Civil War Baby Names – Lincoln, Grant, Elmer

16 thoughts on “Civil War Baby Names – Lincoln, Grant, Elmer”

1. I had a great-great-grandfather named Elmer Ellsworth LN. I never knew that was a name of someone famous.

2. Oh, and he was born in 1886.

3. @Elizabeth – That’s cool. The fact that he was born 25 years after the incident occurred makes me wonder if his father had the name as well and was passing it down.

4. No, his father was named David.

5. I guess his parents were just late-adopters, then. :)

6. I know three little boys named Lincoln, one named Abraham (nm Abe) and two named Grant. I personally really like Lincoln the best of all those.

7. I know someone named Abraham, too. He’s my brother actually.

8. I am planning on naming my baby boy Jefferson Davis Bowden! I am a history author, my dad is a history author and I want all my children to have historical, but practical names. With jefferson Davis Bowden, he can go by Jeff or JB if he wishes. Yet he still has a historic name. When one researches Jeff Davis one really knows he is not the evil man our public schools and mainstream historical works have made him out to be.

9. From a ’20s Cosmo:

   Another friend of mine, named Osborn, doesn’t profess to be gifted in second sight, but he once mystified a stranger by telling him that he–the stranger–was born in April, May, or June, 1861; moreover, that he was born in a Union state, and that his father was an enthusiastic Northern sympathizer during the Civil War. He knew all this just by noting that the man’s first two initials were “E.E.” The whole thing was a matter of simple deduction. The man appeared to be the age of one born during the Civil War. Osborn happened to know that one of the great Northern heroes of the Civil War was one Elmer Ellsworth, the first man klled on the Union side. Thousands of babies born during the two or three months following Ellsworth’s death were named “Elmer Ellsworth.” Knowing these facts, the “E.E.” in the man’s name meant much. There was nothing occult about it–just synthetic reasoning.

   Source: Kelly, Fred C. “Do We Like to Be Fooled?” Cosmopolitan March 1921: 65-67, 149-152.

10. I named my son Jefferson Davis (JD) and my daughter Alexandra Stephanie, after Alexander Stephans the VP of the confederacy. Never really knew thy had a VP but should have just figured it. You never really hear about him unless you read history books about the civil war. If I ever have any more children, they will have some sort of civil war name.

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12. The father of game show host Allen Ludden was named Elmer Ellsworth. (He died in the flu epidemic of 1918-1919.)

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14. My great-grandfather was Elmer Ellsworth Billings. He was born in 1868. My grandfather Dewey Elmer Billings was named after Admiral Dewey, who was a distant relative. My Grandpa Dewey was born on 30 April 1898, the day Admiral Dewey sailed into Manila Bay and attacked the Spanish fleet. As my uncle was also named Elmer. There are no more Deweys, Elmers, or Ellsworth in our families.

15. @Cheri – Two history-inspired names in a row in your family tree — how cool! Here’s a post with more info on the name Dewey (and Admiral, and Manila, etc.).

16. Discovered the other day that there was an artist named Ellsworth Kelly (b. 1923). Looks like he was named after his maternal grandfather Curran Ellsworth Githens, who was born circa 1861.

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