STARTLING NAMES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 450, 7 February 1933, Page 7

STARTLING NAMES

QUEER COMBI NATION MANY TYPICALLY PECULIAR TO THEIR OWNER'S POSITION. OTHERS EMBARRASSING. The Browns, Smiths and Thompsons shohld be thankful for their names. f How would they like to sign th'eml selves Maggott or Woodenhead — two ! snrnames which are still common? | In Bardsley's "Dietionary of Sur- . names" are mentioned such unfortunate names as Beervault, Scoundrel, , Tv^addle, Swine, Gatherveil, Grink1 dregs, Littleheast, Silley, and Ginman. Sometimes insolvency has been attributed to names. I ua list of bank- , rupts one finds at baker named Shortj weight, a hutcher with the name of ! Katzmeat, and a doctor hearing the j ominous surname of Gravestone. In ; England persons possessing queer sur- ' names formed an association recently, presumably for mutual sympathy" and support. It is known as the Funinames Club. In the county of Sussex there are several old families which bear the embarrassing surname of I Halfnaked. The name has existed since Norman times, when the first j of the line was Baron v*alter de Halfnaked. His manor and estate, which still exist, are called Halnaker. It seems almost ineredible that persons hearing such a name have not undertaken the ismp-le f ormality of ch'anging it. Among long names almost everyhody has heard of Praise-God Barehones, one of Cromwell's parliamentarians. He lived in the seventeenth century, when religious fervour was introduced into all phases of life. It is reported that his surname was, in faet, spelt Barbone. He had two brothers bearing even more remarkable names. One had been christened Christ-Came-Into-the - World-to - Save Barbone, and the other I-Christ-Had-Not-Died-Thou-Hadst - Been - Damned Barbone. The Puritan praetice of giving children Bihlical texts for Christian names was fairly common among the early settlers in America. It is officially recorded that a sea captain at that time bore the name of Through Much-Trihulation-We-Enter-The-King-dom-of-Heaven Clapp. In the nineteenth century an eccentric man named William HarriS1 was so successful as a sapsage-maker that he was known as the Sausage King. The honour must have turned his head, for he named his three sons William I, William II, and WiH'—" and his three daughters Elizabeth 1, Elizabeth II, and Elizabeth III. During the Great War one of the British casualty lists recorded the death of Captain L. S. D. O. F. F. T.-T. de O. P. Tollemache-Tollemache. This officer was a member of a family of nine brothers and sisters remarkable for their long, unwieldy names. The captain was a son of the Rev. Ralp'h Tollemache, and his full name was Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudati Filius Tdllemaclic-iTo^lpmach)e d|p Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache. One of his brothers glorified in sixteen Christian names — Y dwallo Odin Nestor Egbert Lyonel Toedm'ag Hngh Erchen Wyne Saxon Esa Cromwell Orma Nevill Dysart Plantagenet Tolle-mache-Tollemache. His eldest sister signed herself Mahee, Helingham Huntingtower Beatrice Blazonberrie Evangeline Vise de Lou Orella Plantagenet Soxap Toedmag TollemacheTollemache. One br other, who was had them shortened to plain Leo de christened with only seven names, Orellana ToIIemache. A solicitor in Vietoria, who died a few years ago, was named Pelling Hugh Gough Pigott Stainsby Conant.