Absalom, Soloman, Samuel Forenames

[supermoussi]

Sometimes children are given names that are particular to a family, sometimes to an area, and sometimes to a historical event like the reign of a monarch. So forenames can sometimes be highly relevant in indicating relatedness, and sometimes not.

I am interested in a family in North East Gloucs who used the names Absalom, Soloman and Samuel from the 1600s to the 1700s. Is this typical of most families in the area, at these times, or is it more likely to have been a "family name" ?

Thanks 

[CaroleW]

See also broadly similar query on

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,471159.msg3310743.html#msg3310743

[supermoussi]

Which Carol has "kindly" locked 

[supermoussi]

Whoops! Sorry Carole, it appears that "aghadowey" locked it. Seems to be, imo, a case of over-zealous administration as the questions were aimed at both the regional level and at the national level, which, again imo, are prefectly valid in genealogical research, as they are quite likely to yield different results.

[Arranroots]

The topic has been left as a sign-post to this one, hence preventing duplication of effort.

 


Absalom, Soloman and Samuel are all Biblical names and could be said to be more prevalent in non-conformist or possibly Jewish families though I have no scientific evidence for this assertion.  There were plenty of non-conformists in Gloucestershire, especially the south-west of the county.

[supermoussi]

Thanks arranroots.

The wiki definition of non-conformist is:-

"In England, after the Act of Uniformity 1662 a Nonconformist was an English subject belonging to a non-Christian religion or any non-Anglican church. A person who also advocated religious liberty may also be more narrowly considered as such. English Dissenters (such as Puritans and Presbyterians) who violated the Act of Uniformity 1559 may retrospectively be considered Nonconformists, typically by practising or advocating radical, sometimes separatist, dissent with respect to the Established Church.

Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Quakers (founded in 1648), and those less organized were considered Nonconformists at the time of the 1662 Act of Uniformity. Later, as other groups formed, they were also considered Nonconformists. These included Methodists, Unitarians, and members of the Salvation Army."

Why would it be that non-conformists chose those names? Did they have any special relevance to radicalism, puritanism, etc?

[Arranroots]

Hi Supermoussi

I don't claim to be any kind of expert - but I don't doubt that we have one somewhere on Rootschat!

I'm just pointing out what I have observed.  You will also find "entertaining" names like Cinderella and Sindonia in the Stroud area - not sure how often they occur elsewhere in the country!

 

[Darwin]

Sometimes children are given names that are particular to a family, sometimes to an area, and sometimes to a historical event like the reign of a monarch. So forenames can sometimes be highly relevant in indicating relatedness, and sometimes not.

I am interested in a family in North East Gloucs who used the names Absalom, Soloman and Samuel from the 1600s to the 1700s. Is this typical of most families in the area, at these times, or is it more likely to have been a "family name" ?

Thanks 

I have found quite a lot of "Old Testament" names in Church of England baptisms for that period in rural south-west England parishes. In my own records I have Gideon and Jeremiah in the 1600/1700s but those names die out over time and I find many more becoming baptised with "new" names eg George (presumably as a result of the Hanoverian monarchs).

I suspect that rural parishes were quite slow to abandon "unfashionable" names so they might have continued longer than they did in urban areas.

[supermoussi]

Thanks arranroots and Darwin. A bit more googling yielded the following:-

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/oldtestament/section9.rhtml

The names Samuel, Absalom, Soloman, David, Joab, Nathaniel, Jonathon all are central characters in 2 Samuel and are used by the families I am interested in. Anyone would think they took a shine to that particular part of the bible, or perhaps their vicar was obsessed by it and recited it week after week?

Interestingly there was supposed to be a "landmark poetic political satire" called "Absalom and Achitophel" written by the Puritan writer John Dryden in 1681.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absalom_and_Achitophel

That too is based on the same characters and was used to satirise the rebellions of the day. According to the IGI the name Absolom wasn't used before 1688 in the family and area of interest, although of course the IGI coverage is far from 100%. Perhaps the work of John Dryden, and others like him, had an influence on the names people chose to name for their children???