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Archiver > BULL > 1999-10 > 0939648520


From: Mary Beverley-Burton <>
Subject: Re: [BULL-L] Re: The Bull-Talbert Connection - name change
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 09:28:40 -0400 ()


Hello Diane

Interesting comments about changing from the Bull name as it was
embarrassing etc.

As a kid growing up in England I used to suffer terribly with other kids
calling me "bully" which I just hated. Even at that tender age I felt it
was a slur on my reputation. I used to daydream about what "nicer" names
I would prefer and might choose in later life when I might be able to
change it. Rogers was a favourite with me - I had an uncle by that name
and he was a great role model for me.

Over the years though all that sort of thing tailed off to nothing and
when I emigrated to Canada I discovered the incredible mixture and
assortment of names in North America from just about every country in the
world. So Bull became just another name amongst many others and had no
particular connotation with other characteristics, real or imagined. Mind
you, I do occasionally still get the odd person slap me on the back with a
guffaw and a "Ha, John Bull of Olde England, eh?", obviously thinking that
I've probably never heard that one before! Right!

When I became interested in family history and saw what an amazing variety
of names there is and how proud so many people are of the most abstruse
and unusual names I realised that Bull was in fact a pretty good name and
I wouldn't change it for worlds!

An interesting little side line on all this is that there was (still is?)
in our family some story/myth/legend that an ancestor with an unknown
name, but not Bull, eloped with the daughter of an Earl, married the girl
and lived with a family by the name of Bull and adopted their name as
their own, ie. the reverse situation.

So let's hear it from the Bulls - are we proud of our name, or what?

John Bull
Ontario, Canada.

***************************************************************************


On Sun, 10 Oct 1999, Diane K. Hettrick wrote:

> Hi Steve,
>
> A lot of people named BULL changed their surname to something less
> embarrassing.
> My entire family changed their name to DYER around 1840. Another group I
> heard of went to BUELL. And I seem to remember someone who went to HENDERSON,
> but don't quote me on that one. They just got sick of the teasing and stupid
> jokes and when they moved to a new area, it was a great opportunity.
>
> Diane Hettrick
>
>
> S Talbert wrote:
> >
> > Does anyone have any information about the legal name change of Bull to
> > Talbert in North
> > Carolina in the 1700s? I believe it happened when Richard Bull married
> > Sarah Talbert.
>
>
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