Family trees are fun!

[ricardienne]

The next time anyone complains about People These Days Giving Their Children Terrible Names, I'm going to point out that in the family tree of my mother's father's old New England family, in addition to the Abijahs, the Amariah, and the Shubaels (all m.), Persises (or should that be Persides?), Parmelias (Parmeliae?), Zoella and Angenette (all f.), there's a Comfort, a Welcome (both m.), a Thankful, a Waitstill, and a Waity (all three f.).

(I actually like the name Persis a lot. Waity, not so much.)

Comments

[achyvi.livejournal.com]

WAITY KATEY AMIRITE

I think naming your child Persis might be a bit risky. It's waaaay too close to looking like his name is Penis. Was Waitstill an old maid? That would have been deliciously appropriate.

[ricardienne.livejournal.com]

She was not! She married, had 7 children, and lived to be 95.

Oh I hadn't thought of the Persis-Penis connection (to me, a classicist, it looks like a perfectly perfectly reasonable name!). But I guess I can see why that name fell out.

[camlina.livejournal.com]

I know a woman who goes by the name of Persis... she's in her 50s, and I've no idea if it was her birth name or not.

[achyvi.livejournal.com]

Wow! She totally bucked the name connotation train.