Celebrities are notorious for choosing unique and unusual names for their children. Perhaps being the child of a celebrity makes it easier to go through life with a first name like Suri, Shiloh, Apple, Kid, Moxie CrimeFighter, or Pilot Inspecktor. However, it’s not just celebrities who choose strange names for their children. Two genealogists have revealed a list of the worst baby names found in the U.S. Census.
Michael Sherrod and Matthew Rayback, from the super popular genealogy website called Ancestry.com, have compiled a list of the worst baby names that were ever bestowed upon the children of “regular people”. Their source material was the U.S. Census, where the names were officially recorded. One can only imagine what it would be like to have to go through school with some of these unfortunate names.
There was a time in American history when the trend seemed to be that people were giving their children the names of diseases. Fever Bender was born in 1856. Rubella Graves, born in 1814, has a particularly striking combination of first name and surname. Other disease inspired names include Typhus Black, born in 1897, Mumps Sykes, born in 1891, and Cholera Priest, who was born in 1830 during the second cholera pandemic. Imagine going through life with the name Emma Royd. (Say that one out loud). Someone named their child Leper Priest in 1929, which sounds to me like an excellent name for a World of Warcraft character, (particularly an undead of the priest class).
Other parents decided to name their children after a particular profession. I guess that’s one way to let your kid know exactly what he is expected to become when he grows up. Some of these names include: Teacher Blackbear, Editor Honeycutt, Mayor Bland, and Governor Bush. I cannot help but wonder if the child named Doctor Love grew up to become a marriage counselor, or a gynecologist. A child named Judge Savage might be a formidable person to encounter in a courtroom. Sales O. Justice sounds to me like something that happens in Chicago politics.
Historically, there were a lot of people who named their children after one of the seven deadly sins. The genealogists found 149 records for people with the first name Lust, 70 named Greed, and 830 named Pride. Only 12 people decided to name their child Sloth, and it seems that no one felt the need to name their child after the sin of gluttony. Some of these names include: Lust Garten, Sloth Washton, Wrath Gordon (which sounds to me like a good name for a super villain), Greed McGrew, (which amusingly combines the word “greed” with the word “grew”), and my favorite of the list, Envy Burger. These are just a few of the eccentric names found in the U.S. Census.
Image by Ernesto Andrade on Flickr