Mordecai, kind of a big name for a little one.

I just came across the name Mordecai Homan in my husbands family tree. He was born in the 1600's in England and emigrated to Connecticut. His grandsons fought in the american revolution. He appears to be a nice branch on the tree. 

I haven't heard the name Mordecai in forever. I mostly remember it from a "Perry Mason" episode where Della gets sent to pick up some books on China, including Reminiscences of a Horse Marine by Mordecai Rappahannock Terwilliger. "Which Mordecai Rappahannock Terwilliger?" asks Della. “Senior,” replies Mason.  I once looked for the name to see if it was real but found it was just a made-up book for the show with a great made-up author name

Mordecai I know is a biblical name, book of Esther I believe.  It is often cited as meaning warrior due to its aramaic origins. It's thanks to Mordecai that those of the Jewish faith celebrate purim. 

I tried to look-up famous people named Mordecai and found a baseball player named Mordecai Brown(1876-1948) and a screenwriter named Mordecai Richler (1931-2001) but that was it. Mordecai Brown was kind of cool. He is known for being a pitcher who was missing a finger. He played for Chicago. 

Mordecai Brown

 I next looked at the Baby Name Voyager and it told me that Mordecai hasn't been one of the top 1000 names in the last 140 years. Call me surprised.

I like the name although what would you call a little boy? Mordy? Cai? Hmmm, maybe this is why we don't hear it too often.  It is definitely a name that needs to have the right middle and last names to balance it. Mordecai James Jones wouldn't work but Mordecai James Johanson has the right rhythm. I think it could work in this day and age and it would be a terrific middle name, Andrew Mordecai... So many fun choices.  Happy naming!

Worst name ever

I think that just about the worst name I've come across is a many times great grandfather named Preserved Clapp. Yes, you read that right. Just because they spelled Clap with two ps doesn't make it any better. I have to wonder if they called gonorrhea "the clap" back in 1643 when he was born because if they did his parents were really cruel. Good old preserved is in the Kings Chapel graveyard in downtown Boston, MA. Stop in and say hi.



"HERE LIES INTERED THE BODY OF ELDER PRESERVED CLAPP OF NORTHAMPTON WHO DIED SEPTEMBER THE 22 1720 IN THE 77 YEAR OF HIS AGE"

I was recently reading a blog about puritan names and saw a comment by Shannon Love that I liked:

...Many of the words used in these names have shifted meaning in the intervening centuries.
“Humiliation” for example, in medieval times, meant an reduction in social rank. In an aristocratic society in which social rank was everything, it had the same effects as demotion in military rank has today. By the 17th century, it had shifted to mean more in the modern sense of “to be humbled”. It was nearly a century later until the word acquired its current sense of degrading emotional embarrassment.
A Puritan naming their child “Humiliation” was, in contemporary terms, naming their child “He who is humbled/humble” with the “before God” always implied.
“Merit” originally meant “entitled” usually in the sense of being born to a station in life. To a lesser extent it meant a reward, usually an elevation in social rank. A Puritan naming his child “No-Merit” was in modern terms naming his child “Not born entitled to special treatment.” and likely “humble before god” implied.
“Fly” had the connotation of fast as in “Flying Dutchman” or “Flying Artillery” so a “Fly-Debate” meant a fast debate that ended quickly because one side’s argument proved so obviously true. Today we would say, “there’s no debate” or “no questioning”. The Puritans was naming his child to mean something like, “No questioning faith in God”.
And so on…

I have yet to find another meaning for preserved that would make the name less horrible when combined with Clapp.

While many Puritan names were downers like the aforementioned Humiliation and names such as Obedience, Forsaken, and Prudence, many others were joyful such as Felicity, Liberty and Hope.

I continue to laugh as I read through my genealogy and come across the names from that era; Submit Strong and Mindwell Bartlett (let's create passive women, grrrrr) but nothing makes me laugh harder or pity more than poor old Preserved Clapp, Sr. and Jr. ha ha ha.