Colonial Names: Great New Old Choices

Erastus was the middle name of one of my great-great-grandfathers.

I knew a Jerusha growing up. She seemed to have minor pronunciation problems when meeting new people, but nothing too terrible.

wow!

Wow great list. Thanks. I love old and mainly unused names. I really don’t know why Seth isn’t used more.

One of my many times great-grandfathers was a Revolutionary War soldier named Shubael or Shubal, depending on how it was transcribed. I believe it is a Biblical name as well. The family tree also includes a Tryphena (the way it is transcribed in the records, though probably the same name as Tryphaina) and Hephzibahs, Jareds and Jerushas as well as the more typical Sarah, Abigail, Hannah, Abraham, Timothy, Reuben. One 18th century ancestor was named Eliphalet and I have no idea if that is Biblical.

There were also quite a few Puritan virtue names. One of my great-great-great grandmothers was Wait, nicknamed Waitie, and another was Experience.

Great list! I have a cousin named Micah (11 yrs. old), a friend with the Susanna spelling, another friend with Susanna as her middle name (both 17), & I know two Seth’s (both about 19)!

I like Delia (as a nn for Cordelia), Mercy, Harmony, Rosabelle, Susanna/h, Amos, Micah, Seth, and Reuben!

My oldest sister is named Jerusha!! The ones I like are: Rosabelle, Susannah, Delia, Ive, Seth, Calvin, Everard, Reuben.

Why would Ammi be best suited for girls now? Ridiculous statement. If Amari can be popular for boys, so can Ammi.

Oh and Asa is NOT unisex! Jesus christ.

Funny how nearly all the boy ones are “usable for girls”, yet none of the girl names had the comment “usable for boys”.

Macy, I welcome your opinions but not your tone. Nameberry is considerate and respectful, and our policy is that everyone maintain that level of discourse.

@Andrea: Yes, Eliphalet is Biblical. He was one of King David’s many sons.

I sometimes wonder how people think of names like Polsapianna. Maybe it’s like the colonial equivalent of Tyquacia or Sh’naynay, and the parents just liked the sound of it. Go figure.

I think Tryal is supposed to be Trial. They used weird spellings back then.

Could Tryal – be Trial – more like a virtue name? Also, colonials were quite into greek names and greek history as latin and greek were well studied and translated in schools.

Regarding unisex names: For what it’s worth, I think Ive and Tryal from the girls’ list would work equally well on girls or boys (which isn’t to say they’d work particularly well on either gender). Ive reminds me of Ike and sounds like a potential nickname for Ivan.

My husband’s grandmother is Floris, which I guess would be the girl version of Florus — the “-us” ending does seem decidedly masculine.

My favorites from this list are definitely Susannah and Calvin. I also like Dorothea, Mercy, Reuben, and Seth.

I also thought that Tryal was a variation of Trial. Maybe it was a difficult pregnancy or birth, and baby’s name reflected that.

I just love the names Seth and Mercy, I think they are beautiful!

How about Deliverance or Humility – two choices I discovered while looking through various branches of our family tree.

I actually know three guys named Seth! They are 32, 28 and 21. So this name doesn’t feel too underused to me.

So many great names on this list!

Delia is lovely but I think the catalog store association makes people not want to use it.

Dorothea is lovely and my husband had a grandmother named Dorothy but I love Theodora just a little more!

Marietta is lots of fun!

I LOVE Susannah! There are a lot of “anna” names in my family tree so I thought using Susannah would cover them all.

Amos is fantastic! But lots of people have that Famous Amos connection.

Asa is a wonderfully strong Biblical name. This one is growing on me.

Augustine is cool but I actually like Augustus better.

Calvin is a great name…I also think of Calvin and Hobbes )

Everard is such a manly name but I worry about people being about to pronounce it. I also love it for the “ev” connection with my husband’s name (Evan).

My sister in law is dating an ex-Amish fellow named Reuben. We call him Ruby )

Zedekiah is so cool! Love the Zed nickname. Strong and manly!

I’d like to point out that Harmony is a virtue name, in addition to its musical meaning.

I love Puritan names: virtues for the girls (Mercy, Charity, Ruth), prophets for the boys (Jonah, Amos, Ezekiel).

I also have several Tryphenas in my family tree (and Waites), and I found this when I looked up the name: “Tryphena of Rome is a Christian woman mentioned in Romans 16:12 of the Bible (“Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord.” KJV)”
“Thrypose” sounds like a misspelling or misinterpretation of Tryphosa (like Orpah/Oprah)

Love all the old names. I have a distant grandmother(1700) first name was Hopestill!!

Everard? Are you serious? This is a dirty-snigger, nudge nudge, know what I mean sort of name. In the UK it’s associated with Larry Grayson, a camp comedian whose act often referred to a character named Everard.

My great-whatever grandmother was name Comfort Riggs. She married Thomas Cotton and became Comfort Cotton.