First a spring holiday name, now a fall holiday name…
I saw an article recently about an Oklahoma woman born on Oct. 31, 1924, and named Halloween.
As a child, Halloween Putman (née Williams) was teased about her unusual name:
She was called “Valentine” or “Holiday,” but she continued to go by Halloween until high school, when she began to use her middle name.
As an adult, though, she took pride in it. She got a kick out of “showing her driver’s license and seeing people’s reaction,” for instance.
Now, you’d think that Halloween would be a rare first name — rarer than Pascaline, right? But when I checked the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), I was surprised to find 36 (!) people named Halloween and just 26 named Pascaline. Even more surprising? Some of these Halloweens were neither born nor conceived anywhere near October 31st. Very curious…
Source: Westbrook, Leigh Ann. “Local lady born to celebrate October treat day.” Durant Daily Democrat 31 Oct. 2002: 1A+.
Image: Adapted from 2017 Halloween 6 by anoldent under CC BY-SA 2.0.
