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To: WaterDragon
So, was Cleveland Evans born in the era when parents named their babies after cities?

Perhaps not, but his parents were clearly forerunners in another annoying naming trend: giving what were only last names as first names.

My only theory is, that these people avoid "normal" names because they all know a Steven, or a Mary, etc., that they don't like.

290 posted on 11/08/2003 9:15:58 PM PST by hunter112
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To: hunter112
Perhaps not, but his parents were clearly forerunners in another annoying naming trend: giving what were only last names as first names.

This isn't a new trend, it's a long-standing custom in the South, especially among the older families.

Usually results when a girl of good family marries a guy of good family, and they want to preserve her family name in the line. No decent Southern girl would hyphenate her name (at least not until recently), so the parents would bestow her maiden name as a given name to her firstborn son.

This has happened over and over again in my family, and I'm afraid I did it to both my son and my daughter - although I did also give them a more "normal" name for convenience because my maiden name doesn't make as good a Christian name as some. This means that they have three names - which is considered odd unless you're an old-line Southerner (or a Catholic). But the bonus is that it makes genealogy a whole lot easier.

300 posted on 11/09/2003 7:14:30 AM PST by AnAmericanMother (. . . sed, ut scis, quis homines huiusmodi intellegere potest?. . .)
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