Wichita eagle., 1889-07-27
T;;ai1Y Eae1e
NAMES FOR OUR GIRLS.
HOW THE SELECTIONS HAVE BEEN
AND STILL ARE MADE.

Drawing on Biblical Characters-Ideas of
the PuritanicaI People of New England.
What the Anglo-Saxons Have Furnished.
Few Samples.
Mamma" said little blue eyed Edith,
shaking her long curls and looking up with
an amusingly puzzled expression, ''why do
people call their little girls such d'eadful
names in those daysg"
She had been reading aloud from book
Dreadful names, childi Why, your own
mother has dreadful name, as you would
call it. Yet don't think Naomi is such a
dreadful name; nor is your grandm theirs
zipporah:"
ayes, but why did you get such names,
mammal They sound SO odd-so awful
odd"
swell, Edith, l don't know"
And 30 mamma, who is none other than
Mrs. Naomi, the accomplished and amiable
wife of one Of the shrewdest and most sue
cessful business men in town, with palatial
home on Michigan boulevard, sat down at
her escritoire Of inlaiG rosewood and penned
. few inquisitive lines in her neat, old fash
Toned handwriting. Below an attempt is
made to give full and unbiased answer to
her questions.
OLD BIBLE NAMES.
The resort to biblical names among the wo-
men Of this land up to recent years was IN
doubtedly due to the fervent puritanical
spirit pervading our nation-or at least the
New England portion of it. The u.s's chill
dren were given the names Of Old les. Ament
heroes, and the girl babies received names
hat fo,- 81
beauty and gentleness Tho Puritan mind Of
New England had in its sternness, austerity
and inaexible piety something which would
more approximate to the Old than to the New
Testament-which had closer spiritual re-
lationship with the teachings and examples
of Moses than with those of ST. Paul Hence
the Puritans pronounced liking for those
old biblical names.
Glance over the record in prose and verse
of New England and you will find every
where on the pages where women are men
toned such names as Miriam, Salome, Ruth,
Bathsheba, Rebekah, Sarah, Hagar, Adah,
Z1lah, Eve Rachel, Leah, Judith, lamar,
Deborah, Dinah, Bilhah and even Jezebel
And, note the fact! These names, many of
them with a grand meaning, have, too,
sonorous, full toned swing in them They are
as if 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
descendants 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 Sananthas and other lingual
monstrosities. Happily, 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" abomina-
ton thrust upon them soon after their birth
NAMES OF THE NEW ERA
Next in the course Of events it became the
fashion to give girls resonant names taken
from the golden scriptures Of the ancients
All the shining records Of ancient Greece and
Rome, even of swarthy Egypt, were ransacl1-
ed in the search, and the hoary records were
made to give up their dead, SO to speak, to
serve the living The dark and winding
paths of medieval times were penetrated,
anG the result Of all this was deluge of such
names as Cornelia Claudia, Aurelia, Catulla,
Marcella, Terentia, Placida Lucretia, Sap
pho, Sophronisbe, Psyche, Phoebe, Leda, AS
pasta, Cleopatra, Leona, Zenobia, Isabella,
Inez. No girl was considered stylish if the
name she was called by did not date back at
least thousand years or more. 1t was a
time when the achievements and the civil
zation of ancient Rome and Greece formed
more of fayorite 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, a new era il girls names
arose IN this country. The first traces of it
dawned in the horizon about ten years ago
This was simultaneous with the first faint in
dication of Anglomania In this country The
craze for wearing listers and driving capes
choking the neck in high, stiff collars and
concealing thought in an idiom largely made
up of "doncherlnowsn and 'deahboys.n eff
fected cautious landing in New York and
Boston and thence Travelled slowly, very
slowly, 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 bcthought them that there once
lived race Of men-the parent stock of their
own race-yciept the Anglo-Saxon; and they
bethought them that they-rude, yellow
haired, beef gorging barbarians though they
were-had tho good taste to give their slen-
der daughters, with the skin IF snow, eyes Of
azure and hair of gold, very pretty, poetic
names. Why not dig out these forgotten
names again and stick them on the girls of
the latter day periodl Why notl And it
was done. And thus, Edith, my dear, it is
that you bear your own pretty name. Thus
it is that on that pretty japanese tray in tho
front hall of your mammals beautiful home
you see so many cards with names beginning
In Elfrida, Ethel, Gladys, Hertha, Adel-
gunda, Waltruda, Edgarda, Aelwitha, Mel
gunda, Edmunda, Ethelreda and Adelhyda
Chicago Herald.
IN a paper entitled saw Wasted Sunbeams"
some one asks why all year residents of our
large cities do not take hint from an Orien-
tai custom and transform their house tops
into summer resorts. Roofing suitable TO our
climate can be made as enduring as pave
ment Flowers and shrubs would make
house top q summer garden, and awnings
would afford shelter from the direct rays Of
She sun or from showers
IA prinnIocc DInceinU "