What's in a name?

Those who read this blog regularly know that musings on names are nothing new to me, but I've been thinking lately of the names of virtues or 'grace names' that were popular first names for girls in particular in much of the western world from about the 17th century onwards. These are names such as Prudence, Patience, Faith, Hope, Joy, etc.

I think it's quite interesting that the names Prudence, Temperance, Constance and Patience were far more common in the 19th century than Faith, Hope, Love, or Joy. So clearly, the Victorians, on the whole, wanted daughters who were well-behaved and sober, rather than happy and hopeful.

Some of the weirder names were found in the Puritan period, both here and in the USA - unfortunately, some people took taking names from words in the Bible a little too literally, leading to children named such bizarre things as Job-raked-out-of-the-ashes and Continent. Slightly more common (but still not in wide use) were names such as Humanity, Silence, Experience, Diligence, and Tribulation.

Names were also not always gender ascribed in the way we would do so today. Hope was a name for both men and women, for example. The name Christian was not usually used for a boy; it was however relatively common as a girl's name until about the mid-nineteenth century.