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Popularity of the baby name Notwithstanding


Posts that mention the name Notwithstanding

Name quotes #116: Joan, Algernon, Quintana

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From a recent Palladium-Time article about 19th-century medical doctor Algernon Sidney Coe:

Born on a farm on Sept. 18, 1828, in Norway, New York, Algernon Sidney Coe defied all expectations to become a respected and admired physician in Oswego City.

Coe, the son of Ira Coe, a War of 1812 veteran, and Elizabeth Norton, was named after Algernon Sidney who was executed in 1683 in England for his outspoken views on freedom of speech. Sidney was considered a martyr by American thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

From the 2015 essay “What’s in a Necronym?” by Jeannie Vanasco:

I remember the day I first learned about her. I was eight. My father was in his chair, holding a small white box. As my mother explained that he had a dead daughter named Jeanne, pronounced the same as my name, “without an i,” he opened the box and looked away. Inside was a medal Jeanne had received from a church “for being a good person,” my mother said. My father said nothing. I said nothing. I stared at the medal.

[…]

Parsed from the Greek, necronym literally translates as “death name.” It usually means a name shared with a dead sibling. Until the late nineteenth century, necronyms were not uncommon among Americans and Europeans. If a child died in infancy, his or her name was often given to the next child, a natural consequence of high birth rates and high infant mortality rates.

[Another necronym: Notwithstanding Griswold, born in 1764, was named for her deceased older sister.]

From the Thomas Alva Edison, Jr. page of the Thomas Edison National Historical Park website:

Thomas Alva, Junior, was born on January 10, 1876. Since his sister Marion was nicknamed “Dot,” he was nicknamed “Dash.”

[…]

After selling the use of his name to advertise “quack” medicines and dubious inventions, his father asked Tom Junior to change his name. This he did, briefly going by the name of Thomas Willard.

[The nicknames “Dot” and “Dash” are references to Morse Code.]

From a PBS NewsHour interview with a man named Normandy Villa, Jr.:

To understand what’s going on here, you should know two things: first, even though the family comes from Colombia, Normandy is named after one of the more important moments in American history:

NORMANDY VILLA: “The Battle of Normandy in France, in 1941 was the beginning of the liberation of Europe, and my grandfather saw that as such a powerful moment in history, that he wanted to have his family carry a name that referred to a new dawn. And so, the first born in the family received the name Normandy.”

From an NPR review of Joan Didion’s book Blue Nights (2011):

Just after they adopted Quintana Roo (they’d seen the name on a map of Mexico, liked it, and chosen it) the writer says she acted as if she’d gotten a doll to dress up, not a real baby.

For more quotes about names, check out the name quotes category.

Unusual baby name: Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin

Samuel and Abigail Pond of Branford, Connecticut, welcomed eight children between 1705 and 1721.

The first seven got familiar names: Samuel, Philip, Bartholomew, Josiah, Abigail, Phineas and Peter.

But the last?

He was named Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin.

Where did his unwieldy name come from?

The Biblical story of “the writing on the wall” in the Book of Daniel.

Here’s a summary: In the middle of a banquet hosted by the king of Babylon, Belshazzar, a disembodied hand appeared and wrote four Aramaic words — Mene, Mene, Tekel and Parsin — on the wall. (In the King James version of the Bible, the final word is transcribed “Uphardin.”) Belshazzar called upon Daniel to interpret the words, and Daniel told him that the words foretold the fall of Babylon.

So now, the big question: Why would the Ponds choose a name like this?

There’s no way to know.

There might be no reason at all. The words could have been chosen at random from the Bible. This is likely how fellow Connecticut residents Notwithstanding Griswold (female, b. 1759) and Maybe Barnes (male, b. 1663) were named.

One genealogist wondered if Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin Pond’s name wasn’t “intended to commemorate the final downfall of the Stuarts, which seven years before had been assured by the succession of the House of Hanover.” This seems unlikely, though, given the fact that there had been two previous opportunities to bestow a commemoration name. (Older brothers Phineas and Peter were both also born after the death of Queen Anne in 1714.)

Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin Pond didn’t live to adulthood, unfortunately. But I did manage to find one similarly named person who did: Mene Tekel Virgo (née Beacon) who lived in Kent, England, from 1827 to 1895.

Sources:

  • Belshazzar’s feast – Wikipedia
  • Jacobus, Donald Lines. “Early New England Nomenclature.” The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Jan. 1923: 10-16.
  • Pond, Nathan Gillette. “Pond Family of Milford, Connecticut.” The Connecticut Magazine 1906: 161-176.

P.S. Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin’s older brother Philip married a lady with the fantastic name Thankful Frisbie.

Notwithstanding Griswold: 1 name, 2 people

Did you know that Notwithstanding Griswold — someone who is mentioned a lot on lists of people with unusual names — was actually two people?

Sisters, in fact. They were the daughters of Jeremiah and Sarah Griswold of Durham, Connecticut.

The first Notwithstanding, who was born in 1759, lived only one day. The Griswolds must have liked her name a lot, though, because they decided to use it again.

The second Notwithstanding, who was born in 1764, lived long enough to be married (to Daniel Graves in 1786) and have several children (none of whom inherited her name). Like many people with unwieldy names (e.g., Prockie, Britannia), she chose to go by a nickname: Standa.

Source: Otto, Julie Helen. “Name Origins.” The Weekly Genealogist 7 Dec. 2011.