sounding name and it had been in the family for generations. My father had the idea to use it for me. My grandfather absolutely refused. He said "choose something else. Its bad enough I have the name." I am REALLY glad he stepped in.

I'm on the edge of my seat. What was the name? Tell us. Don't keep us in suspense.

I kind of like the names;
Francis Xavier
Thomas Aquinas
Ignatius Loyola

 

[Lincsong]

In the early 20th Century Japanese and Chinese immigrants named their children after companies and university's; examples;
Radford Sam Fong
Stanford Nakano
Princeton Wo Fat
Ford Kaneshiro
Radcliffe Chun
Farrington Hasegawa

 

[Lincsong]

Ok, I'll bite. Like what Alexander, Julius, Augustus, Nero, Halicarnassus, Maussollos, Ephesus, Zeus?

Regards,

J

Of course;
Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Caesar Augustus, Augustine, Augustus Nero,

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

No, I used to work in financial aid at my university filing folders. One of the names was Shithead. There was also a name that was like this: T'Prin T'Pau Diana Ross. No Joke!

Was she a Vulcan R&B singer? lol

 

[JustJen]

Yeah....tell me about it....

Jennifer Lynn

BWAAAAAHHAHAHAHA! I'm Jennifer Lynn as well.....did your mom see "Love Story" too often too? She swears she didn't name me after that film, but my dad says otherwise......

 

[ortega76]

No, I used to work in financial aid at my university filing folders. One of the names was Shithead. There was also a name that was like this: T'Prin T'Pau Diana Ross. No Joke!

At the store I work in, I do most of the interviews and hiring. I've seen "Shithead" on a job application a few months ago. When the young lady called to inquire about the status of her application, she pronounced it "shah-Thayd". I laughed last week when two applications came across the same day where both applicants were named "Unique".