Wow. I use to think that my husband and I had horrible names in our family tree. [name]Beaulah[/name]? [name]Albina[/name]? [name]Oscar[/name]? [name]Willard[/name]? [name]Agnes[/name]? Those names had us running to everything from fav bands to 80’s movies to find names that would have personal meaning yet sound good. Well, if your family tree is filled with names you can’t stand, DIG DEEPER! Because burried under all the [name]Mildred[/name] and Bartholds you will find gems.
Turns out that both of our families went a little name nutty in the early 1900 century! Before that, more subtle and sophisticated names were being handed down. I haven’t made my list of fave boy names yet, because the names [name]John[/name], [name]Joseph[/name], [name]Richard[/name], [name]Louis[/name] and [name]Stephen[/name] dominate for quite a few generations, but here are a few gems we found in our tree:
[name]Johanna[/name] – This was on [name]BOTH[/name] sides of our families.
[name]Hazel[/name] – Absolutely charming, I think.
[name]Ella[/name] [name]Mae[/name] – not a name I was expecting to see from 1866!
[name]Eva[/name] – Nice twist to the name [name]Eve[/name]
[name]Lane[/name] – Nice twist to the name [name]Jane[/name]
I can’t wait until we get more leafs on our ancestory.com family tree to see what other names we unearth.
[name]Elias[/name] is my dad’s mn and my grandfather’s fn. That I knew but I never considered passing it along to our first sons. However since their births my cousin did a family tree and it turns out [name]Elias[/name] was also the name of grandfather’s grandfather born 1840. Now I’d like to pass it down.
I’m beginning to wonder if the men in my family were all secretly pirates! This is all from my mum’s side of the family, one day I’ll do my Dad’s side and see what gems come up. : )
In my family tree, there are a lot of [name]German[/name]-Swiss names. From the 1700’s and 1800’s there are a lot of:
[name]Johan[/name]/[name]John[/name]
[name]Andrew[/name]
[name]Adam[/name]
[name]Peter[/name]
[name]Mary[/name]/[name]Maria[/name]
[name]Katherine[/name]/[name]Catherine[/name]
On the side of my family that’s from [name]England[/name], we have just some nice, solid classic and Biblical names.
[name]John[/name]
[name]Thomas[/name]
[name]William[/name]
[name]Rachel[/name]
[name]Lydia[/name]
and way, way, waaaaay back there (early 18th century) there were some really unusual ones I’ve never seen or heard of before:
[name]Eleazer[/name]
Zelophead- I’m not even sure how you would pronounce that!
I’m also a subscriber to ancestry.com and I love some of the names I have found from years (we’re talking 1700’s) ago.
Of course some were down right awful: Greenberry (why?), Berthana, Coalie (boy), [name]Effie[/name], [name]Buford[/name]…
But some were quite charming: [name]Rainier[/name], Teka [name]Anne[/name] (wouldn’t use it but I like it), [name]Melanie[/name], [name]Asia[/name] (this was from 1900 census), [name]Gretchen[/name], and [name]Johann[/name]. There are so many more but I can’t remember them right off hand.
Zelophead is a fascinating find, parkingviolation! I wonder if it’s a variation/misspelling of Zelophehad (“Zelophehad’s Daughters” is a biblical story which also features an [name]Eleazar[/name])? I’m afraid I can’t help with the pronunciation, though.
The name [name]Edward[/name] is seen many times on both sides of my family. But the only actual family tree I’ve found is one for my mom’s side of the family. And it goes back quite a ways.
Some names are:
[name]Bertha[/name] [name]Madeline[/name] ([name]Madeline[/name] is also used on its own)
[name]Elias[/name]
[name]Violet[/name], [name]Viola[/name]
[name]Irene[/name] [name]Lillian[/name]
[name]Myrtle[/name] [name]Emma[/name]
[name]Mary[/name] [name]Alice[/name] (Lol totally reminds me of desperate housewives)
[name]Reginald[/name] [name]Maurice[/name]
[name]Truman[/name] (also used several times in my family)
[name]Samuel[/name] Estrom
[name]Julia[/name] [name]Ethel[/name]
[name]Jeremiah[/name] Hebbert
[name]Harvey[/name] [name]Alexander[/name]
[name]Clarence[/name] [name]Wellington[/name]
[name]Julia[/name] [name]Etter[/name]
[name]Mabel[/name] [name]Vaughan[/name] (married [name]Percy[/name] [name]Leander[/name] just thought I mention it cause I love the name [name]Leander[/name]. And WDYT about [name]Vaughan[/name] as a middle name for a girl? Lol I didn’t expect it then I saw it in my family tree and I was like woah!)
Labra [name]Almeda[/name]
[name]William[/name] [name]Nelson[/name]
(I just used the post I made for today’s nameberry blog)