M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1856-04-03
portant ccremonr o. act Of name.gig.


Among the aneients, as now among
the Oriental nations, the American
indians, and others, this rule was gen
orally carefully observed. Sometimes
names were commemorative of some
circumstance connected with the birth
of the individual, as: Thomas, twin;
Maius, Nay applied to one born in
that monthly Septimns, the, seyeuth /;
Lucy, like light Orlight bringer (given
to girls born at daybreak9; Caesar,
hairy. In other cases they were the
expressions ofthe desires, aspirations,
or hopes of the parents, as Felix, hap
py Festus, merry or cheerful; Vic.
tor, a conqueror; Probus, truthful
Sometimes, again they were descrip-
tive ofthe personal qualities Of those
who bore tllem, as Alban, fair; Pyr-
rhus, ruddy Rufus, red haired; Don
aid, gray-eyed.
Nearly all the names now in use
have well ascertained meanings, but IN
our ignorant and careless misapplica-
tion we make them the most absurd
misnomers. Let US revive the an
ciant CUSTOM Just alluded to, and pay
at least as much respect to the mean
ing Of words when used as personal
names, as we do whenwe apply them
to things.
2. Names having infamous orTn-
pleasant associations connected with
them should be avoided.
This rule need hardly be dwelt up
on. No Christian father would call his
boy Judas, and no American father
would choose the name Of Benedict,
which is associated in his mind with
Arnold and treason, though both
these names were originally good
ones.
3. Euphony should have due weight
in deciding the choice Of a name.
Scripture names, with few except
ions, are excluded by this rule. Gen
orally they have bard sound on the
Anglo Saxon ear. Names of Teu-
tonic, Latin, and Celtic origin arc, as
u general rule, most in harmony with
the genius of our language. For in
stance: Alfred, Bertram, Clement,
Henry, Roger, Walter, and Vincent
are far more euphonious to our ears
than Abraham, Daniel, Isaac, Samuel
and Zedekiah, OF onr sweetest te-
male aames the Greek Latin, & French
furnish the larger number, among
which are: Alice, America, Amy,
Arabella, Beatrice, Blanche, Charlotte,
Caroline, Cloe, Clara, Helen, Julia,
Lucy, Mabel, Matilda, Phoebe, Rosa,
and Sophia but we like quite as we'll
such Tcutonic ones as: Edith, Emma,
Gertrude, Geraldine, Margaret, Mild
red, and Winnefrede.
4. There should be q fitness Of the
name to the person.
This fitness should be three.fold.-
1. In siginitication. 2. In AssOcia-
tion. 8. In Euphony. Wo should
name a dark-haired boy neither Ru-
fus nor Robert nor the slim, lily.like
maiden Rebeca (olump). Susan is a
lily. The little fair one, with blue
eyes and light brown or golden hair,
may be either Alba, Libnah, or
Blanche, fair; Margaret, a daisy or
Istalina, a phite IL5y-5ud. The Sax
ons had Swanshalte, tUhite-necked,and
the Irish Dervorgil, purelyfair daugh
terand Fionnghuals, fair-shOuldered.
Again, names principally associated
with kinds and q titled nobility, OF
with great commanders, should, with
a few exceptions perhaps, be rejected
by plain, republican, and peacefully
inclined people. In the third place
care should be taken that the given
name is one that will flow smoothly
into the surname which is to follow
it. We have illustrated this suficien-
tly perhaps is our Introductory colloqu-
les. AS a general rule, given names
Of Greek, Latin, or French derivation
do not combine well with those of a
purely Teutonic origin, bat there are
exceptions here also.
5. No child should be named after
its father or mother nor, save in rare
exceptional cases, after any relative.
Disregard of this rule leads to con-
fusion and to the necessity, in the
case of males, Of afixing the awkwad
appendage of Junior and Senior to the
name. 1t is related Of Benjamin
Stokely, ,one ofthe' early settlers Of Penn
sylvania, that one of his sons, being
born during his absence, was named
Benjamin, after himself. On his
return his wife told him what she cal
led the child. "None Of that" cried
he ; 81 have no notion Of hearing peo-
pie talking of old Ben. Stokely."
6. No name should be given to a
child which will convey a ludicrous
idea, either when written in full or
when only the initials are used.
A writer in Putnam's Magazine,
IN an article on Our Given Names,
illustrates this rule by means of the
following anecdotes
"Middle-aged persons in Philadel.
phia can Iecollect druggist named