My husband and I visited the town of Arlington last weekend. Of course, I made sure one of our stops was a graveyard. :)
The one we chose was the Old Burying Ground, a small cemetery used from the 1730s to the 1840s. (During those years, Arlington wasn’t even called “Arlington” yet. The original name was Menotomy, which came from an Algonquin word.)
Most of the names in the graveyard are biblical names, some still common today (e.g., Benjamin, Elizabeth, Lydia, William), others not so stylish anymore (e.g., Dorcas, Ebenezer, Jeduthan, Mehitable — one of my all-time faves!).
One name that made me curious was Ammi, which belonged to both Ammi Cutter (1733-1795) — one of the “old men of Menotomy” — and to his son.
At first I thought Ammi was a nickname for Loammi, as it reminded me of Loammi Baldwin, another Revolutionary soldier from the region. Turns out this wasn’t the case, but the two names are related.
In the Book of Hosea, God tells Hosea to name his daughter Lo-Ruhamah, meaning “not loved,” and to name his son Lo-Ammi, meaning “not my people.” Later on, God renames the two Ruhamah, meaning “loved,” and Ammi, meaning “my people.”
And, wouldn’t you know, Ammi Cutter had a twin sister named Ruhamah. (She’s buried there as well.)
How do you like Ammi and Ruhamah as boy-girl twin names?
Source: Paige, Lucius Robinson. History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877. Cambridge, MA: H. O. Houghton and Co., 1877.