QUEEN-L Archives

Archiver > QUEEN > 1999-04 > 0923722259


From: Elizabeth Whitaker <>
Subject: Re: [QUEEN-L] Who Named Ya?
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 01:30:59 -0400


At 10:01 PM 4/8/99 -0400, O Eugene Queen wrote:
[snip]
>1. We do not know who my dad was named after. We could have found out
>if someone had asked him or others 15 or more years ago. (Hint, hint.)
>My mother, Gertie May was named after her mom's friend (Gertie) and
>after a neighbor (May).

I've figured out most of the ones I've seriously looked at. For instance,
my ggrandfather Whitaker's brothers were named for figures in the Methodist
hierarchy (well-known ministers and a bishop or two) in South Carolina at
the time. One of his brothers got a family name. Gggrandfather Whitaker was
George Robert: the Robert is a family name, but I don't have a clue on
George. (Despite nearly 15 years of diligent searching, I still haven't
found anything in writing on his mother's family. I have found some
pictures of his kids, which speak for themselves: see
http://Web.InfoAve.Net/~elwhitaker/mystanc.html for one.)

>2. My sister, Barbara Ann, was named after "a girl, Barbara Weeks, in a
>magazine ad for cereal in 1938" and after my mom's sister, Annie.

My maternal grandmother (born Gladys Lucile Sharpe) was named by her mother
(a schoolteacher) for two novels -- Grandmother showed me the books -- but
has never forgiven me for not being named after her. (Hey, family members
don't *have* to be *rational*.<g> But it sure would be nice.) Instead, my
parents named me for my mother's favorite aunt and for my *paternal*
grandmother.

>3. My oldest brother, Boyd Andrew, was named after a neighbor, Boyd, of
>my dad's oldest brother (who raised dad) and a friend, Boyd, of my
>mother's family. The Andrew came from the doctor who delivered him.

None of us have figured out why my father's maternal grandfather (son of a
Polly Queen, btw) was named Ferry Candler, instead of one of the more usual
Snyder names, such as George or John. I've figured out that Candler came
from the local doctor. Ferry is, according to some members of my family, a
German name, and it is close to the German nickname for Ferdinand (Ferdi),
but I think it may have something to do with a Fairey (a family in South
Carolina) as his grandfather, Samuel Houston Queen, had a store and did a
lot of long-distance travel into South Carolina and Georgia to buy supplies.

>4. My younger brother, Jr., was supposed to have been a girl and her
>name would have been Winfred....but since he was a he and not a she,

I was going to be another George Robert. (The original one died in 1935,
when my father was a baby.)

>there was no name ready. So, mom said "we'll just call him Jr.". In
>later years he wasn't happy with the "Erastus" part, so he became Roy
>June and forget the Jr.

My second sister (I'm the oldest of three girls) was going to be a boy,
too, so my parents had to do some last minute scrambling: she became
Virginia Catherine. (And neither parent understands why I don't use my
middle name unless forced to do so!) She was going to be Virginia Carolina,
but my parents (then living in Memphis, btw) chickened out of that. (The
Catherine is for a friend's wife.)

[snip]
>6. My son, Jeffrey Eugene, was named..poor fellow...after his dad,
>Eugene, and Jeffrey because we liked that name.

My other sister is Sandra Hallford, Sandra for my mother [I've raised the
roof at every opportunity about not afflicting the family with a third.
Fortunately, it's worked -- and I made up my mind a *long* time ago that
the last person on Earth I'd name a kid for is my mother.(It's a *long*
story.)]

[snip]
>Anyway.....someday, someone will ask some of you, "where did your (or
>their) name come from"? Will you have the answer? If it's not too
>late, ya might wanna ask around and record such info.

That's a great idea.

btw, I'm a strong believer in thinking before naming. Having worked in a
pediatrician's office and having done some classroom teaching, I've had a
*lot* of experience dealing with naming fads. A name for a baby may not be
appropriate for a small child, an older child, or an adult -- and do you
*really* want to name one of your children for a character in a TV program
you probably wouldn't want them to watch? (I don't watch soap operas, but I
certainly hear about them.)

Elizabeth Whitaker

This thread: