I have one child. He’s awesome, btw. I remember sitting in my third grade classroom when I suddenly, in a flash of insight, knew what I’d name my child, if I had a boy. Luckily, my husband and I had that boy and I got to use my super-cool (at least to me) name.
On occasion, Peder (it’s a family name, the Norwegian spelling, same pronunciation as the traditional “Peter”) complains telling me many people call him “Ped-er.” I guess I like his name more than he does. Oh well. It could be worse.
I recently stumbled on some interesting Puritan names… perhaps Peder would enjoy adopting one of these gems. But first, some background.
Perhaps [the Puritans’] greatest gift to history, however, is their wonderfully strange taste in names. A wide variety of Hebrew names came into common usage beginning in 1560, when the first readily accessible English Bible was published. But by the late 16th century many Puritan communities in Southern Britain saw common names as too worldly, and opted instead to name children after virtues or with religious slogans as a way of setting the community apart from non-Puritan neighbors. Often, Puritan parents chose names that served to remind the child about sin and pain.
See? How could you go wrong naming your child something to remind them of their sin and pain? From what the article says, some of these names are still in use today. Some are of the fairly odd variety. Names like:
- Praise-God
- Fear-God
- Fly-fornication
- Job–rakes-out-of-the-ashes
- Humiliation
- Fly-debate
- Abstinence
- Sorry-for-sin
- Vanity
- Felicity
- Trinity
- Jolly
And finally…
Kill-sin Pimple
Well, I’ll be darned.
Find more interesting names after the jump.
