Old Dictionary w/a Name Section!

[onceuponaname]

I love old dictionaries (well, old books in general) and today I bought Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary copyrighted 1959. As I was flipping through it I saw a section titled Pronouncing Common English Given Names. It was really cool to look at some of the names that we wouldn't think of as common nowadays, or ever. There were a lot of interesting ones that*included:
Aloysius
Chauncey
Boniface
Balthazar
Ignatius
Thurston
Ethelbert
Pius
Silvanus
Albina
Alphonsia
Aspasia
Beata
Dagmar
Malvina
Thekla/Thecla
Ulrica
Urania

I was surprised by the amount of feminizations. There were also names that seemed extremely modern:
Archer
Dexter
Ian
Jock (Scottish form of Jack; looks like the ultimate manly word name)
Moss
Myles/Miles (yooneek anyone?)
Pierce
Rex
Urban
Zeke*
Alix
Honor
Adele
Xina

There were also a lot of names we'd consider unisex on the males side (no big surprise there). Two I had never thought of being in the boys' camp at all: Esme and Noel. So, what do you think? Does anyone else love dictionaries and words? It seems to go hand-in-hand, love of words and of names.*

[dantea]

I love words and names too ^_^ This is very interesting and I have a lot of old dictionaries sitting around too.

I liked:

Aloysius
Chauncey
Balthazar
Silvanus ***
Dexter
Miles
Rex
Zeke*

[lucialucentum]

Awesome!
I really like Aloysius, Balthazar, Pius, Beata (LOVE this! It's really high on my list), Thecla, Archer, Ian, Jock (this is the name of the Scottish terrier on Lady and the Tramp, haha), Miles/ Myles (I used to coach a kid named Myles. I don't really consider it a yooneek spelling), Pierce, and Adele.
Esme and Noel are both boy names to me. Esmé is also masculine. Noelle and Esmee/Esmée are the feminine forms, in my mind.

I looooove dictionaries and words. I actually read dictionary entries for my own amusement from time to time. I have a few books about the history of words and language, too.
Thanks for sharing!

[sheena12]

OH! I grew up with that edition of the dictionary in my home and I credit it with my name obsession that persists to this day!