The Shasta courier., 1872-11-23
THE CURIOSITY oE NAMES.

DAYS of the koundheadS, when piuus old
Barebones chrstened his son Praise God, !"
and lis neighbor called his heir Zeal Of
the Lord" when any name of scriptural
origin, however, c,umsy, Was deemed better
than any drawn from her sources, how
ever pleasant or appropriate it may be /;
when "Parabla" was made to do duty as Il
prenomeu, aud when at least one untortu-
nate boy was doomed to carry as Chris
tian name the decidedly revolutionary in
junction to Bind d-their-kings-in chains and
their-nobles with lnks-of irou." But while
We are certainly in no danger Of relapsing
into the practices of our Puritanical En-
glish iorefathers in this regard, we still do
a good many curious things at the font, and
there are people walking about, even in this
year of grace 1872, whose Christian names
are anything but Christian in point Of SEEM
hness We have ourselves known one or
two queer specimens of personal nomencla-
ture "Christopher Columbus, George
Washington Marquis de Lafayette s." sat
next to US in a village school house twenty
odd years ago, and little later we knew a
young lady whose parents had designated
her as '.Eveine Ann Wilmington Matilda
Shelby Newton Jones w" In Amelia
county, Virginia, some ten or twelve year.
ago, there were two negro children whose
names were respectively, ''Hollywood Gem.
etery" aud "University of Virginia" and
there is another colored boy in Mississippi
who made his advent during the early sum-
mer of 1868, in consequence of which TACT
his parents have seen fit to dub hiui
"Cause he Freeborn"
Most readers will think "Zeta" curiou,
first name to bear, but its oddity was in
creased ten-fold by the addition Of "Jeter'
as the middle name OF the Virginian cler-
gyman who bore and honored the queer
combination, not many years since.
Another curious case was that of Lynch
burg merchant whose name was "Valerius.
Disliking it very much, he always signed
the initial only When it came to the ma
ming of son for him the old gentleman
refused to make the boy "Valerius," and
SO named him simply "V." and "V" he
remains to this day.
Perhaps the oddcst-looking name in thi.
country is that of a prominent Arkansas
Judge, who, for the sake of Distinguishing
himself from several other persons havin!
precisely the same name as his own, writes
the middle initial after the surname, and i,
known as 'sWilliam Conway b
A very singular fact in regard to names
was disco' cred recently by a statistician
who fnds from careful examination o
the official registry of births that very /, ear
ly two-thirds (65 S92 per cent? OF all tbt
children in England and Wales bear one
or another of twenty five Christian uames
Of these twenty-five names, "Mary' head
the list. and "William" comes next in poin
of popularity; then follow "John,' "Eliz
abeth," Thomas" "George," ETC., Will
arthur" "Alfred" and edward" at t.,
tail of the list.
But spite of the popularity of these gooc
old common names In England, covering II
they do about two-thirds of the whole pop
ulatlon, some very queer appellations fin,
room to put in an appearance among tn
remaining third of the population, and
writer in an English magazine, some mon b
ago, cited from the official LIST quite mum
Der Of them. FROM him we learn that on
boy is named "Elof Lama Sabachthani );
another is called "Selah ;" third bear
the unpronounceable as well as uuchrista
name of "Mahershalalhashbas" One f.
ther has named his twins "Boteas" an
Zephyr whle.another calls his HUI an
"Buz." There is a "Vive pEmpereur,
too, as we'll as "Shooting Gallery" o
the register. But this is not ALL In
single village were found 'Htsanra," Gain
"Herod' (whose father was probably pre-.
uiced against children,) "Delilah' an
"Pharaoh." One girl is officially register
ed as "Smart Matte" and boy as "Dir
ty King" We do not readily recogniz
the sex Of some others which the write
gives, such as Celestial Miller" "Choic
Pickerel," !" "Amiable Reading" "Euoug
:: Pearson" Ga thoroughly satisfied sort {
; name "Giddy Edwards" M ,deru Leges
. "Holy Davies paramount Pye," Orig
nal Bigot Peele," "Perfcct Sparrow,
"Tempestuous Stinger," 'Stubbon Porter
and, last and worst of all, singular OHIO
6 Gallehawk."
In the light of the official list from whic
all these are taken, who shall say that ther
is no truth in the story of the man name
New" who called his first born "Som,
, thing" because it was something new, an
the second "Nothing," because it was notl
ing new?-[ Hearth and Home.
The Boston Courier says: "A thrift
citizen effected insurance on the life of Ii
vile to the amount of $4,000 the othe
day, took home a box of little Marylan
plums and enjoyed whole evening i
watching his wife eat them His ente,