QUAINT AND AMUSING

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 45, 22 February 1930, Page 20

QUAINT AND AMUSING

UNDIGNIFIED CHRISTIAN NAMES

Christening baby is not always the solemn business that fond.parents and the oiliciating parson would have it. For this the parents themselves are to blame. At times an innocent infant is burdened with names that are; calculated to upset, the dignity that is supposed to surround the. occasion. ; • The -quaintness of the names borne by some people was brought home; to me on a recent visit to one of-our Government Departments, writes: A. M. in the Melbourne "Age." Here I encountered an official who for many years has been-in the habit of recording names, some of them quaint and some amusing, from the large number that come under his notice. To peruse the cards wherein these unusual names were jotted down produces interesting food for- reflection. Among -them were some that certainly had their peculiar features. Take, for osample, North West Tennant, the first of tho bunch to catch my eye. Surely there is a atory behind these prefixes. And then there is Commissioner Mitchell, a name that I was assured belonged neither to a Salvation Army officer nor yet to. the head of the Department that extorts taxes from an unwilling community. Here^ too, appeared Lucy Temperance Ailett. The Temperance was chosen, uo doubt, that it might stand as a. lifelong, warning against the evils, attending over indulgence in Ale. . There seems little unusual in Frances Hazel Baker until we learn the surprising fact that the person concerned is a full-blooded male. Can "it be"; that in this case the parents' hearts had been set on a girl, and that when the contrary infant arrived they refused to alter the names; chosen beforehand? Whatever the solution, Frances Hazel ha caused no little confusion in the legal documents of this. Department. Many a "her" had to be amended to "him" when the gender was made known to the surprised officials. "'■ Eath'ex' remarkable, too, is the case of John R, Rowlands. The name itself would excite little curiosity.'lts quaintness lies in the. faetithat the B. is not the initial of any particular name. Its owner himself testified to this by statutory declaration when asked to supply his second Christian name..

. Single uuinca, it would appeal', are not ■uncommon.: Three of theiu are carded among the strange collection — Abraham, Naran, and Kushalla, Unhampered by any Christian'names whatever, they have established a precedent that might possibly be followed with advantage by anyone except the Smiths or the Jonses. These seem to require some extra identification marks. Recently the fact was deplored by someone that we neglected Australian names when christening our children. Those who were responsible for Eucalyptus Duncan and Kosciusko Omeo Stirling are exempt from criticism in that direction. -■ These have a decidedly Australian flavour. So/ to a certain extent, has Mountain Hill, although one is inclined to suspect an attempt at a little humour in this' instance. Appleofann Kneebono doe's not spring from the imagination. It appears among all these others. The name is that of an Australian woman. Foreigners and Orientals provide the subjoct matter for some of the other recordings.- Willie Kum Too caught my eye, and "with it came, the thought that a practical joker must surely have a hand in.choosing the names that some of pur celestial friends take unto themselves when they set up in laundries or start fruit rounds in this country. As a youngster I had my share of mirth out of the name Long Duck, painted-in bold letters on the wagon of our Chinese fruit hawker in the Brighton district. Thin Coon, too, proved rather intriguing, especially when we found that its sleek owner turned the scales at about 15 stone. Ah Fat would surely have filled the bill in this particular case. • Yes; tho world abounds with people who are the victims of peculiar efforts at nomenclature. Few of us are satisfied with the. names that were forced upon us at a time'when we were obviously unable to offer an effective protest. Percy would fain be Tom, while Tom if ho had his way would answer to JVtervyn. . : . There seems, only one way out of the difficulty. , Each, of us, upon reaching the age of mature judgment—whenever that may be—should be given the right to,review and, if necessary, to change, the names that in all innocence we have accepted at christening.