Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1852-11-30
Names.

Why should any one have a disagreeabie name7
| This is question little considered, and yet it
would not he difficult TO slow that il possesses
slight Importance when regarded in its relations to
human happiness. 1t may not, perhaps, be easy
to anaylze or account for the different impressions
produced by different names, and yet no one will
be bold enough TO deny that George Herbert Ham
ilOu impTESseS him very much more pleasantly than
lothian Cobb Snuoks. The first, by common con-
sent would be regarded as noble and lofty SCUM
ding name, while poleness itself could scarce re-
| strain smile ut hearing the last announced:o a
room full of company. These names are selected
merely as examples, and they represent, perhaps
fairly the two extremes of English and American
nomenclature. Between them Is u vast array of
appellations-rornaniic, honely, ridiculous and in
different, for every one Of which some lucky or UNI
lucky representatives can be found. The variety
seems exhaustleSS and moreover, the inventive ge-
Mus OF our own cOuntIymen in particular has been
turned in these latter days to the invention OF many
names never before beard +. We speak not here
| of surnameS, which every now ond then drives us
aghaSt with new and frightlul combinations of
sound, tile result of long corruption, but only of
the Christian name as they are culletl, (oftcn fit
for pagamS rathcr) which subject to the abSolu
choice of parents, and for the fitness of which they
ought to be held accountable. ..'I 'Ha'.-.
The discomfort and humiliation entaIled upon
The bearer of contemplate name is too often made
the subject of mrth on part OF the more favored
but never see u man suffering from such an i'll
Fiction without feeling OF Indignation against
|
parent, or rich old uncle, whose godfather hal
SaddIed him with one If the homelieSt of Scripture
names, was bent upon seeing It perpelnated IN the
person Of the new born child, and so the poor lit
tie innocent helpless creature, "'mewing and pu-
king in his nurse'S arns in utter Inconsistencies
of the doom that awaited him, was taken to church
| and chriStened-Peleg y! ~
1t is easy to say thai genius can enoble any name
But, thank heaven, most of us are not so nnlucky
as TO be sons Of genius, nor even persons OF DIS
tinction,' aud moreover, amount OF liability
distinction can entirely remove all sense of unhap
pineSs arising from disngreeable name. 1t is an
ever-preSent torment. 1t hauMts YOU like Shad"
ow 1t StnreS at you from the bottom OF every let
ter you write, and looks maliciouSly out from be-
tween the initials with you seek TO conceal it.
There is no excuse for bad names either. Good
ones are as plenty as blackberries. No vocabulary
is richer than ours in this respect John, George,
William, Charles, Henry, Thomas, James, Joseph,
Walter, Arthur, Edward, Alfred, Theodore, Rob-
ert, Lewis, Richard, Horace, Francis, Frederic,
Oliver, Andrew, Albert, Luther, and many more
like them, BESIDES the long list from the Latin, en-
ding in us, and the numerous beautiful SurnAmes,
once given as family designations, but now adopted
into general use as Christian nameS-wlth any one
Of these, man feels no inconvenience, experience
no modification when his name is announced A
Is not this matterworthy of the serious considera-
ton OF those who are about to give names to their
children? Is it fair or kind to fasten upon them
without their consent, names that will be sources
OF lifelong ann vance, just for the sake OF graty-
ing the pure vanity which prompts the wish to see
your own perpetuatedl If your name is Job, OF
Obed or Nehemiah, let it die out as soon as posi-
BILE, and turn over a new leafwith your boy. And
above all things, dom that sweet little cher
ub whose blue eyes look up SO lovingly at you
from the cradle-don' It name her Jerusha, OF. Abb
gail, or Rachel Ann, whenits just as easy to call
her Mary Sweetest of earthly names, or Fanny, or
Alice, or LOUISA. If every body turn to this
matter and give it hour attention, the work of
reformation would be mainly done. All wOuld.not
be able to agree in relation to the merits of each
particular name; but, as general thing, those
which every body feels to be mean and belittleing
would be Dropped, and good ones gradnally succeed
them.5-' t.s.-7=f ,s.rsI al-,'t -
Let us humbly hope that inasmuch as this sub.
iect aft cts SO deeply the happiness of the coming
generation, and is, moreover. closely connected
with the promotion of good taste, it may not he
deemed beneath the notice of those in whose hands
the remedy lies.-N. Y Times.