The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1889-08-02
NAMES FOR OUR GIRLS.
rhe Change from Biblical and Heroic to
simple Angio-Saxou Names.

I'e Change from Biblical and Heroic to
simple Anglo-Saxon Names.
Ihe resort to biblical names among
the women of this land up to recent
years was undoubtedly due to the fer.
vent puritanical spirit pervading our
natlon--or at least the New England
portion Of it. The male children were
given the names of Old Testament he
roes, and the girl babies received
names that stood for types of early
Hebraic virtue, beauty and gentlenesg.
The puritan mind of New England had
In Its sternness. austerity and inflexi.
bic piety, something which would more
approximate to the Old tlan to the
New Iestament-which had closer
spiritual relationship with the teach
ings and examples of Moses than with
those of st. Paul. Hence the puritans
pronounced liking for those old biblic-
al names. Glance over the record in
prose and verse of New England and
you will find everywhere on the pages,
where women are mentioned, such
names as Miriam, Salome, Ruth, Bath
sheba, Rebekah, Sarah, Hagar, Adah,
Lillah, Eve, Rachel, Leah, Judith, Ia.
mar. Deborah, Dinah, Bilhah, and even
Jezebel. And, note the fact! These
names, many OF them with a grand
m Gaming, have, too, Il sonorous, full
toned swing in them They are as il
made to order to fit the women who
wore them-stately, rather severe in
mien, with no patience with their own
faults and no indulgence for those of
others.
The years went by, and other views,
other manners, began to find their
way among the defendants of these
women. Then it was we fell upon the
evil days which gave us the Sarah
James, the Mary AIMS, the Martha
James, and the Samanthas, the reign
OF these names was not long
one, although to this day there are
many daughters of the land who have
survived the nominal" abominatiOn
thrust upon them soon after their
birth.
Next in the course of events it be-
comes the fashion to give girls res
onant names taken from the golden
scriptures of the ancients. All the
shining records of ancient Greece and
Rome, even of swarthy Egypt. were
ransacked in the search, and the hoary
records We're made to give up their
dead, so to speak, to serve the living.
The dark and winding paths Of
medlnval times were penetrated, and
the result of all this was deluge Of
such names as Cornclia, Claudia,
Aurelia, Catulla, Marcella, Terentia,
Placida, Lucretia, Sappho, Sophro-
nisbe, Psyche, Phoebe, Leda. Aspasia,
Cleopatra, Leona, Zenobia, Isabella,
lnez. No girl was considered stylish
II the name she was called by did not
date back at least a thousand years or
more. 1t was time when the achieve
ments and the civilization of ancient
Rome and Greece formed more of q
favorite study with the American youth
than they do now, and to the reflex of
this learning was doubtless due the
fact of this profusion of ancient names.
Finally, however, new era in girls
names arose in this country The first
traces of 1t dawned in the horizon
about ten years ago. This was stimuli
taneous with the first faint indication
OF Anglomania in this country. The
craze for wearing ulsters and driving
capes, choking the neck in high, stiff
collars and concealing thought in an
idiom made up largely of "donchel-
knows" "deahboys," effected a cau-
tious landing in New York and Boston
and thence travelled slowly, very slow
[y, westward. 1t reached here only a
few years ago. About the same time,
too, the English and their American
cousins across the wild waste OF water
bethought them that there once lived
race OF men-the parent stock of
heir own race-yclept the Anglo
saxon; and they bethought them that
,hey-rude. yellow-haired beef-gorg-
ng barbarians though they were-had
he good taste to give their slender
daughters, with the skin of snow, eyes
If azure and hair of gold, very pretty,
'oetic names. Why not dig out these
orgotten names again and stick them
N the girls of the latter-day period?
Why not? And it was done And
hus, Edith, my dear, it is that you
'ear your own pretty name. Thus it
S that on that pretty Japanese tray in
he front hall of your mammals beau
iful home you see so many cards with |
lames beginning in Elfrida, Ethel,
iladys, Hertha, Adelgunda, Waltruda,
Idgarda, Aelwitha, MeIgunda, Ed
nund, Ethelreda and Adelhyda. Chi
), rn uoraId