NAMING THE CHILD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 21, 22 May 1902, Page 3

NAMING THE CHILD.

CURIOUS INSTANCES OF PARENTAL FOLLY.

Said Romeo to Juliet in the play (the lines have been quoted to extreme threadbareness) :—: —

' What's in a name ? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet ; So Romeo would were he not Romeo call'd, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title.' Perhaps he would. But if he had been called Hodge or Obadiah. o r Praise-God -Barebones — or their Veronese equivalents — Miss Julie would probably have found herself hunting about in search of a sweeter-sounding name to label him with. Hence, too, that mania for those oft-times misnamed ' pretty names,' which foolish mammas in our day so often compel their unhappy offspring to carry through life. How your groom would stagger under the intolerabe weight of Buch a name as George Washington Orlando Briggs 1 And would not such an outrage in nomenclature as Thodolinda Irene Amelia Noggs, drive your scullery-maid for a certainty into an untimely grave ? Some of our Catholic parents are following in the stream of tendency towards unsuitable or ridiculous names drawn from the works of fiction, from tha animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, and even from Greek and Roman heathen mythology. A dive into the pages of Lempriere would cure some of them of their fancy for certain pagan names. And in any case, the Roman martyrology, Butler's ' Lives of the Saints,' and a little knowledge of English, Irish, and Scottish Church hibtory would furnish them with an abundance of glorions, and, at the same time, picturesque names to place upon the neo-Chrir-tian at the baptismal font.

For, after all (says the Editor of the N Z Tablet writing some time ago in the Austral Light), there is something in a name. Carlyle says in his ' Sartor Resartua ' that • there h mach, nay, almost all, in names. The name,' continues the S.ige of Chelsea, -is the earliest garment you wrap round the early-visiting me ; to which it henceforth cleaves more tenaciously (for there pre names that have lasted nigh 30 centuries) than the very skin. And now from without, what mystic influence does it not send inwards, even to the centre ; especially in those rilasdc first-times, when the soul is yet infantine, soft, and the invisible neul grain will grow to be an all overshadowing tre>> ! Names? Could I unfu'd the influence of names, which are the moit imp)rtant of all clothings, I were a second greater Tristnegistus. Not only all common speech, but science, poetry itself, is no other, if thou consider it, than a right naming. Adam's firfat task was giving names to natural appearances. What is ours still, but a continuance of the same — be the appearance exotic — vegetable, organic, mechanic, stars, or starry movements (as in science), or (»s in poetry) pabsions, virtues calamities, God attributes, gods ? In a very plain fense, the proverb Bays : *' Call one thief, and he will steal." '

There is a good deal of truth in the rugged period just quoted. And yet you, and you, and you again yonder, will persist in pinning on — or rather into — your inoffensive seven pounds weight of palpitating humanity, a set of

ABSURD NAME CLOTHES

hat it can never shake off or rub off. You make it — in the matter of nomenclature — a sort of of scarecrow, to be pelted, for the term rf its natural life, with ridicule or with surprise ani pity, that wound just as deeply. And when it dissolves partnership with life, you, or somebody else in your place, will sUck the name (or, rather the nickname) once more — a parting insult — on the coffiu-plate and the gravestone, ad p rpetuum rcl numonam ; a monument to a passing crazp.

The craze for strange-sounding ' pretty names ' is by no means new. The fond mothers of a former day u?ed to find inspiration in the long-drawn romances of Mdlle. de Scudery. The manyByllabled, high-sounding Christian names of that time have long since been run oat of the market by the Mopsidoras and th.- Dorimenes and the Blouzelindas, an 1 the other parodied imitations of comedians of later date. In the Puritan days, singular and sometimes grotesque ingenuity was displayed in the invention of bug festive and far-sounding forenames. Thet-e w«^re usually drawn from words or phrases in ihe Sacred Scripture-i, or from th« stock te.inis of the contemporary pulpit, or from the political and religious watchwords of the hour. ' Prai3e-Go l-Barebonf-B ' U one of the gems of nomenclature of this period. ' llew-Ag;ig-in-Pieces- Before the-Lord ' was another. Ben Johnson nukes bubtle the Alcbemi.st

(Act 3, scene 2) promise Parson Tribulation Wholesome and Dean Ananias that when he has given them the philosopher's atone, (You will not need to) ' Call yourselves By names of Tribulation, Persecution, Restraint, Long-patience and Buch-like, affected By the whole family or wood of you, Only for glory, and to catch the ear Of the diaciple.'

The idea of searching the Scriptures for qaaint and unnsnal baptismal names does not seem to b« altogether abandoned, even at the present time During the course of last year, for instancy a resident of TT»nline:den. England, applied for a certifioata exempting his latest- born child from vaccination. The prenomen given by him to the little bundle of pink humanity somewhat; staggered the clerk. The ' fond parent,' noticing this, proceeded to explain that he had taken it from the eighth chapter, Record verse, of ' Hisak ' The clerk took his office copy of the Old Testament, turned to the eighth chapter of Isaias (authorised version), and at the third verse found the name, Maher-shalal-hash-baz (which, by the way, is rendered in the T>..uay version, ' Hasten to take away the spoils, make haste to take away the prey.') ' That is it,' said the applicant as he heard the name rolled out. And he then explained that he and his wife had stumbled across it in the Bible, thought it a rather aristocratic designation, and, therefore, pinned it as a permanent appellation to their latebt arrival.

Writers of fiction are still, as iv the specious days of Mdlle. da Snidery, the chief manufacturers of bizzarre or euphonious names. The Family Herald and the Family Header seem to make a' speciality of coining fanciful first names for their heroes and heroines ; and almost every work of fiction that soars into the literary heaven of passing popularity, leaves behind it on the birth registers a kite-tail of baby-nanes of a more or less atrocious kind. Catholics are, happily, less attracted by such curiosities of nomenclature than others. Nevertheless, it might unnecessarily harrow up the feelings of a few among the many readers of the Austral Light, if I were to give here a list of substitutes for honest and old-fashioned Christian nanr.es that I have culled at sheer random from a few dozen works of fiction that have won a brief and unmerited popularity during the past 10 years. It was at one time a rather common practice in the rank and file of the army to bestow upon infante the

NAMES OF THE PLACES —

and especially of the places in foreign countries — in which they first saw the light. Dickens refers to this peculiar army custom in his ' Bleak House,' in which the three Bagnet children are named after their respective birth-place, ' Malta,' ' Quebec,' and ' Woolwich.' Political events that stir popular enthusiasm to its depths are responsible for many curious vagaries in Christian names. Great numbers of 14-year-old 'Jubilees' are, for instance, dragging the weary burden of their names in England at the present time. One hapless youth was saddled with the hyphenated prenomen of ' Diamond Jubilee,' he having h«d the misfortune to be born on the fiftieth anniversary of the late Queen's accession to the throne. Popular warp, however, leave a far longer track in the namecolumns of our birth registers than any other class of political t vents that I know ot. During the Crimean war there was a great run on ' Alma,' as a name for girls. The last campaign against the Mddhist 1 ", in the Soudan, s iddled a great number of unoffending iunocentb with such names a^ ' Omdurman,' 'Gordon,' 'Kitchener,' ' Atbara,' ' Khartoum,' etc., a-.d it left one haplesß youngster, in the Islington district of London, languishing nnler the calamitous appellation of • O^man Digni.' The struggle in South Africa seems to have produced ao exceptionally prolific crop of topical and suchlike fore-namp"). Among the common ones are ' B ■bs,' ' Roberts,' 'Buller,' 'White.' 'Baden,' < Baden-Powell,' 'French,' and 'Methuen.' I have read of quite an extmsive assortment of ' Mafekings,' 'Kimbcrley,' ' Glencoet-V ' Dundees,, ' Lr.dyemiths,' 'Colesbergn,' 'Pretoria.-,' • Blopmfonttii s,' and 'Elands' (the full term, ELindslgaate, being probably considered too formidable for constant domestic u»e), and of sundry 'Cecil Rhodes,' one ' Glenaoe-Mod-der,' and of one ' Volunteer.' For some inscrutable reason the name 1 helmont' seems to have been by common consent reserved for baby girls. Toward* the clo-e of li.st year a newly-ariived maiden was registered in North London un ler the rame of ' Roberts Pretoria.' A paragraph clippf d by me lrom a Welsh paper runs as follows :— ' VVales already pofseeses a "Modder Kiver Jones," a " Kiinberley Clifford," " Tugela Jurms," " Jenny Ladysmith Jones." The widow of a Reservist has given her daughter the names of " Modderina Belmontina Methuena Jones " ' During the glowing enthusiasm which marked the departure of the various early contingents from New Zealand for thr- seat of war, the following names were, within a few days, s*iven to litMc newcimers in Duntdin': — ' Badeu-Powell Gordon Robert-,' 'E'gar Pretoria Ali^e Pretoria Baden-Powell,' 'Buller Pretoria,' and -Alfred Pretoria' Perhaps the most successful (though possibly unconscious) parody on the prevailing craze for war-names for children was perpetrated by a Zulu house-father during the period when the enthusiasm over the Pauiotic Fund waa at its height. The incident was related in the course of a letter from Mr E. Pirker, ot Wukettelr", which appeared in a great Eng-h-h daily. Mr I'a.iker wrote . 'In a letter I had from brother, who is at AloutiiKui'd Kop. houth Africa, the foilowir g appears :—": — " One day last week the wife of a Zulu pre-enlid him with a son. The little nipper had been chrn-tened M'foipana E Iv>klaio, which in English is " The Absent- minded Beggar." ' The rcasoun tfcat, determine the

SELECTION Ol<' A PARTICULAR NAME

for a bit of sprawling b *by humanity are usually supposed to be — (1) its ralipiou^ significance, (2) family traditions, (B) euphony, (4) the claim of friendship, and (3) the intention of honoring the great. But there is a nondenCiipL und erratic of fusl-naru s that

escape the^e or any other known principles of nomenclature. They form a class apart, and the motive principle of their imposition would sepm to be mere eccentricity, or the quality which Artemus Ward describes as sheer ' cu-«sedness.' What other human motive could, for instance, acount for some of the extraordinary names inflicted on certain American public men in th- 1 day* cf their mewling, defenceless infancy ? The Rev. Xi Smith, for instance. and Messrs. Bomberine Amstein, Dink Bott 3 . Pod Dismuke, Hoke Smith, and scores of others less prominent afil cted have prohably Bpent many hours of their persecute 1 schooldays, and of their ridiculed manhood in volleying st-enms of lava-hot fe ling at the penoeleqs stupidity or semi-insane eccentricity of parencs, who inflicted on them names that were scarcely good enough for a el iwn dog in a circus. The most curious collection of eccentric ' Christian ' names that'has ever come under my notice, wan bestowed by the Rev. Ralph William Lyonel Tollemache, an Anglican clergyman, upon the children of his second marriage. Air Tollemaohe bra evidently laid his mind to tbp question < f oMld-nomein laturc, and with a wealth of results which won for bi^ eft" ji Lm the distinction of publication in London Truth, o' October 20, 1898. Tne foil nving, according to Truth, is the

PROCESSION OP BAPTISMAL FAVGUS

bestowed upon the nine children of Mr Tollemache's pecond nuptials • —

'(1) Lyulph Ydwallo Odin Nestor Egbert Lionel To'dmag Hugh Erchenwyne Saxon Esa Cromwell Onna Nevill Dy-art Plantagenet.

'(2) Leo Quintua Tollemache-Tollemacho de Orellana Plantagenet.

'(3) Leene Sextus Denys Oswolf Frandati Filius TollemacheTollemache de Orellana Plantagenet

' (4) Lyonulph Cospatrick Bruce Berkley Zermzer Tullibardine Petersham de Orellana Plantageret.

'(5) Mab^l Helmingham Ethel Huntingtower Beatrice Clazonberrie Evangeline Visede Loude Orellana Orellana Plantagenet Toldmag Saxon.

'(6) Lyonesfie Matilda Dora Tda Ernestine Paulet Wilbraham Jiyce Eugenic Bentley Saxouia Dysart Plantagenet.

'(7) Lyona Ducima Veronica, Esyth Undine Cysna HyVa Roweua Adela Tbyra Ursula Ysabel Blauche Lehas Dysart Piantagenet.

' (8~) Lyonella Fredegunde Cathberga Ethelswytha Ideth Ysabel Grace Monica de Orellana Plantagenet.

1 (!)) Lyonetta Edith Regina Valentine Myra Polwarth Avellina Philippa Violanth^a de Orellana Plantngenet.

'I do not know,' said the editor of Tnrtk, ' whether the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children ha** any powers, which i might exercise in a cape like this; but, if not, the omission ou^h t to be remedied by Mr Waugh in the nixt audition of the Children's Charter.'

The little daughter of Archduke Stephen, of Auptria, received no fewer than 1^ Christian names m Baptism. Some of them are sufficiently curious and the whole combmati n rnn^ as follow-* .—. — Maria Immauulata Caroline Mar^jretbe B atica Leopoldi- c Beatrix Anna Jo=tefine Rnfaela M cln la Stxnislaus l^rnaiy Ilieronymua Camiro Katharina Petra C<clia. Royal p< r-onnp's generally are, in fact, noted for the e\t r ein" proditr<i'itj wiih which thry In fore-names upon their ohilurui. But i\< j n tli • in i- 1 iitubituiiM crowned heads are, in thi« m.it r, e^lnwil by a p'am l'.ntwh bourgeois, aW. s* Derby la n di\ nia-i n in.c '. Pt pper, who be- to wed upon his daughter (bom I) cembi-r 17. I^^l'i the folio Mrijr parade of six-and-twenty cm io ndy a-^ur ed male a, id i"etiia!>- lie.ithen aid Chrit-tian name-i : — Anna l.urtba Ce^ili.i I'iiiui Emily V^ ny Gertrude Hypitia Inez Juv Kate Lviim 1 Maud Nora Oph 111 1 v. Pauline Quince Rebecca St.irkiy 'leret-a Ulj-bea V< uui Winifred Xenophou Yetty Zen-.

Such formu abl^ j rore-fionil nauifs i'fm to be peculiar to later time* Kven double Christian i snues were e\ i rvmeiy rare in pr^-Reformation Liul.uid. Tre Lite Father Budge. t, C.SS.R , h.»d a wide txpeium c in ie idii g old will*. < hartt r-, ut cd*, of sale, etc., but coukl otily mention one instance, in whi h an English nan. i-i tb> tiuus preceding tho uroit religious upheaval of tht* Mx f eeii'h cpi't.ny, h-td uu Chn-tian naini «. The happy man in question w ts ['hi'inas Muia H i. fi nl who v\a-< re. tor of Wamugton, in l/uiea-.hire, m \~<27. ml mi inhcr of Pirli-ment for Hunting lon. itisH'r.mge th.it ire nv\e teM n.'nieuf woman, Mary, was alino-t vi kt.own m Hn^l.ii nasa * i<n t, an name before the sixteenth centiiTy. Father Bnd_M v could laid only one person in pre- Reformation iitne-i m Lnghind who b.>re the name oi JoSc'p'i, and he seldom dioppe i acro-n the n.i res of t Vie t -ui'd rs nt nl.gious Orders, lie found 1.0 Doiuink 1 -. no Fianc"-i-«. no Paul-.. John was the mn*-t f.>v"ored n.inie o' all. Next in theoroer of preference cnn>- Thorn 'P, U.thrtid R >\n 1 1. Uo^t r, W-ilie*. M n^h, Peter, IJ^rtholoinew, H''in\. Chuf-tofht-r, Philip, (ir.mjrv, (J-iluS Stephen, Atidrevv, C-Jiibp-t. Herbert. R.'trtivild, Rtlph, (icvus.', Mauiiee. Ma- m. Hu npnrev. Kii'-taer. Kulk.O-he. t hl<lv/ird, Nicholas, and La.vren'e. Ainot \\ omen i ii «- mo-t fr< gui nt name (-eeinn to ha\c bteu A>io>' (snmi'timi^ vsiried as Al.'-oti). i>id ne\' in order of popularity ooii c .Ju n, Isiibc lb . M iti l l.i, Mu'^ui. t ai d M irt;* ry, Afjfnt^ or Aiii.c^, (Jiii l tmn. <ni 1 Kl./. Ib li <) li r cnniun'i r» til ilo names weic 'ihou.a <j and Ihom.bjn, th'j I*, iiinjii.t Joinn of Thomas.

I aii^ht 1" re n ft-"- l i> idt itii'ly to ibi grnwni" 1 i u-'oii, o f coticalmg go (1 nl ■ Clni^r ,'ii v .ines under \aiioa-- « ( l -j_ri: i -h-^ — calm g Maiy, for m-t iiici , by l s Fiei-eh equ vile t .Man, or i r.rcaig it into »ia\ , ( r bai U rii g it <ilnio-t b'\ond r<" o> Jiitiuji mioih el.il-di-h d< Mgnatiou M tin. i <.i M..yn.i> I . ih 1 --.n.o \\ •} ,he plun ip Htul c John ih rin" -° sin. i..;e; nin>er if- l\ »—-lav» — -lav form, lvrtn, wluoli, by the w ,iy I- 'i-'i,ii !/ in i - jirunuuiii ed ]]• r-\,m ' (_w it h tho accent on the. fir--t -nll.bl ), i)u- ionic i romj\. i.»i id i b-ijig E<i-Viin (wirh thi' Mil-"*-, on t .v 'ii: i] ( }llal>'<). The p.iaie two rt-

marks apply al j o to the now somewhat common name Ines (or Iruz), the rtpanisj • quivalf-nt for the fine ol i name Agnea. The Freti.-h, Italians, and Spaniards greatly excel Eneflishspeaking peoples in the euphony, g'.od taste, and religious euggestivene a of the nunut which they give to the children at Baptism. Mr Juh.m McCormiok, an American writer, lays down in a recent book, ' The Child's Name.' the following

HULES FOB A GOOD COMBINATION

of Christian names : —

' 1. The same t-ounds should not occur in both the Christian and surnames. ' 2. Alliteration mu^t be avoidpd. '3. Very r.ire names should not be selected for common surnames.

' 4. Let simplicity characterise the name and surname,' Mr Mc ( Jortnick endeavors ro meet the prevailing demand for na i.es that are at the same time unfamiliar and euphoniouß by publishing

A LIST

of some 500, drawn from the most accessible martyrologiea, and adding thereto brief biographies, which serve the useful purpose of making the saints and great servants of God better known. I select the following from his list : — Misculine Names. — Adalbert, Adt j l<ird, Adrian, Agfttho, Aidan, Alban, Alderbert, Aldric, Aloysius, Alphonstia, Ambrose, Anßelna, Antony, Augustine, Basil, Bede, Benedict, Benjamin, Bruno, Gallistus, Camillas, Casimir, Cassian, Oelestine, Claude, Claudius, Clement, Colmau, Columba, Conall, Comgall, Conrad. Cormac, Cuthbert, Cyprian, Cyril, Damian, David, Dion, Dominic. Dunetan, Eadbert, E hnund, Enna, Ephren, Eric, Ethelbert, Fabian, Felician, Ferdinand, Finbar, Fintan, Flavian, Fridian, Gerald, Gildas, Godfrey, Godric, Gordian, Harold, Hedda, Hilary, Hubert Ignatius, Isidore, Jarlath, Jerome, Julian, Julius, Justin, Kenelm' Kentigern, Kilian, Lambert, Leo, Leonard, Leopold, Louis, Lucian' Malo, Maro, Martial, Melito, Niuian, Norbert, Odo, Odrian, Omer 1 Osmund, Oswald, Oswin, Otho, Philibert, Prosper, Quintin, Rayl mond, Romi, Romuald, Rufus, Rupert, Sebastian, Senan. Sigbert Sigfried, Sigismund, Stanislaus, Sylvester, Theobald, Theodore^ Ulfrid, Ulmar, Ulricb, Urban, Vakry. Victor, Vincent, Vivian Walstan. Wilfred, Wulstan. Feminine Names. — Adela, Adria, Afra, Agatha, Alba, Angela Antonia, Artemia, Athelda, Aurelia, Barbara, Beatrice, Bertha, Blanda. Blandina, Britta, Callista, Camilla, Cecilia, Celina, Christina, Clare, Claudia, Clotilda, Constance, Cornelia, Corona, Cyra, Cynlla, Delphine, Dorothy, Ebba, Edelburga, Edith, Einuina, Etha, Euthalia, Everilda, Fausta, Flavia, Galla, Honora, Genevieve, Gertrude. Ida, Idalberga. Juliana, Julitta. Ju'-tina, Lea, Leonilla, Lueiua, L\dia, Maicella, Martina, Maura, Mida, Mildred, Monica, Nomia, Nora, Oetavia, Oda, OJilla, Ortrude, Patricia, Paula, Pauline. Rufina, Sabina, Silfina, Sylvia, Theodora, Theonilla, "Urs v Valeria, Veronica.

Personally, I confess to a sentimental preference for the good old-fanhioned taint-names that 1 have been accustomed to ; and there are, in all reason, enough of them to go round and round, and round again, a family as big as that of the old woman who lived in it shoe. ,tiid had so many children she didn't know what to do. Irish, S -uUish, and Engli-L parents need not go to France and Spain, and Ru^Ma, for Libels- for their little oiif-s, while there is Buch a wealth ot Ct luo and Sax in child-nanie j to felect from, as has been given ahove To the Irish h-t I would add, on mv own account, the following : — For b.iys — Brendan, Brian, Dermot, Fergus, Is'iel, Kenneth ; and for guls — Eneen. Kathleen, Etmer, Una, Ethne, Britfid or Bride (Bridget is Swedish), Gcraldiue, and — last in place, but first in thought — Moua (Maury<i). the sweet-sounding equivalent for the njine ot Mary.