Odd Forenames in your Family?

[KGarrad]

Odd names in one family won't necessarily be odd to others!

I have planty of surnames being used as first names:
Garrad Baker
Baker Garrad being 2 obvious ones.
Whitmore
Golding
Barrymore

but also:

Iden
Jesabell
Kipps
Winogene
Jubilus
Tubeles
Freelove    to name but a few!

My grandson of 1 year is called Bentley - 200 or so of them in 1901 census.

[BumbleB]

My great grandfather's first name was Al(l)ison, and he had a cousin with the same name, plus a brother-in-law and he had an uncle with that name.  So four of them in quite a small area.  We think that is strange, but if you analyse the name Alison, then it is logical for it to be a male forename - son of Alice.

BumbleB

[Redroger]

Odd names in one family won't necessarily be odd to others!

My mother's Ayres/Cornwell clan has this habit too, the surnames Stubbing, Holmes and Ayres being used across the surnames and generations as forenames. I have several Stubbing Ayres and at least one Holmes Cornwell, they do come in useful for tracking purposes when someone marries out of the clan, the resultant "Ayres Smith" etc. is a certain sign of relationship.

[joboy]

Got a couple of odd ones with these but their father was a grammar school master
Percy Herbert Benoni
Stanley Tertius Benoni
and Archer from another line who was baptised as such but disappeared forever after baptism.
joboy

[Fraser178]

Quite Odd There
Tertius sounds Latin to me, perhaps a link to their father being a grammar school master

perhaps Archer died soon after baptism?

Joel

[Windsor87]

I have personally worked with a man named Baden Powell as Christian names, also a man named Messines! Baden Powell was the founder of the scout movement and a commander in the Boer War. Messines is named for the battle of Messines Ridge in WW1. The name "Alma" which is relatively common with both boys and girls originated from the battle of Alma in the Crimean war against Russia. Likewise I have seen the word Crimea used as a girl's Christian name. The most unusual in my family in the 18th century Hieronymous, unusal not only in that it was carried by a girl usually a male name, it was grossly mis-spelt Eranamus!

I have a Baden Powell and a Redvers (nicknamed Buller) in my tree. Both were notable figures during the Boer War.

[janan]

My Allsop(p) clan from Wirksworth, Derbyshire used Wandell (various spellings) as a first name from the 1620's to the early 1800's. I nearly used it as second name for my younger son, wish I had now, but I wasn't so into family history back then.

Jan

[rancegal]

  In the Raunds PRs I am transcribing, there was a large clan of 'Ekins'. There are also families using Ekins as a forename, so I guess the MMN was Ekins. There is also 'Major' as a first name. This is in the 1700s

  My own oddest name is my aunt's name,- Veve.
  My paternal grandmother was born in Canada so I guessed the name came from there. With the help of some quick thinking by Rootschatters, the favourite explanation is that she had a friend called Genevieve, known as 'Veve', and my aunt was named after her

[Sloe Gin]

Got a couple of odd ones with these but their father was a grammar school master
Percy Herbert Benoni
Stanley Tertius Benoni

Benoni is Biblical - it was the name given to Benjamin by his mother Rachel, and means 'son of my sorrow'.  Sometimes given to children whose father had died, or whose mother died giving birth, as Rachel did. 

Genesis 35:18
And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.

Tertius suggests that he was the third child, so if he appears to be the second, I'd be looking for an older sibling who died in infancy.