QUAINT NAMES

Evening Star, Issue 20401, 5 February 1930, Page 6

QUAINT NAMES

CHRISTENING THE BABY Christening baby is not always the solemn business that fond parents and the officiating parson would have it (writes in the ‘Age’). For this the parents themselves are to blame. At times an innocent infant is burdened with names that are calculated to upset the dignity that is supposed to surround the occasion. The quaintness of the names borne by some people was brought home to me on a recent visit to one of our Government departments. Here I ncountered an official who _ for many years has been in the habit of recording names, some of them quaint and some amusing, from the large number that come under his notice. To peruse the cards whereon these unusual names were jotted down produces interesting food for reflection. Among them were some that certainly had their peculiar features. Take, for example, North-west Tennant, the first of the bunch to catch my eye. Surely there is a story behind these prefixes. And then there is Commissioner Mitchell, a name that I was assured belonged neither to a Salvation Army officer nor yet to the head of the department that extorts taxes from an unwilling community. Here, too, appeared r acy Temperance Ailett. The Temperance was chosen, no doubt, that it might stand as a lifelong warning against the evils attending over-indulgence in Ail. There seems little unusual in Frances Hazel Baker until we learn the surprising fact that the person concerned is a full-blooded male. Can it be that in this case the -(parents’ hearts had been sot on a girl, and that when the contrary infant arrived they refused to alter the names chosen beforehand? Whatever the solution, Frances Hazel has caused no little confusion in the legal documents of this department. Many a “ her ” had to be amended to “ him ” when the gender was made known to the surprised officials. Rather remarkable, too, is the case of John R. Rowlands. The name itself will excite little curiosity. Its qunintness lies in the fact that the R. is not the initial of any particular name. Its owner himself testified to this by statutory declaration when asked to supply his second Christian name. Single names, it would apuear, are not uncommon. Three of them are carded among tho strange collection — Abraham, Naran, and Kushalla. Unhampered by any Christian names whatever, they have established a precedent that might possibly be followed with advantage by anyone except tho Smiths or the Joneses. These seem to require some extra identification marks. , , , , Recently the fact was deplored by someone that wo neglected Australian names when christening our children. Those who were responsible for Eucalyptus Duncan and Kosciusko Omeo Stirling are exempt from criticism in that direction. These a decidedly Australian flavour. _ So, to a certain extent, has Mountain Hill, although one is inclined to suspect an attempt at a little humour in this instance. Appleofaun Kuccbone does not spring from imagination! It appears among all these others. The name is that of an Australian woman.

Foreigners and Orientals provide the subject matter- for some of the other recordings. Willie Kum Too caught my eye, and with it came the thought that a’ practical joker must surely have a hand in choosing the names that some of our celestial friends take unto themselves when they set up in laundries or start fruit rounds in this country. As a youngster, I had my share of mirth out of the name Long Duck, painted in bold letters on the wagon ■of our Chinese fruit hawker in the Brighton district. Thin Coon, too. proved rather intriguing, especially when we found that its sleek owner turned the scales at about 15st. Ah Fat would surely have filled the bill in this particular case. Yes; the world abounds with people who are the victims of peculiar efforts at. nomenclature. Few of us are satisfied with the names that were forced upon us at a time when we were obviously unable to offer an effective protest. Percy would fain be Tom. while Tom, if he had his way. would answer to Mervyn. There seems only one way out of the difficulty. Each of us. upon reaching the age of mature judgment—whenever tnat may be—should be given the right to review and, if necesary, to change, the names that in all innocence wc have accepted at christening.