Names You'll Be Glad Your Mother Didn't Give You. A Humorous Look At Some Interesting Names in My Files.

 This is the post that put us in the top five for Crestleaf Surname Scavenger Hunt Contest.  You can still vote for us - Crestleaf , click on Blog, Surname Scavenger Hunt and vote for Humorous Surnames Genealogy Frame of mind.  If you've voted, Thanks! 


Many years ago when we were expecting we were discussing names. I was convinced that we were having a girl (I was right).  One of the names on our list was Amanda.  My husband wanted to use the middle name Lynn.  I said nope.  Are you kidding me?  Amanda Lynn...  yep, say it quickly.  You get it right?  A mandolin..  Although it was a girl, and we did name her Amanda we didn't use the middle name Lynn.

But as I look thru my data base I find myself going "what were they thinking?" when I look at these couple of names that I came across.

1. My first one was Frances C. Jones aka Fanny.  She was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky in 1835.  Well she was okay until on 25 OCT 1882 when she married Dr. Adolphus F. RASH.  She became Mrs. Fanny Rash.  Really?  Is there anything more I need to say?

2. I just couldn't pass this one up either.  I mean, really?  Prior/ Pryor L. Breeding born in 1843 in Claiborne County, Tennessee.  Being the eighth of 11 children of John Breeding and Betsy Stone maybe had something to do with it, but really Prior/Pryor?  Does make you wonder what were they thinking?

3. This one I just never understood. I mean, his father's name was John, I'm sure there were lots of other options out there but, no, they named their son, George P. George.  I mean really? 

4. Another that I never really understood, sort of made me shake my head, was America Indiana?  I thought maybe they liked Indiana or something.  Turns out to my knowledge they were never even in Indiana.  Kansas yes, but Indiana no.  Hmmm?

5. I have to wonder who came up with the Given name of Green?  I have 32 men in my data base named Green.  A few are farmers - okay maybe they have green thumbs?  One or two are Doctors? The rest are just varying occupations.
Some names I see and I just wonder and marvel at the creativity expressed in the names...  Names like Centennial Nix,  Columbus George Washington Nix, and then the ever popular Littlebury?  I've got quite a few of those with the spelling varying but Littlebury?  Where did that come from?


How about you?  Got any strange name combinations in your files?

My Name is Sue...

I'm sure many of you remember that song, My Name is Sue.. It brings to mind an incident Tuesday when I was working on some research at the Allen County Public Library.

While flipping thru a book I happened to spot the name Jimmerson. Not a surname, but a given name. Now my memory is just good enough that when I have some strange names I do happen to remember them. In fact, Anne over at Gene Notes collects strange names. Every time the Wild Ones find a strange name we hand it over to Anne for her collection. Maybe one day she'll blog about her collection & share some with you.

Back to Jimmerson, I don't see it very often so I quickly jumped into my data base and did a "name" search. Notice I didn't say surname search. I found ONE Jimmerson in my file. Problem was I had to go back and find that Jimmerson in the index again. In thumbing thru the pages got away from me. SO I went back and thumbed through until I located the entry again. Turns out he was the very same one in my data base! Not in the county I expected, but hey, he is not lost any more!

Comes down to searching for those strange names - the ones we don't see all the time - sometimes that gets us much further than searching for surnames. Works for me!