Old Dictionary w/a Name Section!

General Name Discussion
1

I love old dictionaries (well, old books in general) and today I bought [name]Webster[/name]'s New Collegiate Dictionary copyrighted 1959. As I was flipping through it I saw a section titled Pronouncing Common English Given Names. It was really cool to look at some of the names that we wouldn’t think of as common nowadays, or ever. There were a lot of interesting ones that*included:
[name]Aloysius[/name]
[name]Chauncey[/name]
[name]Boniface[/name]
[name]Balthazar[/name]
[name]Ignatius[/name]
[name]Thurston[/name]
[name]Ethelbert[/name]
[name]Pius[/name]
[name]Silvanus[/name]
[name]Albina[/name]
Alphonsia
Aspasia
[name]Beata[/name]
[name]Dagmar[/name]
[name]Malvina[/name]
[name]Thekla[/name]/[name]Thecla[/name]
[name]Ulrica[/name]
[name]Urania[/name]

I was surprised by the amount of feminizations. There were also names that seemed extremely modern:
[name]Archer[/name]
[name]Dexter[/name]
[name]Ian[/name]
[name]Jock[/name] (Scottish form of [name]Jack[/name]; looks like the ultimate manly word name)
[name]Moss[/name]
[name]Myles[/name]/[name]Miles[/name] (yooneek anyone?)
[name]Pierce[/name]
[name]Rex[/name]
[name]Urban[/name]
[name]Zeke[/name]*
[name]Alix[/name]
[name]Honor[/name]
[name]Adele[/name]
Xina

There were also a lot of names we’d consider unisex on the males side (no big surprise there). Two I had never thought of being in the boys’ camp at all: [name]Esme[/name] and [name]Noel[/name]. So, what do you think? Does anyone else love dictionaries and words? It seems to go hand-in-hand, love of words and of names.*

2

I love words and names too :slight_smile: This is very interesting and I have a lot of old dictionaries sitting around too.

I liked:

[name]Aloysius[/name]
[name]Chauncey[/name]
[name]Balthazar[/name]
[name]Silvanus[/name] ***
[name]Dexter[/name]
[name]Miles[/name]
[name]Rex[/name]
[name]Zeke[/name]*

3

Awesome!
I really like [name]Aloysius[/name], [name]Balthazar[/name], [name]Pius[/name], [name]Beata[/name] ([name]LOVE[/name] this! It’s really high on my list), [name]Thecla[/name], [name]Archer[/name], [name]Ian[/name], [name]Jock[/name] (this is the name of the Scottish terrier on Lady and the Tramp, haha), [name]Miles[/name]/ [name]Myles[/name] (I used to coach a kid named [name]Myles[/name]. I don’t really consider it a yooneek spelling), [name]Pierce[/name], and [name]Adele[/name].
[name]Esme[/name] and [name]Noel[/name] are both boy names to me. Esmé is also masculine. [name]Noelle[/name] and Esmee/Esmée are the feminine forms, in my mind.

I looooove dictionaries and words. I actually read dictionary entries for my own amusement from time to time. I have a few books about the history of words and language, too.
Thanks for sharing!

4

OH! I grew up with that edition of the dictionary in my home and I credit it with my name obsession that persists to this day!