A number of boys were called George Washington in 1776 after the great American hero of Independence.
It’s Independence Day today on the other side of the Pond, and to celebrate, I thought I’d explore the names given to babies the year that the Declaration of Independence was signed. Using the records available online at FamilySearch (a great genealogical resource provided by the Church of Latter Day Saints), I waded through over 1000 records to take a snapshot of what newly independent Americans were naming their offspring in 1776. Unsurprisingly, the commonest names were John, Joseph, William and James for boys, and Elizabeth, Mary, Sarah, Hannah and Ann(e) for girls — but what was surprising was that these names didn’t dominate quite as much as expected. It turns out, there was a lot of variety in naming practices in America in 1776.
There were some absolute gems — names which might have just stepped out of the pages of Charles Dickens — or even Harry Potter. Abigail Root, Alpheus Dodge, Amaziah Rice, Betsey Boon, Eliphalet Whittlesey, Gamaliel Pardee, Hephzibah Crouch, Howel Stocking, Ichabod Tuttle, Olive Doolittle, Permilia Pettingale, Polly Griswold, Sabrina Craft, Tryphena Blodgett and Zadock Steel would all have been perfectly at home on a shopping trip up Diagon Alley…
Most of the names fell into distinct categories (I have standardized spellings):
- Classic ‘English’ names — names which had gone over with the first settlers, having been in use for centuries back in Blighty before that: Agnes, Alice, Allen, Amy, Arnold, Barbara, Catherine, Charles, Christopher, Dorothy, Edmund, Edward, Frances, Francis, George, Gilbert, Giles, Henry, Justin, Lawrence, Leonard, Lucy, Mabel, Margaret, Margery, Martin, Miles, Millisent, Nicholas, Olive, Oliver, Parnel, Ralph, Richard, Robert, Roderick, Roger, Rosie, Stephen, Sybil, Ursula, Walter.
- Pet-names — Alison, Betsey/Betsy, Betty, Cate, Dilly, Dolly, Fanny, Katy, Lina, Molly, Nancy, Patty, Polly, Sally. Some people think that using short or pet-forms of names as given names in their own right is a new phenomenon – but it’s not, as this list shows; Alison was first used independently of Alice in the Middle Ages.
- Biblical names — probably the largest category. As well as the familiar Bible names, the late 18th Century Americans were just as cheerfully trawling through the dustiest corners of the Old Testament to find obscure names for their children as they do today. All of these featured, a great many of them more than once. Aaron, Abel, Abiah/Abijah, Abiel, Abigail, Abner, Abraham, Abram, Achsah, Adonijah, Amasa, Amaziah, Amos, Andrew, Ard, Ariel, Asa, Asahel/Asael, Asaph, Asenath, Azariah, Azubah, Barnabas, Bathsheba, Benajah, Benjamin, Benoni, Beriah, Bernice, Beulah, Bithiah/Bethiah, Caleb, Cyrenius, Cyrus, Dan, Daniel, David, Deborah, Dorcas, Ebenezer, Eleazar, Eli, Eliab, Eliakim, Elias/Elijah, Eliasaph, Eliel, Elihu, Eliphalet, Elisha, Elizur, Elkanah, Enos, Epaphras, Ephraim, Erastus, Esther, Eunice, Ezra, Festus, Gad, Gamaliel, Gershom, Gideon, Hephzibah, Hezekiah, Hiel, Hiram, Huldah, Ichabod, Isaac, Isaiah, Israel, Ithiel, Jabez, Jacob, Jared, Jason, Jedediah, Jehiel, Jemima, Jephthah, Jerah, Jeremiah, Jeremy, Jerusha, Jesse, Joanna, Job, Joel, Jonathan, Josiah, Judith, Julius, Justus, Keturah,Kezia, Lemuel, Levi, Lois, Lot, Lucius, Lydia, Mahalah, Malachi, Marah, Marcus, Martha, Mehetabel, Merab, Micah, Michael, Miriam, Moses, Naomi, Nathan, Nathaniel, Nehemiah, Noadiah, Noah, Obadiah, Oren, Orpha, Ozias, Pelatiah, Persis, Philetus, Phineas/Phinehas, Phoebe, Rachel, Rebecca, Reuben, Reumah, Reuel, Rhoda, Ruah, Rufus, Ruhamah, Ruth, Salah, Samuel, Sapphira, Selah, Seth, Shadrack, Shubael, Silas, Simeon, Simon, Solomon, Susannah, Tabitha, Talitha-cumi, Tamar, Thaddeus, Thomas, Timothy, Tryphena, Vaniah, Zachariah, Zadok, Zebulon, Zelotes, Zenas, Zeruiah. Phew!
- Puritan names — Charity, Deliverance, Desire, Freegrace, Freelove, Friend, Grace, Mercy, Patience, Prudence, Relief, Submit, Temperance, Thankful. Vine.
- Names from the Classical World — Aeneas, Alethea, Alpheus, Augustus, Aurelia, Chloe, Cynthia, Darius, Doris, Drusilla, Flora, Irene, Juliana, Lavinia, Lucretia, Minerva, Parthenia, Penelope, Philo, Philomela, Phyllis, Polyxena, Roxana, Selina, Silvia, Sophia, Statira, Thalia, Urania, Zeno. A number of the names in the biblical list are also of Greek or Roman origin, but in most cases, their use in 18th Century was due to their appearance in the Bible – which is why they’re on that list, not this.
- Names from literature – Clarinda, Clarissa, Fidelia, Horatio, Lorinda, Lucinda, Matilda, Miranda, Orinda, Sabrina, Violetta.
- 18th Century fashionistas — Ada, Amelia, Anna, Charlotte, Frederick, Harriet, Matilda, Theodosia. Most of these were actually in existence before the 18th C, but it was in this century when they came into their element.
Surnames – Alvan, Arbus, Avery, Bemsley, Bradford, Briggs, Buckley, Calvin, Chauncey, Chester, Church, Clark, Clarry, Denison, Dudley, Elvin, Grant, Gordon, Halsey, Hazard, Howard, Howel, Hubbard, Johnson, Leaman, Lewis, Lothrop, Montgomery, Moore, Palmer, Payson, Percy, Prentice, Roswell, Royal, Rue, Russell, Salmon, Selden, Sheldon, Sterling, Wait, Ward, Warren, Warriner, Wells, Willis, Wilson, Woodruff. A pet bugbear of many people today is the use of surnames as first names – but it is an old practice, as these names demonstrate. - Children of the Revolution – George Washington, Freedom, Independence, Liberty, Joy — and Lament? Lament may belong in the Puritan category, but Little Lament Hall was born on July 12, and I can’t help wondering whether his parents had not been quite so pleased about the Declaration! Perhaps Rue belongs here too!
- Unique names — these gems and marvels may be scribal errors rather than genuine names, as I have not been able to verify them. Ammarilla, Ammedilla, Ason, Azara, Bani, Barna, Beraliel, Clarine, Cylinda, Darkis, Dency, Elafan, Elazander, Etrania, Farazina, Finance, Heman/Himan, Hubbil, Ketchell, Lodamia, Lorain, Lowly/Lowley, Luanna, Lurannah, Lurany, Milete, Orange, Orra, Permilia, Philena, Prua, Rena, Sabin, Sabra, Salem, Saniel, Sule, Susa, Vienna, Welthy, Willeborough, Willibee, Zebriah.
And what about children actually born on the 4th July 1776? Not that many actually. Bethiah Gray, Charles Loomis, Gideon Cruttenden, Ruah Weed, Selah Scovill – and (how could there not be?) Independence Booth!
Happy Independence Day!
Nook of Names
Sabin was my grandfather’s name, so it is legitimate. It’s in reference to the Sabine women. Orange is an old boy’s name that’s fallen out of favor. Same goes for Vienna, although parents are starting to embrace it again. I thought Salem was a new idea (on children, anyway). I guess not. And I thought Sabra was biblical?
Yes, you’re absolutely right about Sabin – mea culpa! – he ended up in the wrong list by mistake. He should have course have been in the first for, although never common, it has been around in the ESW since the 12th C.
I ought to have been clearer about the nature of the last category; it contains not just names which I hadn’t met before, but names which I couldn’t be 100% certain had been accurately transcribed. The category actually began as a miscellaneous hotch-potch, from those I’d never encoutered before to those I was unsure where to place them. So Salem ended up there because although it has actually been in use as a given name since the 16th C – believe it or not! – it is a biblical place name rather than personal name, and I was reserving the biblical list for biblical personal names.
Orange too, was a difficult one to home – the name actually appeared before the name of the fruit as a female given name in the Middle Ages. Genuine examples in the 18th C tend to be male, as you say, in honour of William of Orange. I didn’t feel it really belong with the Classic English names, as it had fallen out of use as a girl’s name long before, but isn’t technically a surname either.
I haven’t found Vienna in use earlier than the 19th Century before – when the adoption of place names first enjoyed a vogue – so I have strong suspicions it had been mistranscribed.
Sabra – I stil don’t know. I’ve found claims that it is biblical, but can’t find it in a bible dictionary. It may still be of Hebrew origin, like Ruah, the adoption of a Hebrew word used in the bible rather than an actual name. In Modern Hebrew it means ‘prickly pear’ and is also used as a slang term for an Israel-born Israeli.
Sabin, Orange, Vienna and Salem are all in my book – as, for the record, are some of the others, such as Luana and Lorain. I was just very surprised – and suspicous – to encounter some of them at this date, and didn’t want to include them as canon without being certain of their authenticity in this data set!
I love these lists! It seems to demonstrate that the USA took on it’s own independent style of naming right from the start.
I’ve seen Orange on a medieval list of names, but it was given to a girl.
I agree – a lot to do with the Pilgrim Fathers, I think! They really embraced all those all-guns-blasting biblical names, which really stand out in this selection. I do love Orange – it bemuses me how so many mock ‘fruit’ names as a modern fancy, and yet the name Orange is older than the orange! The girl’s name Orengia is recorded as early as 1201, but orange doesn’t appear till around 1400!
You’re quite right, it was Orenge in the 13th century, but as spelling wasn’t uniform, I took that to be to the same as modern Orange.
Orenge and Orengeria can be found occurring for a couple of hundred years, so it can’t have too unusual. Probably another surname-y name, as the Oranges were an Anglo-Norman family.
Oh, totally! People fixate so much on how names are spelled these days, that they don’t realise that spelling – of any sort – wasn’t standardised until the 19th Century. Names of all kinds were especially fluid; both my grandfathers’ surnames, for instance didn’t establish their modern spellings until the 20th Century! Orengia is the earliest recorded incarnation of Orange, but throughout the Middle Ages you get a whole fruit barrel of variations, such as Horenga, Orenga and Orenge, etc (not encountered Orengeria though). People weren’t being creative or ‘different’ with these marvellous spellings, they weren’t making any conscious statement – it was simply that spelling didn’t matter, and how a person’s name was spelled at any one time was down to the particulary scribe recording it.
As for the surname Orange, most modern Oranges (and Orringes, etc), descend from someone (a woman!) called Orange (well, Orenga, etc). There’s only one example noted, to my knowledge, of someone called de Orange in Britain in the Middle Ages – although it may have given rise to one branch of Oranges (tee hee ;D). What the source of Orange the medieval girl’s name is very unclear. My thoughts are that it either, ironically, shares the same roots as the fruit (i.e. a word meaning ‘pomegranate’, which comes ultimately from Dravidian, via Persian and Arabic), or (and I prefer this) that it started out as Aurantia, from the Latin verb auro ‘to gild’ (which also influenced how the word orange evolved). It may be older still; there was a Roman cognomen Auruncus, which comes from the name of an old town in Campania, although, it is also, intriguingly enough, another form of the name of a Roman God Averruncus, a god of preventing harm. The feminine form is Aurunca or Auruncina, and Auruncina is definitely attested in the Roman period. It’s a long shot, but it’s just possible the name survived during this period when only limited records survive, emerging in the 13th C as Orengia, etc. Whatever the truth, Orange is certainly a very juicy name, isn’t it? (Sorry, couldn’t resist!).
[...] couple of days ago, I mentioned the obscure name Orange in my post Born on the Fourth of July, and it quickly became apparent that it really deserved a post all to [...]