Horrific names from your family tree

[Fantail]

We have been working a little bit on DH's family tree lately. There are some names in there but none more horrific than a little boy in the 1800s named Ethelbert who grew up in East London.

Have you come across any in your family?

Ex insisted Gizberg was from his family tree and if we had a boy we had to call him that. Met this announcement with a heartfelt Fuck Off!!!

I had a Queenie in the Oz branch of the family

Wentworth & Smith....can you imagine?! Poor kids.

A great uncle named Septimus Eugal.
A great aunt named Nelly. Another named Olive.
Lots of Italian names...one of which means Humbert when translated.

pavlovscat - probably, but only if Hymen had a sister called Virginia

My DM had distant cousins called Shadrach Meshach and Abednego (not sure about the spelling).

My DF had uncles called Elgin and Raglan.

My grandmother's sister was called Olive. She died before I was born, but was horrible apparently, especially to my lovely DGM, so it's put me off the name.

Euphemia, and Sutherland - I don't remember any other unusual ones. DHs family are Eastern European and we haven't started on that side yet!

Acrossthepond - my Grandpa was called Vivian Lynn Alastair - do you think his parents wanted a girl? He hated Vivian so everyone called him Lynn. I'd have gone with Alastair myself.

I have several Adelaides - it was my great-great grandmother's middle name and I actually quite like it. My gg-grandmother married, had a baby and died all in the same year when she was 23 and her daughter died of breast-cancer at 35 leaving 3 children, so there was a sad run of motherless children for a while. I would have quite liked to use the name if I had known all that when I was naming children.

Eli is our traditional family name for eldest sons. As a child I was very relieved that I hadn't been saddled with it but now I quite like it - albeit the elongated version Elijah.

Lots of Letitias in our tree, shortened to Lettuce. I always thought of Letitia as a very modern name but it was quite common in 18th Century Cheshire.

My favourite is Valentine, born on 14th February!

We have a Fanny married to a John Thomas.

Squires and Montagues in my family tree!

I've got a Robin Hood, and a Petronella Margary Dore

I have a grandfather Aloysius.

He only went by Al - and gave my father the middle name Alan instead.

Prof My family has a long history of babies born on Valentine's Day, I think there were around 8, although it is a very large family. My Grandad is one of them and like all the others has Valentine as his middle name. Last year my cousin had a baby on the 14th and has named him after my Grandad, complete with the Valentine middle name, I'm a bit jealous but then I clearly need to better schedule our sex!

We have Medora, Judah, Mordecai, Ispya, Maryusa, Solomon, Naum, Ebeneezer, Dash and Grisha. All living in the Victorian East End.

Also lots of Charlie, Harry, Daisy, Lenny, Molly, Jack, Jimmy, Billy, Alfie and similar which are NOT nicknames. There is no 'proper' name on the birth certificate, which I know provokes collective horror on mn.

Dh's are hilarious. He has a relation called Yodel.

That's interesting. We only had one although Valentine Vincent is quite a flamboyant name for a 19thC blacksmith from Wigan!

Steele.

It sounds even worse when put with the surname. I don't know what my Great Great Grandparents were thinking.

We have:

Jose ( about 20 of them)
Borris
Sylvietta
Mario
Thomasina
Frankette!!!!!!!!
Bellatrix
Valentine
Love
Holy
Saviour

And 39 people called jesus :)
Benjamina

Benjamina was meant to be in the main list. No idea why that snuck in there at the end!

Zenobia and her little brother Athelstan, in Victorian Islington.

They have an unusual surname, so I thought there might be some exciting story. But no, their father's a perfectly boring Northumberland linen draper called Charles, and their mother's Augusta.

Athelstan perpetuated the crime by calling his son Herbert Athelstan.

How about someone with the surname Bone marrying a Balls. Their son married a Butt.

I have a Steele, and a Boden, both boys. Also a Hephzibah, a couple of Priscillas, and a long line of Joshans.

Most unusual is probably Bransom, which on it's own is unusual for a first name, but the surname was Haggis, so really quite odd.

I know of a real life Hepzibah (an engineer iirc). And a Norbert not very long deceased.
As for surnames, I offer Grubbs. Beat that.

Yes Prof that is rather swanky for such a man. My favourite Valentine in our family is:

Ariel Valentine Delvalle, a rag & bone man and part-time 'strongman' from early Victorian Shoreditch. Also pretty flamboyant. I think the Valentine in a name seems to up the ante.

Unfortunately, he didn't lavish such jazzy names on his own children, he went with much more English monikers. My grandad is Stanley Valentine which I find quite sweet.

Ahh, Stanley Valentine, did he talk to his kitchen wall?

I have a ancestor called Friend, I thought it was a mistake but nope! He was a green grocer in the east end at the time of Jack the Ripper.
Also have a Ocean.