An unusual given name

[IgorStrav]

Mysterious 'middle' names are very interesting.

My aunt had the middle name Bruce, and when some years ago I asked her children why, they said that they didn't know, and neither did she.

OH's father and aunt had the middle name Marsden, and when m-i-l was asked why, she said that OH's father had never known the reason, it was a mystery. 

However, on further investigation (by me!) it emerged that OH's father's mother had married a man called Marsden, and OH's father had been known by that surname up till WW1, when it changed to the current surname borne by the family.  We have an image of his enlistment with the Marsden name crossed out and another name (his mother's maiden name) put in.

I think it will be impossible that OH's father didn't know his grandparents were Mr and Mrs Marsden, and understand why there might have been a name change.

We explained to m-i-l that birth out of wedlock was involved and she said the equivalent of "well, I never did!, he never knew that!". But I bet they all did really.

And did my aunt really not know why her middle name was Bruce?  Well she never told, whatever the case.

I suppose after that long and involved story - are you all still with me? - my point is that family stories are just what people choose to tell you, not necessarily the actual truth.

[Paul J Ballard]

In my 40+ year One Name Study of Ballards I have come across a few unusual given names but one family in particular takes the prize for having a cluster!

William Ballard (1819 - 1900) married Ann Gelina Randall, already a hint of what may follow, in 1850 in Southwark. Their first child William Augustus dies shortly before their second child arrived & not unusually they reused the name but in reverse order, Augustus William. Sadly he also died young & a few years later Rudolph Herbert arrives. All boys so far & not overly unusual but then they finish with a flourish on three daughters, Hadassah Leonilda (1860), Cleanthus Avicenna (1864) & Quintilia Glaphyra (1867). It was fun researching what their names meant as much as following their lives!

[coombs]

In Suffolk and Essex I have found quite a few middle names that sound like surnames, and even first names that sound like surnames. The odd one may have been illegitimate.

In 1780, my ancestor Mary Newman Smith wed James Webb in Foulness in Essex. I guess Mary was born about 1760. I have never found a baptism for her, her middle name could mean her mothers maiden name, a further back family name, or a friend of the family/pillar of the community, or she was baseborn and a Mr Newman was her father, and his name given as a middle name.

Such middle names, or surname sounding first names can be handy.

[Pennines]

IRudolph Herbert arrives. All boys so far & not overly unusual but then they finish with a flourish on three daughters, Hadassah Leonilda (1860), Cleanthus Avicenna (1864) & Quintilia Glaphyra (1867). It was fun researching what their names meant as much as following their lives!

I wonder if Quintilia was regarded as the 5th child?
The family I mentioned earlier, where a son had been given the 3 names of a vicar - ended up in New Zealand - they had 16 children -- the tenth one, a daughter - had the middle name of Decima.
That was handy - as I then knew I had the right number of children, up to that point anyway!

[coombs]

I have a Deverson Titshall in my extended tree. There are several families of that surname in the area of Suffolk he came from (Beccles/Bungay).

[Pennines]

Oh Gosh coombs -- I really like the given name of Deverson. Sounds very autocratic and posh!

As for the surname -- not sure what to say...........

IgorStrav I haven't forgotten that you kindly asked me to let you know how I get on with finding out if Needress was a surname from a past ancestor.

I haven't checked back yet.

[Pheno]

I have an Alice Hypatia Bond, the 13th of 14 children, b. 1891 in London.  No other peculiar names in the family.

It has always bugged me how on earth her parents, a baker and his wife, knew the name of a Greek Neoplatonist philsopher, astonomer and mathematician born about 360 BC in Alexandria in Egypt (according to Google)!

Pheno

[Viktoria]

It’s The Elgin Marbles !
No ,not sure of the date they were pinched from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin
We had a lovely lady at Church - Hilaria-
She was a laugh too!
Viktoria.

[Pheno]

Elgin Marbles transported to Britain about 1810 - so not that then.

Pheno