Bizarre Puritan names of old

[summer]

mobile.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/09/13/puritan_names_lists_of_bizarre_religious_nomenclature_used_by_puritans.html

Puritanism has its roots in the late sixteenth century, after Henry VIII broke ties with the Catholic Church. The Puritans believed that reforms had not gone far enough and advocated for a church entirely divorced from Catholic ceremonies. For over a century, Puritans argued amongst themselves, schismed, predicted the end of the world, and still found time to fight the English Civil War and start colonies in the Northeastern United States.
Perhaps their greatest gift to history, however, is their wonderfully strange taste in names. A wide variety of Hebrew names came into common usage beginning in 1560, when the first readily accessible English Bible was published. But by the late 16th century many Puritan communities in Southern Britain saw common names as too worldly, and opted instead to name children after virtues or with religious slogans as a way of setting the community apart from non-Puritan neighbors. Often, Puritan parents chose names that served to remind the child about sin and pain.

Many Puritan names started to die out after 1662, when the newly restored monarch, Charles II, introduced new laws that cracked down on nonconformist religions and consolidated the power of the Anglican Church. Despite this, some of the names have remained in common use in Anglophone countries.

I’ve collected some of the best, worst, and strangest names the English Puritans came up with. Most of these are courtesy of the 1888 book by Charles Bardsley, Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature (seen here on the Public Domain Review’s website), which includes Parish records with details about some of the people who had these names. To show that some of these names are still in use, I've referred to 2012 statistics on names in the UK from the Guardian's interactive chart of baby names.

20 Puritan Names That Are Utterly Strange

Dancell-Dallphebo-Mark-Anthony-Gallery-Cesar. Son of Dancell-Dallphebo-Mark-Anthony-Gallery-Cesar, born 1676.

Praise-God. Full name, Praise-God Barebone. The Barebones were a rich source of crazy names. This one was a leather-worker, member of a particularly odd Puritan group and an MP. He gave his name to the Barebones Parliament, which ruled Britain in 1653.

If-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned. Praise-God's son, he made a name for himself as an economist. But, for some inexplicable reason, he decided to go by the name Nicolas Barbon.

Fear-God. Also a Barebone.
Job-raked-out-of-the-ashes

Has-descendents

Wrestling

Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith

Fly-fornication

Jesus-Christ-came-into-the-world- to-save. Brother of "Damned Barebone". I can only imagine this name shortened to "Save."

Thanks

What-God-will

Joy-in-sorrow. A name attached to many stories of difficult births.

Remember

Fear-not. His/her surname was "Helly", born 1589.

Experience

Anger

Abuse-not

Die-Well. A brother of Farewell Sykes, who died in 1865. We can assume they had rather pessimistic parents.

Continent. Continent Walker was born in 1594 in Sussex.

12 of the Cruelest Puritan Names (meant to remind children of the pain of the world)

Humiliation. Humiliation Hynde had two sons in the 1620s; he called them both Humiliation Hynde.

Fly-debate

No-merit. NoMerit Vynall was born in Warbleton in Sussex, a fount of beautiful names.

Helpless

Reformation

Abstinence

More-triale

Handmaid

Obedience

Forsaken
Sorry-for-sin. Sorry-for-sin Coupard was another resident of Warbleton.

Lament


12 Strangely Pleasant Puritan Names

Silence

Creedence

Dust

Diffidence

Desire. In the UK, seven babies were named this in 2012.

Make-peace. This name was in use at least until 1863; see William Makepeace Thackeray, the novelist.

Ashes

Tace. It's another word for silence, and is of course a female name.

Placidia

Kill-sin. Kill-sin Pimple did Jury service in the 1650s.

Freegift

Vanity

10 of the Sweetest Puritan Names

Jolly
Liberty. 129 were born in the UK in 2012.

Tenacious

Happy

Felicity. 302 babies got this name in 2012.

Hope. 416 babies took this name in 2012.

Prudence. 13 babies got this name in 2012.

Amity. 5 babies got this name in 2012.

Verity. 131 babies were born with this name in 2012.

Trinity. 69 Trinities were born in 2012.

The name saw a burst in popularity in 1999—due to a particular film, I suppose.

Despite their eccentricities, the Puritans did leave us some beautifully resonant names. Names like Verity, Felicity, and Hope more than make up for the Humiliations, Die-wells, and Kill-sins.

Kill-sin Pimple probably wouldn't have agreed. But, to be fair, his first name was only half of his problem.

[terpsfan]

I always think of Temperance when I think Puritan names. And who is naming their kid Vanity???

[terpsfan]

Reading fail I read verity as vanity

[StrawberryBlondie]

That's it. This kid is totally being named Fly-fornication.

[Deleted]

When I think Puritan names I think of Cotton Mather and his father Increase Mather

[mouse]

I think Learned Hand, but I'm not 100% it's Puritan.

I have a fondness for Medieval naming conventions too. It was common to try and find a wealthy godparent for your kids in hopes they'd give them a leg up. And then name the kid after them for good measure. Which is how you get a family with 12 sons named William.

[Miss Phryne Fisher]

LOL Septimus you edited it in the second I quoted you to add Increase :-)

I kind of like Puritan names. In Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Big George has a son named Wonderful Counselor (it is from the bible, unto us a child is born and he shall be called Wonderful Counselor). He got virtually no play in the movie but was one of my favorites in the book. He went by WC Peavy.

[meshaliuknits]

Navaeh aint got nothing on Fly Debate.

Pimple in an.... unfortunate surname.

Sent from my EVO

[ttt]

What's up with the Fly- prefix?

[auntie]

I come from this stock. My guilty pleasure Puritan girl name is "Merit". A couple generations ago we had Hopes, Constances, Faiths and a Charity.

[LoveTrains]

I know someone IRL with the last name Makepeace.

[Deleted]

So many of the Puritan virtue names are my guilty pleasure names: Deliverance, Temperance, Charity, Prudence, Patience, Hope, Faith, Honor, Constance, Verity, etc. Love 'em. My DH never would have gone for any of them though unfortunately.

[cattledogkisses]

Well it's a good thing this went out of vogue. Just imagine trying to fill in the bubbles for "If-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned" on an SAT test form.

[ESF]

Sept 14, 2013 21:18:53 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

I know someone IRL with the last name Makepeace.

So do I. Or I did, I think she passed away, though I imagine her family is still around.

Her first name is not on this list, but was definitely along these lines.

[LoveTrains]

Sept 15, 2013 10:52:07 GMT -5 @lcap said:

So many of the Puritan virtue names are my guilty pleasure names: Deliverance, Temperance, Charity, Prudence, Patience, Hope, Faith, Honor, Constance, Verity, etc. Love 'em. My DH never would have gone for any of them though unfortunately.

My next door neighbor's first name is Charity!

You guys just inspired me to do some more playing around on ancestry.com. Now that I am a DAR member I think my next quest will be to determine if I'm eligible to join the Mayflower Society - I have definitely confirmed four ancestors that came to Massachusetts in the 1630s but I'm not sure if I have any that were on the Mayflower. 

[ringstrue]

I swear all my 1700s US ancestors have the same 5 damn names. William, Catherine, and John are the top 3.

Still, people had a different sense of what "official" meant at different times. We have a need to give an official first and last name exactly the same way over and over on all paperwork. But for plenty of people, the only time they ever even wrote their name officially was every 10 years on a census (if then). Beyond that they just used nicknames. So you have situations where the paperwork says names that weren't really ever used and no one knew each other by.

[msmerymac]

Sept 14, 2013 21:18:53 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

I know someone IRL with the last name Makepeace.

Me too. But their parents changed the family name to Makepeace. There are 4 sons, all with that last name. 

[ChillyMcFreeze]

I went to college with a Patience.