American Language Supplement 2 (103 page)

Nothing here is really new. Paul St. Gaudens has unearthed
Sterling
and
Urian
from the Killingly, Conn., records of 1725–40;
Irastus, Delor
and
Ozno
from New Hampshire records of 1850–70;
Aldace, Milon, Erdix, Royal, Volney, Alvah, Nomus
and
Sardis
from the rolls of Kimball Union Academy at Meriden, N. H., 1834–48; and
Noble, Leroy, King, Earl, Lysander, Delbert, Euclid, Romaine, Osro, Hector
, and
Dolph
from various New England account-books of 1850–60. The fame of Ralph
Waldo
Emerson (1803–82) after his Phi Beta Kappa oration at Harvard in 1837 started a vogue for his middle-name. William
Tecumseh
Sherman, born in 1813, was not the first American to bear an Indian name,
²
nor was
Kenesaw Mountain
Landis, born in 1866, the first to be named for a battle.
³
Geographical names began to be used as given-names in the period of expansion into the West.
Wisconsin Illinois
and
Arizona Dakota
were two North Carolina brothers,
⁴
and
Lewes Delaware
was a Washington physician. In Connecticut, a generation or two ago, there was a politico surnamed
Bill
whose given-names were
Kansas Nebraska
. He had brothers named
Lecompton Constitution
and
Emancipation Proclamation
,
⁵
and sisters
named
Louisiana Purchase
and
Missouri Compromise
. Long before their time Governor William H. Gist, of South Carolina, named a son
States Rights
. This
States Rights
was graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1852, joined the Confederate Army in 1861, rose to be a brigadier-general, and was killed at the battle of Franklin, Tenn., November 30, 1864.
¹

The austere pages of “Who’s Who in America” are adorned with many strange names,
e.g., Champion, Dallas Dayton, Erdis
,
²
Zeno, Balpha, Doel, Amor, Ival, Tubal, Zellmer
and
Cola
, though they are naturally less numerous than among the sturdy yeomen of Oklahoma and Texas. There are congressmen (1948) named
Omar, Rolla, Prince, Oren, Wint, Fadjo
and
Thor
, and bishops named
Angie, Noble
and
Vedder
. The newspapers are constantly turning up given-names of a fantastic improbability. In 1944
E. Pluribus Unum
Husted was found in Oklahoma City, though he was a native of Quincy, Ill.
³
In 1936
Willie
3/8 Smith was unearthed in rural Georgia.
⁴
In 1901
Loyal Lodge No. 296 Knights of Pythias Ponca City Oklahoma
Smith was baptized at Ponca City.
⁵
The late Cap Anson, manager of the Chicago baseball club, was baptized
Adrian
Constantine
because his mother was born at
Adrian
, Mich., and his father at
Constantine
in the same State.
¹

Every Southern town boasts a Negro denizen who is exhibited to strangers as
Seaboard Airline Railway
Jackson,
Way Down Upon the Swanee River
Johnson,
Are You Ready For the Judgment Day
Brown or
Sunday Night Supper
Jones, but most such grotesque names, I am convinced, are invented by sportive whites and accepted only to gain their attention and favor. They may be bestowed now and then at baptism in the village creek, but that is only because the majority of Southern blackamoors regard pedo-baptism as unscriptural, and hence do not go into the water until they have passed their nonage – long after their names have been determined, whether by Caucasian fiat, by their own choice, or by public acclamation. All the students who have investigated Aframerican onomastics in a scientific spirit have found such monstrosities to be few and far between, and when a particularly amazing specimen is reported the news of it usually comes at second or third hand. Dr. Urban T. Holmes, of the University of North Carolina, who undertook, in 1930, a survey of the names of 722 Negro school-children in a typical mill-town of that State, found that 544 bore ancient and commonplace names on the order of
Mary
and
Margaret, James
and
William
, that 136 boasted such fancier but none the less familiar names as
Clarissa
and
Eugenia, Elbert
and
Gordon
, and that only 44 were adorned with such inventions as
Orcellia
and
Margorilla, Sandas
and
Venton
.
²

In a study of the names of 22,105 colored college students − 12,220 females and 9,885 males —, reported in 1938, Dr. Newbell N. Puckett, of Western Reserve University, found a considerably higher incidence of what he called “unusualness,” to wit, 15.3% among the females and 8.4% among the males, but he neglected, unhappily, to define “unusualness” or to give any examples of it, so his figures must be accepted with caution. On examining the Negro given-names in “Who’s Who in Negro America,” including
those of parents, spouses and children, he found a “rate of un-usualness,” for the two sexes together, of 7.6% among individuals born before 1870, one of 9.8% among those born between 1870 and 1900, and one of 15.6% among those born since the latter year. Here, again, he failed to define “unusualness,” but inasmuch as his criterion, whatever it was, was apparently applied alike in all three periods, it is safe to accept his conclusion that “the rate of unusualness with the females seems to be on the increase.” The same applies to his examination of lists of students in two colored colleges – one in South Carolina and the other in Arkansas. At the former he found 10.3% of “unusualness” before 1901, and 17.5% in 1935. At the latter the rate was 14.6% from 1900 to 1919, 22.4% from 1920 to 1929, and 35.6% in 1935.
¹

Here the effect of the circumambient white
Kultur
is well displayed. The fact that fancy names were more than twice as numerous among the Negroes of Arkansas as among those of South Carolina was precisely what one might have expected. My own examination of lists of Southern colored students indicates that their density, as among the white population, runs in inverse proportion to the degree of local civilization. In a roster of undergraduates at the North Carolina College for Negroes at Durham, a high-toned seminary, I find less than a dozen fancy names among nearly 600, and in the catalogue of Tuskegee Institute for 1946–47, listing students of a decidedly ambitious and superior class, with relatively cultured home backgrounds, the ordinary given-names run to at least 90%. I encounter, to be sure, some eyebrow-lifting
Arrenwinthus, Berneths
and
LaFauns
, but they would be outnumbered at least six to one by the
Fledareas, Jessoises, Merhizes
and
Oyonnas
in any comparable white list from Oklahoma, Arkansas or the Baptist areas of Louisiana and Texas.

On the lowest social level the study of Negro given-names is impeded by a fact already mentioned – that the sacrament of baptism is delayed among the majority of blacks until they are sturdy
enough to stand a violent ducking, by which time they have often become known to their friends by pet-names or nicknames, and are disinclined to change them. Many of them are illegitimate, with less family ties than a wild thing in the woods. Thus it is not surprising to find occasional names like the following, all of which are supported by plausible evidence:

Many of the double names in vogue among the dark blanket Christians of the South are the product of piety, for the Negro, on all save his highest levels, is almost as religious as the white cracker. Examples are
King Solomon, Queen Esther, Holy Moses
and
Virgin Mary
.
⁶
Once in a while these combinations run to formidable length, recalling the worst imbecilities of the Puritans,
e.g., I Will Arise and Go Unto My Father
,
⁷
Jesus Christ and Him Crucified, Matthew Mark Luke John Acts of the Apostles
. There are also cognate prodigies in the secular field,
e.g., Pictorial Review
,
⁸
Quo Vadis, Lake Erie
, and, when a romantic colored mother decides to shoot the works,
Christine Nancy Luanna Jane Rio Miranda Mary Jane, George Washington Thomas Jefferson Andrew Jackson
,
⁹
Georgia May Virginia Dare Martha Annie Louise
,
¹⁰
Mary Beatrice Love Divine Ceeno Tatrice Belle Caroline
¹¹
or (a mixed example)
Daisy Bell Rise Up and Tell the Glory of Emanuel
.
¹²
Some of the pious names show a considerable shakiness in Bible scholarship,
e.g., Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes, Judas Iscariot, Ananias, Verily
,
¹³
Balaam, Cain, Herod, Archangel
and
Onan
. I have even heard of a colored boy baptized
Jehovah
.
¹⁴

Among the secular names showing the same talent for absurdity I find
Delirious, Anonymous, Neuralgia
,
¹⁵
Iodine, Sterilize, Sal Hepatica,
Morphine, Castor Oil, Ether, Constipation
,
¹
Castile, Jingo, Vaseline
and
LaUrine
.
²
Public events and wonders often suggest names to Negro mothers,
e.g., Submarine
,
³
Radio, High Water, Prohibition
,
⁴
Blitzkrieg
,
⁵
Pearl Harbor
,
⁶
Hardtimes
and
NRA
.
⁷
It is not uncommon for a boy given the name of some great hero, clerical or lay, to take the hero’s title as well,
e.g., Sir Walter Raleigh
⁸
and
Saint Patrick
.
⁹
But all such oddities remain relatively rare and are seldom if ever encountered among Negroes above the total immersion level.

The names of black slaves have been investigated by Puckett.
¹⁰
His material ranges in date from 1619 to 1865, and embraces 12,000 names. He finds that the earliest slaves usually had commonplace English or Spanish given-names, with
John
and
Mary
in the lead. His first example of what later came to be regarded as a characteristically Negro name, to wit,
Sambo
, is found in Maryland in 1692. During the Eighteenth Century
Cuffy, Cudjo, Mungo
and
Quashie
appeared, and the prevailing classical influence showed itself in such names as
Caesar, Cato, Hannibal
and
Ulysses
. But the old names held their own, as they did among the whites, with
John
in the lead for men, followed by
Henry, George, Sam, Jim, Jack, Tom, Charles, Peter, Joe, Bob
and
William
, and
Mary
in the lead for women, followed by
Maria, Nancy, Lucy, Sarah, Harriet, Hannah, Eliza, Martha, Jane, Amy
and
Ann
. By the beginning of the Nineteenth Century Negro nomenclature began to take on the patterns it shows today. After Emancipation it was assimilated by the given-name
patterns and fashions of the whites, though perhaps with a larger admixture of downright ridiculous names and a lesser admixture of mere fancy names. Says Puckett: