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ArchivesRe: Osithe
in reply to a message by namebug
Your ancestor was undoubtedly given a French form of the name, which wouldn't necessarily be pronounced the same as the English form. The English form is probably "OH-sith", but as almost all French names are accented on the last syllable, your ancestor probably pronounced it something like "oh-SEET".
I remember reading a scholarly paper by a Canadian name expert several years ago where he pointed out that the French Canadians may have actually been the first group in the modern world to create the fashion of consciously looking for unusual names for their children. They did it by searching for unusual names in the Roman Catholic church's saints calendar. Many other unusual saints' names, such as Telesphore, Emerence, Lomer, Herminigilde, Zenon, Zephirin, and Narcisse, are found among French Canadians in the 19th century.
I remember reading a scholarly paper by a Canadian name expert several years ago where he pointed out that the French Canadians may have actually been the first group in the modern world to create the fashion of consciously looking for unusual names for their children. They did it by searching for unusual names in the Roman Catholic church's saints calendar. Many other unusual saints' names, such as Telesphore, Emerence, Lomer, Herminigilde, Zenon, Zephirin, and Narcisse, are found among French Canadians in the 19th century.
This message was edited 1/19/2009, 4:10 PM
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