Tuesday, March 10, 2015

#NameCollecting - Straight From a Novel

You may recall an earlier Photo Feature about Peter Stout Ruth - one of the true Great Beards of History! - but I didn't get to tell you about his daughter. She was a very special lady with a very special name:

Fondelia Ruth.

Here in these #NameCollecting posts, I can't stress enough that I don't intend to make fun; but at the same time, some of the names I run across make my children laugh. But it's not the name "Fondelia" alone that got a guffaw from my eldest (a child named after a lovely artist's hamlet on the Pacific Coast).

You see, Fondelia got married in 1861. And her husband also had a unique name - the kind that I always associated with novels about wealthy people who run hotel chains and railroads. I occasionally run down the list of names reading them aloud to savor them like caramels or individually flavored jelly beans, and my kid often sits there giggling while I do so.

"Opal...

"Myrtle...

"Leo Homer Callin...

"Fondelia and Worthington Griswold."

I share her amusement, of course; I love the array of names in our family, but I get how humorous some of these older, less common names can seem to young ears. I only hope the amusement fuels her curiosity and that she comes to appreciate these people as people.

Who knows - maybe she'll pick up the torch and get into this little hobby herself one day!

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