Do You Have an Odd First & Middle Name in Your 19th Century Ancestry?

Question

I had previously come across the first and middle name "Lorenzo Dow" when working on an ancestral line.  I had no idea where it came from and assumed that he was named after a yet undiscovered relative or friend. I just read Lynn Betlock's article about the same name, and my eyes were opened to possibilities about other odd names.in my ancestry.

We would all recognize that someone with the name George Washington Anybody or Benjamin Franklin Person was named after a famous person, but I didn't recognize Lorenzo Dow.  Lynn explains that Lorenzo Dow was an itinerant preacher in the early 19th century.  Although we may not have heard of him today, he was extremely well known to the people of his time.  You can read Lynn's article, "History of a Cosmopolite" at Vita-Brevis, from AmericanAncestors.org. You can also find Lorenzo Dow in Wikipedia.

From now, if I come across a name that doesn't seem to fit, I am going to forget my assumptions and trying searching for people with the same name. Just because I don't recognize the names of people who were familiar in earlier times doesn't mean that they didn't influence our ancestors.

 

Comments

Lorenzo Dow has a profile on WikiTree at http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dow-1037

And, Hmmph!  I just noticed that it's been over a year since I posted a message on his wife's profile asking for her LNAB to be changed from Unknown to Holcomb.

Answer 1

Huh.

"His autobiography became a bestseller and the 1850 U.S. Census counts Lorenzo as one of the most popular first names in America".

That explains what I see with male names in the 19th Century.

Answer 2

I get a kick out of tracking down the non-family namesakes of 19th-century ancestors.

When I saw that my great-grandfather had a sister with the first name and middle name of Harriet Newell, I looked for a Newell connection in his family, but then I discovered that Harriet (Atwood) Newell had been very famous as a New England Protestant version of a Christian martyr -- the young wife who had died while accompanying her Protestant missionary husband to India. Many girls were named Harriet Newell Something in her honor. I ended up creating Harriet's profile at http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Atwood-943 and filling in a lot of her genealogy.

That same great-grandfather had a brother named for another prominent New England preacher who wasn't nearly as famous as Lorenzo Dow, but also seems to have had many namesakes: Edward Payson (1783-1827). I assume he was related to Edward Payson (1613-1691) of Nazeing, Essex, and Dorchester, Massachusetts, but I've not found the genealogy to connect him up.

Answer 3

My ggrandfather Kirby Smith Miller made me wonder and I found out that there was a Confederate General named Kirby Smith.  He would have been in the news at the time my GGrandfather was born so I assume that explains why the name happened, but why a confederate general was honored for an Ohio  farm boy, I can't say.  I suppose I should check and see if the General has a profile or not.

Comments

Actually his full name is Edmund Kirby Smith, Kirby being his mother's maiden name.  His profile is on Wikitree ID = Smith-39301 . He shows a Suffix of CSA which brings up the question  of whether this is prop0er since the recommended  practice is only to put a suffix at birth in the suffix field.

Answer 4

Interesting. My great grandfather is named Lorenzo Dow Hardy born in 1874 in Tennessee.

I had never heard the name before, and could not find any namesakes elsewhere in my family tree.

 

Answer 5

I have 2 Lorenzo Dows in my branches (one unconnected so far, according to DNA.) LD Tipton, and LD Lofton. Even more strange for me, is the amounts I come across in my research. Some of my Lorenzo's in my tree may also have the middle name Dow as well. Since I've been working on trees for my half brother, and my 1st cousin once removed as well, the are everywhere it seems. The unconnected LD Tipton, has been on my Radar since I got put into a DNA circle for him on ancestry.

Another name I thought was peculiar (at first) is Green, or Green Berry. If anyone is a Duke, you know the chaos created by these fresh hatchlings!

Then, Mary "Polly". How many Mary's in the world were called Polly instead? Apparently 4000000000.

My coolest name is Tecumseh. That Green Berry, (Tecumseh's father) had very cool names for all his family, like Leather (pronounced Letha), Remus, Romulus, Ransom, Cleveland Maze, Shadrack, eldorado, and Jearlie.

Comments

I have a Shadrack in my ancestry! It wasn't his birth name I don't think, but it's what he went by as an adult.

Also I have a Herodias, but she was baptised as Rhoda.

---

Polly is a standard, albeit old-fashioned, nickname for Mary. Just like how Sally is a nickname for Sarah. It probably came from that rhyming sing-song nicknaming the English were so found of (Molly-Polly, Willy-Billy, Meggy-Peggy, etc.).

Answer 6

I have several Lorenzo Dows in my family and one of them is a brick wall, so I took to researching the name Lorenzo Dow a long time ago.

I have a long line of Blaneys - every Blaney I have ever encountered has been related, no matter how distantly.

I also have 3 Thornley Mattsons and I have never found another, and I have no idea where they originate from.

Spread across 19th-20th century is my grandpa and his siblings (he was the baby born about 1901 are his SISTERS  Homo  and Elmo and his BROTHER Lacey, he thankfully got the sensible name of Henry Otto.  Homo died at the age of 10, and I used to say she just couldn't live with her name. Lacey changed his to Earl for I suspect similar reason. Elmo kept hers and my mother was named after her. She forbid anyone from ever saying her name outloud. I didn't even have it on family tree records until she died. She was just E.

Answer 7

Interesting! I also have a Lorenzo Dow in my tree - the brother of my 4th great gma. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Brussman-7

I always thought it an odd name, but never knew it was after a famous preacher. Eric's comments about the 1850 census made me think about the name Lorenzo - I definitely do see it quite frequently among siblings, cousins, spouses, etc. of my ancestors.

I always love when parents named their children after a famous figure. It's like a little insight into who they admired, what their political beliefs were, etc. Of course there are plenty sons named George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Lafayette, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, though I've also seen a few John Adams. Some others I have are a William Lewis Dayton Brown (born 1858) and his brother, Winfield Scott Brown (born 1852), Chester Arthur Stanley (born 1887). In my Quaker lines, several children (boys and girls alike) were given the middle name of Coffin. I was quite perplexed by this name until I realized they were likely named after the Quaker abolitionist Levi Coffin.

I also have quite a few William Harrisons/William Henry Harrisons. A boy named Ora Lee Forest in 1868 is also a mystery.

Comments

I have an ancestral cousin named Grover Cleveland after the president. Another great-uncle-however many times removed named one of his daughters Lola Montez, after the salacious dancer and wild woman!