How much of an effect does one’s name have on one’s personality and experiences? That is not for us at the Mansfield Historical Society to say, but we can say this: names are not what they once were.
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| Mrs. Mehitabel, wife of Capt. Elijah McCall (Mansfield Center Cemetery) |
According to Babycenter.com, the top ten baby girl names for 2011 are as follows: Sophia, Emma, Isabella, Olivia, Ava, Lily, Chloe, Madison, Emily, Abigail. The top ten boy names for 2011 are: Aiden, Jackson, Mason, Liam, Jacob, Jayden, Ethan, Noah, Lucas, Logan.
Unfortunately, there are no such lists to be found from New England’s early years. However, scholars can examine census records and gravestones, birth and death records and diaries, to compile a collection of popular names.
Scholar and author Diana Ross McCain wrote an article entitled “What to Name the Baby” for the April 1989 edition of Early American Life. In this piece, McCain highlights a few Puritan naming trends, giving examples of each.
According to McCain, the Puritans’ practice of naming their children after Biblical characters and Christian values was, in part, a response to Roman Catholic practices. Even in the Middle Ages, if not before, parents were naming their children after Scriptural figures, but they also named them after non-Biblical saints. During the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, the Puritans and others sought to return to a purely Biblical naming tradition. Meanwhile, many names associated with “popery” were shunned, and anything not from the Bible was considered “pagan.”
The Puritans loved to name their children after characters from the Old Testament, including Noah, Moses, Rachel, and Esther. Names might also include more obscure characters such as Epaphroditus or Mahershalalhashbaz.
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| Barzillai Swift (Mansfield Center Cemetery) |
The Biblical figures for whom the children were named served as reminders of noble qualities, but sometimes they were also reminders of the temptation of sin. For example, girls were sometimes named after the scandalous Bathsheba or Vashti.
Famously, the Puritans also named their children after values. This practice was especially common for baby girls, who might be named Obedience, Mindwell, Silence, Faith, Submit, Wealthy, Desire, or even Freelove. Certain names might be applied to both genders, even within the same family. According to McCain, Nehemiah and Abigail Esterbrook of Mansfield gave the name “Experience” to first a daughter (b. 1747), and then, when she died, a son (b. 1751).
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| Fearing Swift (Mansfield Center Cemetery) |
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| Submit T. Southworth (Mansfield Center Cemetery) |
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| Comfort Newbury (Mansfield Center Cemetery) |
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| Mary, wife of Origin Cummings (Mansfield Center Cemetery) |
The oldest gravestone in the Mansfield Center Cemetery memorializes a certain man thus: “Here lieth the body of Mistar Exercise Conant who died Aprell the 28 1722 aged 85 years.” To that man’s parents, then, “Exercise” seemed a suitable name.
As Puritanism gave way to the secularism of the post-American Revolution nation, naming practices followed suit. Popular heroes such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and Andrew Jackson inspired several generations of parents, who gave their children names such as George Washington Tyler (b. 1798) and Andrew Jackson Gurley (b. 1834).
Accompanying the turn toward secularism was a revival of interest in ancient Greece and Rome. Names such as Horatio, Narcissus, Socrates, and Lucretia began to appear.
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| Phileomilla Palmer (Mansfield Center Cemetery) |
And then of course there were the outliers, such as the eighth child of East Hartford Methodist preacher Reverend Timothy Dewey, who was named Encyclopedia Britannica Dewey (a girl, b. 1814).
As we look back today, these naming practices, and indeed, names in general, prove thought-provoking.
To the Puritans, a name was considered a vital part of one’s identity and morality. Today, parents name their children Sophia, Aiden, Emma, and Jackson. These names have their own meanings as given in baby name dictionaries, though the meanings are not so explicit as, say, Temperance or Rejoice.
Today, we invite you to walk through a historic cemetery in town. Look at the names and the dates, and think about what you can or cannot learn about the named individuals from the information given. Then consider your own name. What is it? Does it matter?
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| Egbert Storrs and Egbert Storrs (Mansfield Center Cemetery) |
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| Juba Storrs (Mansfield Center Cemetery) |
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| Nabby Bingham (Mansfield Center Cemetery) |
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If You’d Like to Learn More:
- McCain, Diana Ross. "What to Name the Baby." Early American Life. April 1989. Print.
- Visit a local historic graveyard.
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Please click here for the Mansfield Historical Society's website, which includes further information about the Society's services, programs, and publications, as well as archived articles and newsletters.
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