What's In a Name?

I was checking in with Mary at annie's goat hill where her four-legged escapees had Mary running around the countryside.  One of her pigs is Henrietta, but, alas, Henrietta's sister has no name, so I made a little suggestion to Mary to call the sister Lillie Belle.

In the Old Testament where names really meant something, mothers or fathers would prolong the naming of their sons and daughters, perhaps, to match their personalities.
When Rebekah delivered her twins, the firstborn son came out red and hairy, so he was given the name Esau.  (I don't know why she just didn't name him Harry.)  The second twin grabbed Esau's heel as he delivered and received the name Jacob, meaning "deceiver (trickster)."  Those folks held no opinion back.

One particular mother must have been mad at the father.   She named her son Jabez, because she delivered him in sorrow (pain).  I can totally relate.  I had Jabeza-Cheesta, Jabezy-Rooster, Jabezo-Rodriguez, Jabezoo-Bobcat, and Jabezbubba-Daddy'sLittlePrincess.
Kids 1&2 were big time breathers and pushers; the others were spits.

Anywho, back to the name calling.  Now dig this:

Here are my paternal grandparents, Lillie Belle and Clarence Henry.

Lovely country people.  Mary, they even had pigs!

(Clarence - Celtic "one who lives near the River Clare")

(Henry - Old German "home ruler")

(Lillie - Babylonian Lilith "belonging to the night")

(Belle - French "beautiful")

Here are my maternal grandparents, Mary and Onnie Chester.

Lovely town people.  In fact, my grandmother will be 109 on February 21st.

(Onnie - pronounced OWN-ee - couldn't find origin)

(Chester - Old English "camp of soldiers")

(Mary - Latin "star of the sea" or Hebrew "bitter")

Don'cha love those names? 

Here's an interesting FYI.  I was given the name Debbie because my folks loved Debbie Reynolds.  (Going to do a switch thing here.)  My husband's grandmother never married, but had she married, her married name would have been Reynolds.  So, my name would have been Debbie Reynolds if one event in history had occurred.

Finally, just for fun I googled 'weird names' and came up with celebrity children's names:

Moon Unit, Diva Thin Muffin, Fifi Trixibelle, Apple, Coco, Ocean, Kyd, Sage Moonblood, and Memphis Eve, just to name a few.  Whaaaaaa????  I wouldn't be surprised if someone came up with Phatboi or Rhettard.  These crazy Hollywood people should be arrested for that.  Those poor kids.

BTW - Texas had a governor back when by the name of James Hogg.  He had three daughters:  Ima, Youra, and Wera.  Bless John Smith's mother.

See you in the funny papers.