e pluribus unum

Yeah, I know it means "Out of many, one." But the context in which I saw this today about blew me away. You see, this is more than a motto for one lucky American woman, this was her name: Epluribus Unum Dillard Sudduth.

I don't know about you, but I can't even imagine what would lead parents to name their child in such a way. And since this person was born in 1863 Texas, you have to wonder what their motive was. But there you are, this was a real person born in 1863 and died in 1932.

I am a weird name collector. This is something I've been doing since my second job, which was as a clerk in the medical records department of a local hospital. It's fascinating, when you are a genealogist, to see naming patterns in families, but some naming patterns are just bad.

For instance there were the Setter sisters, English and Irish. Look, mom & dad, don't name your children after dogs! Then again, not being present at the birth of these two lovelies, maybe the names were appropriate.

And why would anyone in their right mind name their daughter Chanda Lear. Don't they realize the ribbing that child will take?

Even my own family, thankfully many times removed from the present, are guilty with Pleasant Chinn and Dimple Chinn. Ok, those can even be considered cute. And I'm thinking the parents of Napoleon Bonnieparts Logsdon just didn't know how to spell it. And Arizona Dove Carpenter was the mother of General Curtis LeMay (Bombs away LeMay), how did she deal with her name?

I guess people making up names for their children is not new and there is a trend now to name your child something unique, but maybe this trend isn't so new after all.

I'll close now with just a few more, sent by a friend: Pryor Breeding, Preserved Smith, and Fanny Rash. After that, what else can you say?