Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1901-04-19
NAMING THE BABIES.
There Has Been Change in s1odera
Selections That Seems quite
Commentaries

A clergyman who baptizes a great
many babies asserts that the fancy
names for girls which have caused SO
much disgust among sensible people
are going out of date. There are few
er Carries, Emmas, Elias, NAMES and
Sadies and more Carolines, Emelines,
Marys and Sarahs. This is pleasing,
as it indicates that parents are grow
ing in sense. English names should
be given to English-speaking people.
Diminutives are proper enough for
babies, but where is the young lady
Margaret who would sign her name
Maggie, Madge, Maud, or Peggie on a
business document? How many peo-
pie of middle age can remember q
Gladys in their early days? A lady
who had named her daughter Flora.
afterward, at the girls request, en-
larged it to Florence, because there
were so many Floras among dogs ana
horses. But respect for the English
language should be the first impulse
on naming a child, says the New Haven
Comm Palladium.
Among boys the selection of foreign
and outlandish names is far less COM
mon. Now and then there is an AL
phonso or Alonzo, transported froIE
one of the Latin countries. but the
good old English names, such as have
been borne by the kings in all the
centuries, still stand the test of long
endurance. The king of England has
added to the respect in which he was
held by choosing the good old English
Edward instead of the one which he
received from his Dutch father.
Among the Henrys, Georges,
Charleses, Williams, Jameses, Ed
wards, and few others, are names
enough to fit out the largest families
of boys. Then there are a few Bible
names that are favorites, John, David,
Peter, Stephen and Andrew being the
most popular. Greek names like Arts
tarchus, Demosthenes, AnaXagoras,
ThemistocIes and Sophocles are too
lengthy for use in this hurrying age.
A family in central New York saw the
name of Socrates in book, and named
their son Socrates, accent on the Sec
ond syllable, and by that pronuncia-
ton he was known through a long life,
though his intimate friends reduced
it to Scrate. Probably nine-tenths of
the people in the rural community in
than his mother, a most excellent lady,
who used to boast to her neighbors of
her ''equinomicar' habits, and once
complained that she had terrible
Nashua in her stomach.
No mistakes will be made and moth
ing furnished to cause laugh if
parents will give their children good
old English or Anglo-SaXon names.
There are some very musical and
sonorous names among the Spanish,
Italians-and old Romans, but the child
would not thank his parents in after
years if they compelled him to carry
one of them through life. A little boy
who was named Gamalie1 and always
called "Gammy'' by his parents, shook
off the incubus very early by falsely
telling his teachers that he was John.
His playmates and his neighbors sym
pathized with him, and his parents, re-
GREETING their mistake, let the new
name stand. We had the story of The
ophrastus and Theophilus Smith IA
few weeks ago, and of the comedy of
errors that followed their living in
the same row of flats because neither
would get beyond the initial T. in
signing his Christian, or rather his
heather, name.
Give the baby a good old name Sc
lected from the language that you
speak. The naming of a child is one
of the most important incidents of his
life. The man who, having been handi-
capped by his own awkward name,
afterward bestows it on his own son
for the sake of excepting it in the fam
ily," is guilty of an act that deserves
to be branded as a crime, the effect of
which is more lasting than murder.