BS: Origins of some American forenames

Subject: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 May 09 - 04:11 AM

Lately I've been delving into the music of the Delmore Brothers and also re-reading Levon Helm's autobiographical "This Wheel's On Fire"..

The delving and reading got me wondering where names like "Alton" and "Rabon" (the Delmores) and "Lavon" (the original name for Levon) came from. Are these sorts of names confined to areas of America? Are they Biblical in origin? They seem uniquely American to me. I have Biblically-derived names in my own (English) family ancestry - one set of siblings was named Joshua, Raymond, Lemuel and Salome - but these weren't uncommon at the time (early 19th c,).

Any other uniquely American forenames with interesting origins?

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 27 May 09 - 05:18 AM

Alton is an English place name - there is an Alton in Hampshire and another in Dorset, as well as Alton Towers in Staffordshire.
There may be others.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 May 09 - 05:40 AM

Yes - I live not far from Alton in Hampshire - and I don't think I've ever met an English person called Alton... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: GUEST,Dr John
Date: 27 May 09 - 06:04 AM

A lot of American (and old American) personal names and words in general are old (as opposed to Old) English words which have died out on this side of the Atlantic. Usually revived by C&W fans and others!
Gulliver's (of Travels fame) was called Lemuel and the name was revived by Charles Chilton in the 50's, calling his Cockney Journey in Space character Lemmy Barnet.
A lot of forenames were originally surnames, like Hamilton - a common enough practice and Alton is an occasional surname I've come across.
Incidentally The Oxford Guide to first names does not list Rabon (could come from the English surname Rabourne, a place name) or Lavon (seems to come from a Russian surname variation)so these must be very rare. It does however list Alton as a forename; it was Glenn Miller's first name by the way.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: Jack Campin
Date: 27 May 09 - 06:17 AM

"Levon" (pronounced Layvon) is an Armenian first name, witness the leader of the Chilingirian String Quartet.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 May 09 - 06:26 AM

Fascinating. Mark Lavon (later Levon) Helm's father's forename was "Diamond" - wonderful! As we say over here in the UK, I'll bet he was a "diamond geezer" - i.e. one of the best.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: Azizi
Date: 27 May 09 - 08:22 AM

It took me a minute to decipher what "forenames" meant. In the USA we usually say first names. First names (and middle names) are also called "personal names".

Here's some information about the name "Lavan" which probably is a base name for the name "Lavon":

"LAVAN is from the Hebrew, meaning WHITE (Kolatch, Alfred J. 1984. The Complete Dictionary of English and Hebrew First Names. Middle Village: Jonathan David. 138).
LABAN is an Anglicized spelling.

Biblical name - Laban was a resident of PadanAram, son of Bethuel, brother of Rebekah [ the mother of Jacob and Esau] and father of Leah and Rachel (Genesis 28:2-5).

The Hebrew Letters featured in this piece are Lamed Beit Nun sophit. Taken together, and reading from right to left, they spell LAVAN."...

http://www.biblicalbabyname.com/item.cfm?itemid=3783

-snip-

That page provides much more information about the name masculine name "Lavan".

**

Most African Americans are trend followers when it comes to personal names. There's plenty of documentation that our name creation and name conferring customs and rules are usually broader and different from "mainstream" American culture.

Among contemporary African Americans, the name "Lavan" is more likely to be "Lavon" since [for some reasons I don't know] both "La" which is pronounced "lah" and "von" which is pronounced like "vaughn" still fit African Americans' sound preferences.

My father's middle name was "Lavell" (the "el" ending used to be a sound preference that was popular among African Americans but its popularity has lessened since at least the 1950s. Also since the 1950s, African Americans usually consider personal names beginning with "La" to be feminine. "Lavonne" is an older variant of "Lavon". "Lavonda" (LaVonda) is a more contemporary "African American" variant of that name.

Among most African Americans, the meaning of a name is much less important than how the name sounds. How the name looks is also usually more important than what the name means. Note the capitalization of the first letter of the name LaVonda and the first letter of the second syllable. I believe that-at least in some African American cultures-the Hip Hop movement combined with the Phonics reading program have greatly influenced how some personal names are spelled and how they are written. "Black" personal names are often embellished by the addition of a hypen and/or a capital letter for the first letter of the second syllable, and (less often) an accent mark.

**

Here's the entry for "Lavonda, Lavonne, Lavonna, Lavon; Lavonette" that is found on my website's pages for information about the origins & meanings of selected "non-traditional" names:

http://www.cocojams.com/names.htm

"Lavonda" is a form of the name "Lavonne". Other variants of this name are
Lavondra, Lavon, Lavonna, Lavonia. See this information about the meaning of Lavonne
http://www.babynameaddicts.com/html/names/female/female_l.html

"Lavonne, Yew; [origin] English"
-snip-

The yew is a type of evergreen tree. These trees were considered sacred in ancient times because they were symbols of long life since the trees are long lasting. Some ancient people also considered the yew evergreen tree to be a symbol of death because their leaves are quite poisonous.

A "bow" is the bow & arrow weapon. Wikipedia gives this information about the bows made of yew branches: "Yew is the wood of choice for longbow making and the bows are constructed so that the heartwood of yew is on the inside of the bow while the sapwood is on the outside. This takes advantage of the natural properties of yew wood since the heartwood is able to withstand compression while the sapwood is elastic and allows the bow to stretch. Both tend to return to their original straightness when the arrow is released". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxus_baccata


-snip-

People given a name that means "yew tree" would take on the attributes of bows & arrows made from the yew tree. They would be long lived. They would be capable of taking care of themselves because they would be flexible, resilient, and, if need be, poisonous.

Also, see the entry on this page for the name "Yvonne" and its variants as these names have the same meaning as Lavonne.   Note: the name Lavonne may also be considered of French, Germanic origin.
-Wear your name proudly. Best wishes, Azizi!

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: Azizi
Date: 27 May 09 - 08:41 AM

Among African Americans, the "Le" beginning symbol may be feminine or masculine. "Le" (pronounced like the name "Lee") isn't nearly as popular a sound preference as "La". With regard to "von", a very popular contemporary name for African American boys (since the 1990s) is "Davon" (DaVon; Davaughn". In contrast to the usually pronunciation of the letter a (ah), the "a" in Davon is pronounced to rhyme with the word "day". In keeping with African American fondness for repeat nicknames, "Day Day" is the usual nickname for the male name "Davon".

By the way, among Africa Americans, "Devon" (with "De" pronounced to rhyme with the word "he") is much less often given as a name than "Davon" but if I saw it on the roll of a predominately African American class room, I'd guess that that name belonged to a boy and not a girl.

**

As you probably can gather from my posting on this thread and from my Cocojams.com website, I love studying names. The only subject that I'm interested in more than name origins and meanings is children's playground rhymes. And sometimes children's rhymes takes a backseat to name meanings.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: Azizi
Date: 27 May 09 - 09:06 AM

Correction- I meant to write that pronouncing the name Devon with the "De" rhyming with the word "he" is the old way of pronouncing it. Since the 1990s or so, I've more often heard the name "Devon" pronounced the same as "Davon" (DAY von The "e" having the same vowel sound as "e" in Spanish).

A lot of non-Black teachers have difficulty pronouncing contemporary African American first names. A number of these names are variants of Arabic or traditional African languages such as Swahili, Yoruba, Akan, or Zulu. But many of these names are based on Celtic, Germanic, Spanish and other European languages. In addition, some names are based on Asian syllables such as "Quan"(probably from "Kwan" which means "strong" in Korean and probably has other meanings in other Asian languages.). A fairly common contemporary African American male name is "Quante" (pronounced QUAN-tay). Btw, the "te" suffix has no meaning.

Besides asking the children how they pronounce their name, my suggestion is to remember that

1. Most African American names adhere to what I believe is the mainstream American rule that the emphasis is on the second to the last syllable. For instance, my name is pronounced ah ZEE zee.

and

2. The vowel sounds in many Arabic or traditional African names are the same as or very similar to the vowels in Spanish:
a=ah
e=a
i=e
o=oh
u=oo

**

With that, I'm going to make myself exit this thread and attend to the work I'm suppose to be doing. But I'll be lurking on this thread later.

:o)

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: artbrooks
Date: 27 May 09 - 09:54 AM

Many "older" US first-names derive from surnames, by way of middle names. What happens (or "happened" is probably more correct) is that a middle name comes in through marriage - e.g., a boy child is given his maternal grandfather's surname as a middle name. A generation or two later, that middle name is used as a first name. This has happened in my family (a few generations ago) with the names "Curtis" and "Morrison". Many first names today are fanciful spellings of more traditional names - such as "Mayree" for "Mary" or even "Shawn" for "Sean".

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: Amos
Date: 27 May 09 - 11:00 AM

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.



A

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 May 09 - 11:09 AM

Art said -
a boy child is given his maternal grandfather's surname as a middle name

Moving from US to Australia - in the 1920's my father was given his mother's surname as his middle name & his grandson (son's son) was also given this same middle name in the 1990s. I don't know if this was a widespread habit in the 20s, but I'm not aware of anyone doing the same in the late 20th century.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: GUEST,Mrr at the unemployment office
Date: 27 May 09 - 01:14 PM

American blacks make up the most amazing names - I know of a La-A, pronounced Ladasha, I kid you not. I know of a Takisha pronounced Tashika, and all kinds of strange things with apostrophes, and a lot of words that ought not be names, like Alexia.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 27 May 09 - 01:22 PM

Confining to names mentioned by the thread author-
No mention so far of that north Texas metropolis, Lavon, pop. 400 or thereabouts. Named after Lavon Thompson, whose father ran the P. O. in 1888.

Lavon occurs as a surname in the U. S. Census (both blacks and whites listed in google). Also appears as a Jewish name, one was an Israeli cabinet member involved in some scandal.

Lavonne and LaVon appear as girls names; supposedly derived from Yvonne.
-------------
Rabon occurs a surname; one is Don Rabon, authority on statement analysis and author of a book on the subject. There are several families in the South Carolina area.
-------------------------
Alton is not uncommon.
In addition to the English Alton, there are Alton, Ontario, Alton, Nova Scotia, Alton New Hampshire, Alton Kansas and Alton, Illinois (named after Alton Easton about 1818).
There is a Ken Alton from B. C. here in Calgary, learning Computer Science at the university. Dr. Alton Harestad is a professor at Simon Fraser.
John Alton (b. 1901), cinematographer, is well-known for his book, "Painting with Light."
Alton Miller is a well-known Black musician with several albums available
In Quebec, D'Alton Corey was a railroad executive. D'Alton McCarthy from Dublin came to Canada in 1847 and became an important politician.

Many more can be googled.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: pdq
Date: 27 May 09 - 01:32 PM

Here is information on Rabon...

                                                         family and crest

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: Bill D
Date: 27 May 09 - 01:52 PM

There is an article at Slate with some data and analysis of the 'fairly' recent tradition of distinctively Black names. I remember becoming gradually aware of it in the 70s & 80s.

My own family had some examples of the older, unusual white names....usually from the Bible, but not always. My father was Audley...which was both a French duke and the name of a local area in Staffordshire, England. He had to be careful who he told, as mail would arrive spelled "Aubrey", "Audrey"...and yes.."Oddley". He went by A.W. on most things.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 May 09 - 04:38 PM

My brother is named after an uncle "Delton" pronounced DELL-tun. Recently I have seen some hip-hop/rap guys with that as a first name, but they pronounce it dell-TAWN. The name "Lorenzo" has also been passed down through our family, but we have no idea where it came from other than my dad's old story about someone from the Spanish Armada coming ashore to hook up with one of our UK ancestors.

Rabon/Rabin is also found among the Hispanic culture, here. My daughter's friend's son is so-named.

I just read that Adlai Stevenson's middle name was "Ewing" which was my grandma's maiden name. Now I wonder if we were related!?

My daughter's boyfriend is named "DesPrince" pronounced "duh-PRINS" not sure if it's French-derived or not. I know of another friend of hers who named her daughter "Essence" and ya know, it fits! She gets called "Essie" for short.

My granddad's middle name was LeCroix...supposedly no French in our ancestry, but I suspect that one came from somewhere way back. We had a lot of surnames used as middle names in my family, including Burton and Gordon.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: PoppaGator
Date: 27 May 09 - 05:08 PM

NY Mets pitcher Livan Hernandez, a Cuban national and half-brother of retured pitcher Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, pronounces his first name exactly the same as does Levon Helm.

I had assumed that "Livan" was an Hispanic forename with some degree of history, but maybe not ~ maybe the pitcher is the one and only original Livan.

Speaking of Central-and-South-Americans, I've noticed (as a follower of sports) that young men with Spanish (and Portugese) surnames now sometimes have Anglo-type family names as their first names: e.g., Anderson Hernandez & Anderson Varejao. (Anderson is not the only example of such a forename, but it's the only one I can think of right now.)

There is also a trend for Russian first names among Latin Americans, such as Vladimir Guerrero ~ someone passed along the opinion that this comes from Cuba's years as a Communist ally of the USSR. Maybe so, but Vlad Guerrero isn't Cuban; he's from Venezuela, if I'm not mistaken.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: mg
Date: 27 May 09 - 05:10 PM

My great grandfather was John Devery. There are not too many anywhere, and supposedly most are related. They were French refugees or escapees or something from some revolution from the town of Vriex? De'Vriex? Often it is spelled Deveraux or something similar. It shows up on an old census as Devil. They supposedly were flax farmers. I am probably related distantly to Big Bill Devery, a not very good, but powerful, New York chief of police, who was undoubtedly corrupt and started the New York Yankees.

I also have Cornwall or Cornwell on my mother's side and we think they were Cornish. Is that a Cornish name? There is a lot of Welsh on her side of the family, but I think Cornish too. Cornish of course were famous as miners, tin and what else? Goes into bronze. Famous for metal work etc. Read up on ballmaidens? Bellmaidens? I forget the name for the Cornish women who worked in the mining industry...mg

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 27 May 09 - 06:08 PM

2484 Devery names in Census, 1790-1830.

Subject: RE: BS: Origins of some American forenames
From: michaelr
Date: 27 May 09 - 06:34 PM

De Vries is a common Dutch name.