My family names are fairly commonplace although there is an Absalome Whittle Wills, who named his son Apslem because being illiterate he had no idea how to spell Absalome.

But I've come across some beauties in my time in the parish records and have a whole page of them somewhere.

There's a whole family called Shitler in one village - although they dropped the 'H' at some point in the 1880's.. just as well it wasn't the 'S' they dropped....

There was Hester Payne who married Eli Pester, thus becoming Hester Pester; Love Swaffield; Unity Abbot; The Rev'd Francis Goforth (as in 'go forth and multiply'?); Joel Rocket; Maudlin Dampney (there's an EMO name for you); Erasmus Cox; Christian Gibbons (who says animals don't have souls?); Penninah Charity Scard; Hipolett Mocket; Noah Gallop and Amaziah Payne to name but a few.

But the prize has to go to this lady... now bear in mind, she lived in the early 1800's in deepest, darkest, rural Dorset, a county that is still half a century behind the modern world. This is from the Baptism register of a west Dorset parish. She had the surname of Govin and was baptised Arabella Gerina Bachatina Megal. Isn't that splendid?!


I have more....

LTS