My last post was about the name Cornelius, which is a name passed down over several generations of at least one branch of the Hundleby family.
In trawling through the charts, two things struck me. First, the tendency of generations to be linked in this way, children being named after one or other of their parents or grandparents and uncles, etc being honoured. Second, that the pool of names was quite small. This seems to have been the practice about 100-200 years ago, but I think that the tendency has declined.
I rather hope that my elder son, if and when he settles down and raises a family, has an eye to tradition and carries on the names Henry and, maybe Sarah for a girl. It doesn’t have to be the name used, but it provides a link, however sentimental, with the past.
We may never know how a name like Cornelius came to be given to a Bradley child in the prehistory of our records. In my own case, my wives and I agreed that she would have the final choice of names for our daughters and I for the boys.
My first wife named our first daughter after an Orkadian aunt, Jessie being a diminutive of Janet, rather than Jessica. Janet is itself a diminutive of Jane, the feminine equivalent of John. Corinne came from who knows where. I believe I’d never come across it before, but I’ve learned since that it comes from the Greek and means ‘maiden’. Ovid wrote poems to a woman named Corinna.
James received the second name, Henry, for reasons of family continuity and the third, Barrett, was his mother’s maiden name. His first, James, is one of the few boys’ names that I actually like. Names like William, George, Joseph and Henry I find old-fashioned. On the other hand I’m not fond of trendy, modern ones. I’d better not give any examples, for fear of offending people. And I wanted to avoid ‘fancy’ names like Winston or Sylvester. And I’m not fond of those beginning with vowels. This fastidiousness left me a pretty small pool, James, David, Robert, Richard, John and Michael and little else.
I did ponder on Old Testament names – Jacob, Joel, Micah, all of which can be shortened to sound normal – but was, shall we say, dissuaded.
I have a fondness for girls’ names beginning with J and my second wife’s decision on Juliet for our daughter was never a cause for disagreement. A Roman name, of course, the diminutive of Julia, but mainly a tribute to Shakespeare’s heroine.
I’ve often teased my son David that, had he been born three days later on February 14, with a Juliet in the family, he might have been called Romeo. As it was he received another from my limited supply. Nearby cousins named Richard ruled that name out. David grew up happy to bear a king’s name, but less happy to be told it meant ‘Beloved’ or even ‘Darling’.
My youngest daughter was given a queen’s name and her second name, Grace, seemed to fit naturally with it.
So there we are. Forgive me for a somewhat self-indulgent blog. Next time I’ll share my findings about the origins of the name Cornelius. It’s the least I can do, since I fear that at my age I’m unlikely to be able to revive it as a family name.
In trawling through the charts, two things struck me. First, the tendency of generations to be linked in this way, children being named after one or other of their parents or grandparents and uncles, etc being honoured. Second, that the pool of names was quite small. This seems to have been the practice about 100-200 years ago, but I think that the tendency has declined.
I rather hope that my elder son, if and when he settles down and raises a family, has an eye to tradition and carries on the names Henry and, maybe Sarah for a girl. It doesn’t have to be the name used, but it provides a link, however sentimental, with the past.
We may never know how a name like Cornelius came to be given to a Bradley child in the prehistory of our records. In my own case, my wives and I agreed that she would have the final choice of names for our daughters and I for the boys.
My first wife named our first daughter after an Orkadian aunt, Jessie being a diminutive of Janet, rather than Jessica. Janet is itself a diminutive of Jane, the feminine equivalent of John. Corinne came from who knows where. I believe I’d never come across it before, but I’ve learned since that it comes from the Greek and means ‘maiden’. Ovid wrote poems to a woman named Corinna.
James received the second name, Henry, for reasons of family continuity and the third, Barrett, was his mother’s maiden name. His first, James, is one of the few boys’ names that I actually like. Names like William, George, Joseph and Henry I find old-fashioned. On the other hand I’m not fond of trendy, modern ones. I’d better not give any examples, for fear of offending people. And I wanted to avoid ‘fancy’ names like Winston or Sylvester. And I’m not fond of those beginning with vowels. This fastidiousness left me a pretty small pool, James, David, Robert, Richard, John and Michael and little else.
I did ponder on Old Testament names – Jacob, Joel, Micah, all of which can be shortened to sound normal – but was, shall we say, dissuaded.
I have a fondness for girls’ names beginning with J and my second wife’s decision on Juliet for our daughter was never a cause for disagreement. A Roman name, of course, the diminutive of Julia, but mainly a tribute to Shakespeare’s heroine.
I’ve often teased my son David that, had he been born three days later on February 14, with a Juliet in the family, he might have been called Romeo. As it was he received another from my limited supply. Nearby cousins named Richard ruled that name out. David grew up happy to bear a king’s name, but less happy to be told it meant ‘Beloved’ or even ‘Darling’.
My youngest daughter was given a queen’s name and her second name, Grace, seemed to fit naturally with it.
So there we are. Forgive me for a somewhat self-indulgent blog. Next time I’ll share my findings about the origins of the name Cornelius. It’s the least I can do, since I fear that at my age I’m unlikely to be able to revive it as a family name.
No comments:
Post a Comment