The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-04-08
NAMING TIE SOUTHERN BABY.


old, but l hain't named him yit.
Been waitin' ontil Marthy Streets S
visitors kern-them foolks from the
old settlements. I lowed they could
tell US passel O. new Names"
The manner in which the natives
of the Kentucky, Virginia and Ten
nessee mountains, remote from towns
and cities, bestow names upon their
offspring, is a varied mixture of the
practical and aesthetic, the pathetic
and the amusing. The method fol-
lowed is in part indicated by the re-
mark quoted.
Women whose years antedate the
iron roads that now cut the wilder
ness through, are Peg and Marg,
Sary, July Ann, Lily Jane, Beck,
Nancy, Marthy, Tidy, and the like,
and their masculine contemporaries
bear the Biblical names, Abel, Noah,
Japhet, Lot, Laban, Isaac, Josephus,
Asa, Joshua, Andrew and Simeon,
varied with the more common Jeems,
William, Thomas and John.
Later generations have almost en-
tirely abandoned these names. Rela-
tives are seldom honored with name
sakes, but names are selected at
random from newspapers, from school
books, from stray novels, from sug-
gestions of chance visitors, even from
names of acrobats in a passing circus
ANY names the parents happen to
hear and admire, they give their
children.
Myrtices, Myrtles, Lilys, Rosalies,
Roses, Ethels, Leonies, Lunettes,
Rubies, Floralles, Lurlines and Aud
ries abound and flourish.
Editors of various political news
papers as Grady and Watterson, have
their many namesakes. Talmage,
Spurgeon and Moody are names
generously bestowed; Dewey and
Cleveland are almost as plenteous as
the laurel bushes themselves, and
the State legislators and Congressman
from every mountain districts are
bowed with the weight of known and
unknown namesakes.
Names of States are much favored,
as we'll as towns and cities, and occa-
sionally mountains, lakes or rivers.
Among the girls one finds Iowas,
Alabamas, Missouris, Georgias, Flori.
das, Nevadas. Savannahs, Calves
tons, Itaskas and an occasional Texas,
Kansas or Memphis.
Many sturdy lad answers to
Utah, Maine, Kentucky, Releigh,
Paris or Troy, and among the writer S
acquaintances are a youth named
Detroit Michigan Jones and a fat
baby who will write his name Dallas
Texas Smeed.
One little girl for whom her parents
could scarcely find name good
enough was at last called something
no one in that county have ever be-
fore been named-Lake sErie. So
popular did the name become that in
a few months there were a great
number of. Lakes in the neighbor-
hood-the original Lake Erie, Bette
Lake, Flora Lake, all kinds of COM
binations of lakes.
Military titles with no names at
tached as Major, General and Colonel,
are NOT uncommon.
Authorizations and nicknames are
the rule. Every Henry is a Hen,
every Jasper is Jas to his death, while
Toads, Lugs, Bucks and Does take
the place of the owners real names.
An old woman whose real name is
Syndestia is always known as Cat,
because the first word she said in her
baby days was ''cat."
James Weeks, nicknamed because
of his general comlativeness and
ferocity, ceased to be Jeems Weeks in
midlife, and is Hurricane Weeks ever
after. The first born son whose
proud father called him his man"
had finally to be named Emanuel to
fit the nickname. A gay widow who
at a merrymaking stepped in plate
of taffy set to cool is ever after known
as Molly Sugarfoot and her young
daughter is called Texas Sugarfoot.
Gal and Sis are two of the most
common forms of nicknames for
women.
In neighborhood in which large
proportion of the people are akin and
bear the same surname-the almost
universal case in the mountains-a
general effort is made to have different
names.
The practice of searching school
books or other books, borrowed often
from the teacher or passing preacher,
for names explains the presence in
the two roomed homes on the noun
tain sides of Plato, Cicero, Clovis.
Ballard, Balfour, Wyndham, Sey-
mour, Newton, Otis, Emmett, Mel.
vile. Calvert and Herschel.
One finds now and then men bear
ing women's names, as Dellie, Dollie
aud Dixie, in blissful ignorance of the
unsuitableness Of their cognomens.
Other members of family will
have names so alike that none but
the parents can explain the difference
as Vernie and Vernelle, Ellie and
Nellie, Monteville and Montague.
Euphony with the family name is
not considered in the selection Of a
name, and peculiar combinations
abound, as Pickett Luce, Gray Hart,
Felan Wright, Tucker Long, Golden
Day and May Day.
i The mighty effort of the unlearned
to have different names to give their
children has given birth TO home
made names-names in part the pro-
duct of imagination, in part words
seen in print that were never intended
for human appellation, as Bunny,
Deema, Dacy, Dicie, Donnie, Ermine,
Freb, Isodel, Juritha, Kyve, Mousie,
Mead, Myfanwy, Ninny, Rubeth OF
Vatican for girls and Aut, Dewman,
Eulis, Jeter, Lufus, Mamie, Mouse,
Rohv Rnral Shady. Veil. &c. fOi