BIBLE NAMES IN YORKSHIRE AND LANCASHIRE.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1521, 26 February 1886, Page 3

BIBLE NAMES IN YORKSHIRE AND LANCASHIRE.

If we look over the pages of the directories of Weat Yorkshire and

East Lancashire, and strike out the surnames, we could imagine we were consulting anciently inscribed registers of Joppa or Jericho. It would seem as if Canaan and the West Hiding had got inextricably mixed. What a spectacle meets our eye! Within the limits of ten leaves we have three Pharaohs, while as many llephzibahs are f ound on ono single page. Adah and Ziliah Pickles, sisters, are milliners Jehoiada Rhodes makes saws—not S,»!o.lion's sort—and Hariph Crawshaw k» e» s a farm. Ya«hni, from somewhere in the Chronicles, is rescued from oblivion bv Ya»hni Wilkinson, coal merchant, who very likely goes to Barzil la Williamson, on the same page, for his joints, Barzilla being a butcher. Jacbin, known to but a few as situated in the Book of Kings, is in the person of Jachin Firth, a beer retailer, familiar to all his neighbours. Heber Holdsworth on one page is faced by Er Illingworth on the other. Asa and Joab are extremelv popular, while Abner, Adna, Ashael, Ernstus, Eunice, Beuaiah, Aquila, K iliu, and Philemon enjoy a fair amount of patronage. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, having been n scued from Chaldwan fire, have been deluged with baptismal water. How curious it is to contemplate such entries as L°muel Wilson, Kellta Wilkinson, Shelah Haggas, Shadrach Newbold, Neriah Pearce, Jeduthan Jempsoe, Azariah Griffiths, Napthali Matson, Philemon Jakes, Hameth Fell, Kleph Bisat, Malachi Ford, or Shallum Rrhardson.

As to other parts of the Scripture, I have lighted upon name after name that I did not know existed in the Bible at all till I looked into the Lancashire and Yorhshire directories. The l>:ble has decided the nomeclature of the North of England. In towns like O.dham, Bolton, Aehton, and Blackburn, the clergyman's baptismal register is but a reord of Bible names. A clerical frend of mine christened twins Cain ar.d Abel, only the other day, much Against his own wishes. Another parson on the Derbyshire border was gravely informed, at the proper moment, that the name of baptism was Kamoth-Gilead. " Boy or pirl, <h f " he as-ked, in a somewhat agitated voice. The parents had opened thf Bible haphazard, according to the village tradition, and selected ttie ti st name the eve fell on.

It was hut a venr ago a little child was christened Tellno in a town within Bix miles of Manchester, at the suggestion of a cotton-spinner, the father, a workman of the name of L-es. having hip advice. " I suppose it must be a Scripture nam"/' said his master. ''Oh, yes ! that's of course." "Suppose you choose Tellno" said his employer. " That'll do," replied the other, who had n< wr heard it before, aud liked it the better on that account. The child is now Tell-no Lees ('' lees " being the Lancashire way of pronouncing " lies'), the father, too late, finding that he had been hoaxed. " Sirs," was the answer given to a bewildered curate, after the usual demand to name the child.

Ite objected, but was informed that it was a Scripture name, and the verse " Sirs, what must J do to be saved r " was triumphantly appealed

This reminds one of the Puritan who styled his dog Moreoier, after the dog in the Gospel . " Moreover the dog came and licked his sores."— Cariosities of Puritan Nomenclature