What’s in a Name?

My grandparents had the daunting task of coming up with names for their fifteen children. Many of them sounded very strange to my young ears, but a closer examination reveals old fashioned Victorian names plus creative rhyming ones for the twins. Maude, Bertha, Faye, and Velma are names we seldom hear nowadays, but they were popular in the 1800’s.

And for each set of twins it is obvious that an effort was made to have them sound alike. The names Velma and Selma, Boyd and Maude, Eva and Era, Faye and Wade, as well as Gene and Adine (pronounced to rhyme with Gene) all show that someone gave the naming process some careful thought. But to me they sounded very odd and even weird.

And the pronunciation of them could be different, too. Uncle Andrew (pronounced Andra) married a woman named Oma (pronounced Omie).

At the next generation level there was an array of names that boggles the mind even today. Juanice, Lavonia, Lawan, LaDean, O’Neal, O’Bion, and Lynval are examples of a few of them. While I don’t remember making fun of the names, I do remember discussing the oddity of them at home. We just didn’t know anyone else with names like those.

In the end, I believe that Shakespeare (Juliet) had it right: it’s not the name that’s important, it’s the person. And we very much admired our aunts, uncles, and cousins for their toughness in dealing with their difficult daily life on the farm.