Edna

Is it time to put me out to pasture now? Is it time to commit me? Run for the hills, I’m going to talk about Edna!

Two things have brought me to my Edna musings. One is my genealogy research: Edna is a family name on my mother’s side. Her grandmother was an Edna, and it is my Aunt Louise’s middle name. The other is a thread on Doris on BNaBBT. I really like Doris, and the thread got me thinking about “frumpy” names.

I like Edna’s sound and history. It’s got two roots: one as an Anglicisation of Eithne, and another from Hebrew, meaning “pleasure.” I know I’m going waaay against the grain when I say I like the sound of Edna, but I personally don’t see the problem with it. Hannah is top 10 and I find it unpleasantly breathy; I much prefer the solidity of Edna. Edie is an adorable nickname, too. Edna’s a great alternative since I don’t care overmuch for Edith; seems dirty to me in a weird way. Too pioneer girl. I know a ton of people think Edna Krabappel from The Simpsons, but that doesn’t bother me too much. It’ll fade.

A few Edna combos for your perusal

• Edna Daisy
• Edna Beatrix
• Edna Frances (unrepentantly “frumpy”)
• Edna Lucienne
• Edna Penelope
• Edna Catherine
• Edna Marianne
• Edna Jessamine

Too lazy to do some three namers. I’ve been on a single middle name kick lately anyway. There are two or three up there that make my heart go aflutter, but I’m not going to bias you guys!

So, let me have it. Tell me what you think of Edna. You won’t hurt my feelings, promise.

 

Family Tree Names IV

Anyone else feel like crap? I’ve had some sort of bug this weekend and it knocked me out. Luckily the only thing I have now is a runny nose and sore throat, but it hurts like the dickens!

Anyway, Ancestry is letting me look at other people’s trees again (don’t tell them ;)), so I’ve been able to make some more tentative progress. If you don’t mind, I’ll run you through my process, so no one has a heart attack over my sourcing. First, my tree is private. No one can see anything on it, so they can’t use possibly wrong information from it. Anyway, I use the other trees to get a foot in the door, hint wise. Sometimes I work straight from books and other sources, but they’re difficult to find since I can’t really travel. So if I think John Smith’s mother was, say, Elinor McGillacutty, I can google her and see if there’s any books or websites backing me up. Not the most sound research technique, I know, but I work with what I’ve got. You guys probably don’t care too much about that, though, as long as I’ve got names to share!  Anyway, the list!

 

Honoring a Male Relative with a Boring Name: Part II

See here for the explanation, if you can’t figure out what we’re doing here. 😉 (Note: I’m not doing nicknames as other forms, since, well, they’re nicknames. I might do a post on nicknames I consider passable as full names at some point. You won’t see Sasha or Ned here.)

• Edward: Duarte, Eduard, Eduardo, Edvard, Edmund
  • Eduarda
• Christopher: Christoph/e, Cristobal, Kester, Christian
  • Christine, Christina, Christabel, Kirsten
• Joseph: Jose, Giuseppe
  • Josephine, Josepha, Josephina, Giuseppina
• Alexander: Alasdair, Alejandro, Aleksander, Alesander, Alessandro, Oleksander
  • Alexandra, Alejandra, Alessandra, Alexandrine, Sandrine
• James: Akiva, Diego, Giacomo, Hamish, Iago, Jacob, Jacobo, Jacobus, Jago, Jacques, Santiago, Seamus, Yakov
  • Jacobine/a, Jacomina, Jacqueline, Jamesina

If anyone’s got any more male names they’d like me to include, pipe up and I’ll throw them on here.

 

Honoring a Male Relative with a Boring Name: Part I

I know that many, many naming sites have exhaustive lists on how to honor a relative with an unsavory name, but I still thought it would be fun to do my own, considering I don’t always agree with their suggestions. You can always use the same first letter, of course, but if you’re more of a stickler for similarity (like me!), maybe you can find these lists of some help. I’m going to stick to different international forms of the name, but I might end up doing a “similar in sound” list later.

• John: Johann, Ivan, Evan, Sean, Hamish, Ian, Jens
  • Jean, Jane, Giovanna, Joan, Joanna, Sinead, Siobhan
• Richard: Ricardo
  • Ricarda
• Anthony: Antony, Antonio, Antoine
  • Antonia, Antoinette, Antonina
• Timothy: Timoteo, Timo
  • Timothea
• Michael: Miguel, Mikhail, Miles, Milo
  • Michaela, Michelle, Michela
• Robert: Roberto, Robin, Rupert
  • Robin
• William: Wilhelm, Willem
  • Willa, Wilhelmina
• David: Taavi
  • Davina
• Thomas: Tavish, Tomas
  • Thomasina, Tamsin
• Mark: Marcus, Marco, Marcello, Marcos, Marek
  • Marcella, Marcia
• Charles: Carl, Carlo, Carlos
  • Charlotte, Carla, Carlotta, Caroline, Carolina
• Stephen: Etienne, Stefan, Tahvo, Esteban
  • Stephanie, Estefania

 

My “Honoring” Names

I have a billion papers to do, so a quick post today. In case you guys are ever confused about why I use certain names often, they’re probably honoring. Here’s a list of the names of people I’d consider honoring, for reference.

 

A Q and A with my Other Half

So I was recently asked by Lola why Daphne was not my #1, as I love it so much. I responded that my boyfriend doesn’t like it. Given that I do take his taste into account, I thought it might be interesting to give you guys a peek into his naming tastes and preferences. He’s not really into names at all; he just likes to humor me. Question and Answer format for the hell of it.

 

Family Tree Names III

Just a short one today, went out shopping and  carousing earlier, so let’s do another found of family tree names! I worked on the tree yesterday so I should have some new ones. Excuse any repeats:

Girls

• Damaris
• Christiana
• Freelove Bliss (different Freelove than last time!)
• Maa (wtf?)
• Content
• Wait
• Freeborn
• Bethiah

Boys

• Alphenus
• Rowland
• Sylvanus (I can’t even comprehend the awesome of this name)

 

Family Tree Names, Pt. II

Well, I’ve been even further engrossed into my family tree, so this morning (technically afternoon but whatever) I’ll treat you guys to some more interesting names I’ve found. I’ll probably be posting on a more regular schedule as well. I’ve put down my first payment for the semester, so I won’t be quite so stressed. Thanks for sticking around, though!

• Jannetje Arentsen (Dutch, born 1602)
• Ardella
• Hennry Clay (first and middle name, born around 1891 in Maryland)
• Minerva Briggs
• Julian Carpenter (immigrant to US in 1623, woman!)
• Laetitia Mae Cleaver (born 1891 in Delaware)
• Freelove Dandley
• Jerusha Davis
• Amicia De Alfreton (born around 1200, tentative, of course)
• Desire Doty (born in Plymouth colony)
• Dorus Van Wike Doty (born around 1824, Vermont)
• Harriet Kelly Doty (b 1816; Interesting because of Kelly on a girl. It was probably a surname, though.)
• Ariantje Fransen (Dutch, male)

I think I’ll stop there. I’m only to the Fs and already have enough! Anything tickle anyone’s fancy?

 

Family Tree Names

I’ve been doing some research into my family tree. So far, I’ve been able to work my way up my mother’s side a good ways, and while it’s not certain, I’ve found a good many interesting names anyway. Since it’s Christmas Eve, I’ll save myself some time and just do a list. I omitted last names I didn’t feel comfortable putting up.

Women

• Gula Elma Young
• Alice Hogg (how unfortunate!)
• Armina (2) (First one was born 1815) Any ideas what this is?
• Marian (maybe Miriam, Merriam, etc)
• Mercy Taft
• Lucretia Geesje De Long
• Marion Theresa
• Anna Isabella and Isabella Adelaide (twins)
• Marbury Place (first-last)

Men

• Asborn (Might be Osborn, Osbern, etc)
• Charles Cecil
• Stutely (or Stukely) Stafford
• Palmer Cleveland (Late 1600s!)
• Bayard
• Morris

And with that, I’ll leave Merry Christmas wishes to anyone who wants them. Otherwise, Happy Chanukkah, Kickin Kwanzaa, and I hope you had a good Solstice.