Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-03-04
Names of Twins.

NdmeS Oh TWINS.
Twin or triple births supply opportunities for
the selection of unusual names Some of these
are pretty. Twin girls were lately registered
Pearl and Ruby. at Vantage. and others near
Cranleigh, Sussex. Lily and Rose In 1878. a
laborer at Robertsbridge. in the same county.
presented with three daughters at birth.
called them Faith, Hope and Charity; aud
farm laborer near Bidport recently gave the
namesF aithandHope tOtwin sons. But sometimes
dual births render parents positively cruel in
their choice of expectations. We have known
the names of HUI and Buz applied to twin
boys. This was sheer inhunanty. Peter the
Great Wright and William the Conqueror
Wright figure in registration as twins. Here the
parental selection seems to have been in part de-
ternined by hero worship, though probably the
duality OF birth excited the primary desire for
name distinction Another fancy created BY two
fold birthsis that of furnshingt the children with
Identical names transposed. Twin SONS of
gardener at Chard We're few months since en-
do"eo respectively with the names
James Reginald and Reginald James;
and at IXwOrth, Suffolk, we noticed
not many years ago the decease of Horace Ho-
ratio. whose brother Horatio Horace attested
the death entry. These brothers we infer to
have been twins also. A historian Of parish
registers remarks that about the sixteenth CEN
fury it was not unusual for parents to give the
same name to two or more of their children
with the view. perhaps. of increasing the likeli-
hood OF its perpetuation in their families. He
cites. by way of proof the following quotation
from the will of one John Parnei de Gyrton: IS
Mar, 1j45.-Alce my wife and Old John nv
son to occupy my farm together till olde John
marrles. and then She to have land and cattle
Young John my son shall have Brenlays land
rlOwed and sowed at Old Johns cost" The in
convenient practice here eXempiiied doe; not
we believe. now survive except in the modified
shape just instanced; but it is not unknown
among the lower classes for parents to give
their later children names which their earlier
ones deceased have previously borne. Some
babies have been named Enough i'm indication.
as 1t would seem, OF numerous predecessors
and on the other hand is found Welcome which
appears to denote satisfaction at a novel kind
OF blessing. Una, Unit and Unity point. it may
be supposed. to first arrivals; Three and Num-
Der Seven express different degrees of ad-
vance in family multitude: Last and Omega
suggest resOlute protest against further in
crease. while Also hints at the grudging accep-
tance of an unwelcome addition and seems to
need after it note of (melanchOly) eXclama-
ton POSthumOuS is an uImistakable nominal
memorandum Of a painful fact. Places Occa-
slonaiiy give their names to children as i'm the
cases of Matilda Australasia Yarra Yarra HOl-
den. Odessa Silly, DC. 1t may be supposed that
III these instances there is usually some family
connection with the locality at the time of birth
In such expectations as Tempest Booth. Hust-
in"s MOore, Farewell Hampshire &c, we seem
to trace references to special incidents and NAV
INFER. again. tnat the occurrences SO celebrated
are crcumstantially linked to the arrivals of the
infants whom they name; while the titles Adj
monition, Deliyerance, Repentance, and others
already mentioned in our list of abstract nouns
used as appellations have probably sometimes
Deen employed. In the same way, in alltlsiOn to
various conditions under which the births of the
children so named have taken place.-The Corn
hall HGqdzife.