A good many forenames in the WASP AMerican tradition are lifted straight out of the old Testament by way of the PUritan tradition, including my own.

One thing that astonishes me is the number of times I run across someone who has never head of the name, or who associates it only with chocolate-chip cookie making. It is like meeting someone who has no ears--you can't quite imagine how such a severe omission could occur!

But, as the snobby side of New Englanders sometimes say, it is usually someone in trade.



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