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ArchivesRe: Historical Revival of Old English Names in the USA?
in reply to a message by Elmer, Alden etc.
elbowing is right to point out how in the 19th century many ancient and medieval names began to be revived in the Western World. An easy way to spot this is to look at names of royalty during this period.
However, in the case of American names like Elmer and Alvin, I think it has more to do with the common practise of using surnames as given names (originally to honour family members or historical/religious figures and later as ordinary names). Many surname names became popular in this period — looking at this site's popularity charts for the 1880's, you find plenty of surname names like Clarence, Grover, Chester, Sidney... It just happens that some of those surnames are derived from old given names that have died out or become obscure. Often their vernacular forms and were only preserved through surnames.
So it's an interesting evolution of given name to surname back to given name.
See also Tiffany (Theophania), Stacy (Eustace / Eustacia), Eliot (Elias), Bennett (Benedict), Wyatt (Wigheard), Avery (Alfred), Aubrey (Albert / Albreda), Evelyn (Aveline), Ellery (Hilarius / Eulalia) for more contemporary & popular examples.
Florence Maud - Mary Valentine ("May") - Ada Imogen - Clementine Everly - Sophia Eleanor - Lucy Beatrice ("Lou") | Henry Valerian - Maxence George - Benedict Louis - Emory Willian - John Arthur ("Jack") - Frederick Darcy
However, in the case of American names like Elmer and Alvin, I think it has more to do with the common practise of using surnames as given names (originally to honour family members or historical/religious figures and later as ordinary names). Many surname names became popular in this period — looking at this site's popularity charts for the 1880's, you find plenty of surname names like Clarence, Grover, Chester, Sidney... It just happens that some of those surnames are derived from old given names that have died out or become obscure. Often their vernacular forms and were only preserved through surnames.
So it's an interesting evolution of given name to surname back to given name.
See also Tiffany (Theophania), Stacy (Eustace / Eustacia), Eliot (Elias), Bennett (Benedict), Wyatt (Wigheard), Avery (Alfred), Aubrey (Albert / Albreda), Evelyn (Aveline), Ellery (Hilarius / Eulalia) for more contemporary & popular examples.
Florence Maud - Mary Valentine ("May") - Ada Imogen - Clementine Everly - Sophia Eleanor - Lucy Beatrice ("Lou") | Henry Valerian - Maxence George - Benedict Louis - Emory Willian - John Arthur ("Jack") - Frederick Darcy
This message was edited 1/10/2014, 12:07 PM
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