Question of the Week: What's the most unusual name you've found in your family tree? [closed]

Question

We've all struggled with the families who use the same names generation after generation. When we come across someone who dared to be different, it's like a breath of fresh air, AND it makes it easier to trace those ancestors.

What unusual names have you found?

 

Comments

I have two LittleBerrys:  LittleBerry Shields and his grandson, LittleBerry Chandler.  A southern thing?

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I just read the will of one Solomon Wood, of Jefferson County, Georgia... His son's names?? Green Wood, Red Wood and White Wood,

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I also have a Theophilis, my 3rd or 4th GGG was Theophilis Thompson.

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Classical Roman-Greco names rated right up there with the  Biblical names.

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I've come across a Clapsaddle somewhere on my mother's side, a relative of one of her 3 marriages. Some names should be changed, please!

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one family I found, with the surname of Branch, they named their sons, Forrest and Oak, and their daughters, Olie and Leafy Glenn.

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Just found a new one:

Increase Clapp

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That is cruel. What were they thinking? LOL

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LOL !

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It would have to be Mey(i)nolph,the first name of a maternal 8th Great-Grandfather Happe who probably was born in Germany during the late 17th Century.

Answer 1

Puritan names (such as Mehitible) are always fun.  There were two women in my tree named Deliverance Newton, (aunt and niece, Puritans tended to marry relatives).  Jaazaniah Newton.  And a couple of Mercy's, a Keziah, a Charity, Patience, etc.

Answer 2

The given name Zolliecoffer, apparently named after a Civil War Confederate general. I hadn't ever heard of that one before!

Answer 3

I have two great Aunts that were named  Lovie and Dovie Huie.  They also had a brother named Flake Huie.

Answer 4

This name is not actually in my tree, but sort of an offshoot, I've never heard of before, ORANGE. In fact, there was 2 of them, one was the father one the son, but they had 2 different middle names.

Answer 5

Cinderella

Answer 6

Keeping it short, my paternal grandfather was tagged,

Leonidas Dunreath Wallace b. 4 Jun 1860 d. 20 Jul 1934.

My being William Warner Wallace, and thinking I'm Scottish,

is a puzzlement, because his (Lee was his nickname) siblings

all had common names, to wit his father was John H(maybe for his

fathers first name Hugh) and John's wife was Susan McFadden,

another Scotch Irish name.

So why a first name of Greek origin, and the second was from some

English Castle.

Go figure

Answer 7

Chapel Pinkney Dudley

Answer 8

Solathael as in Joel Solathael Bales b. Beals. No one knew Granddad's middle name and all said he didn't have one. Guess he just didn't appreciate it! An only boy with 7 sisters. I find Salathiel means, "I asked of god". Was this humor?

Answer 9

On a small tree I have been working on (Not on WT yet), I came across the first name  DOCTOR. I have full sources for it.

I thought it unusual, and not wanting to rummage through my research notes, so I could add it to this discussion, I just entered Doctor as First name, and England as location on Family Search, and to my surprise there were pages and pages of them.

Not so uncommon after all.

Answer 10

Jaile, very different

Answer 11

I guess the most unusual name in my ancestry is Ambrose Spencer Murray; he was my 4th Great Uncle and he did have a son who he named Ambrose Spencer Murray Jr.

Answer 12

Thanks for the diversion. It was fun. 

Some of these names (old Quaker Biblical ones often, it seems) were pretty common, as it turns out. 

I refer anyone who enjoyed reading all these (or even half of them) to Public Radio's "Car Talk," which ends it's weekly program with a litany of bizzare sound-alikes for their "credits" like: their Chief Legal Counsel, Hugh Louis Dewey, of Dewey, Cheetham & Howe, or their Russian Chauffeur, Picov Andropov. Here is a link for many, many more: [http://www.cartalk.com/content/staff-credits]

Bob S.

 

Comments

Prairie Home Companion did the same thing.  Page Turner worked there.

Answer 13

It's funny - as I've gone along, some names that originally seemed outlandish are now nothing to think twice about!

These are both from my own family and interesting names I've come across while helping friends.

Female: Asenath, Averilla, Purlina, Iziphina, Dicy, Maris (probably named after her father's maternal grandmother, who's last name was Maris), Zita (went by "Zite"), Tennie, Wilmot, Paralee, Anthenia, Zuby, Ogareta, Posey, Zephonia, Ozena, Wonedith, Leatrice, Reka, Dulcenia, Gulielma, Modeska, Thursey, Ludenie, Ufame, America, Amazona, Eldora, Capitola, Electra, Leoma, Dortha, Delphina, Myrtilla, Sophronia, Sevela, Salome, Phedora, Juritta, Cyrena, Orpha, Nedra, Narcissa, Elzina, Marilda, Manzanilla (went by Manza), Lurainey, John Beatrice, Ione, Hixey, Guilda, Eureka, Erie, Cynthiana

Male: Drewry (I've seen it once or twice but it sure tripped up anyone writing down his name!), Van (just Van, nothing else), Eusebius, Flavius, Hiram, Ryce, Asahel, Zadoc, Ahimaaz, Elda, Albanus, Barzillai, Marcellus, Cassius Mountain Clay, Reason, Wiseman, Burdella, Drummond, Kinion, Ledru Rollo, Lovelace, Needham, Onoro, Zimri, Zeno, Pointeaux

I think the most amazing thing I've seen was from helping a friend out with her tree - we found that her 4th great grandparents had two daughters, Martha Amaranth and Capitola, and eight sons ALL with X names - Xerxes, Xenophen, Xanthus, Xylander, Ximenes, Xuthus, Xystus, and Xenia. Now THAT took some effort, especially for the 1860s-80s.

Answer 14

Oddest I've seen is Zilphia

Answer 15

So far, the favorite in my family tree is the title: Alexander, First Lord Dufus. Not surprisingly, the Dufuses did not have a Lord until the 1600's. One has to ask, "What kind of a dufus would want to be called Lord of the Dufuses?

Comments

I yield oh Lord.

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I have yet to find a connection with the Dufeses, but, knowing my family, I am sure that there is. LOL

Answer 16

Whipsewwassen Wahanganoche Arroyah. I kid you not

Answer 17

Mehitable Fish

Me hit able fish. hahaha

Answer 18

Arlington comes up in my father's line a few times, most recently my uncle's middle name, and on the other side I have a distant aunt named  Septima.

Answer 19

My grandfather was Freas Brown Saunders.  I think that there was a Freas Brown on the town council when he was born.  Looking for his name gives me a known place in any family tree.

Answer 20

Some of my favorites are:

Bois John Prudden, Adonirum Prudden,  and Kezia Prudden.

There was also a Boyce John Prudden.