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Researching Southern Baby Names

By: Jan Bay

Any true southerner has trouble understanding why northerners get a hoot out of Southern baby names. People not in the know think that double or even triple names are slapped together for no other reason than melodious meter. It could be unreasonable of me, but the idea of anybody poking fun at a tradition they don't understand just makes me angry. Southerners pick their baby names for excellent reasons. Never mind that the names that they choose are probably different from those on the articles of the most popular baby names for any given year.

Southern parents don't just scan the newest books and pick names because they are trendy or cool. These moms take more pains in choosing names for their children than they did in giving birth to them. That declaration may be a little over the top, but parents in the southern states literally agonize over what to call their babies. This is because choosing southern baby names takes much more than tossing around the different words printed in some generic baby publication that lists the copycat meanings of different baby names.

Word meanings are ok; they have worked for the businesses who circulate Webster's Dictionaries for quite a long time! But when you start discussing naming southern infants you're looking at the basic meanings of names within a family, not what they might mean to a person who speaks Latin or Hebrew!

As far as meter goes, I don't care how easily a particular name glides off the tongue, a certain amount of care and study must be practiced in the naming process.Care must be taken so as not to risk naming a baby after a second cousin somewhere in the bunch that committed some type of social error in the past.

The unfortunate ancestor's unfortunate crime might have been anything
from having befriended one of the invaders to having done a little time in jail for not having been tightlipped about the location of the local still. The crime would be in having been found out, as there is certainly no shame in making your own beverages even in the New South.

Don't be confused to dream that only the names of a southern child's parents are treasured or even that their grandparents are the only ones passed forward.
There may have been a valiant great grand uncle who battled bravely in the war and deserving of remembrance. In this instance there may be a competition every generation or so among children to have the first son. The prize for winning this rather odd race would be that the first born son can have first choice for the famous ancestor's name. Talk about confusion at family reunions!
How in the world can you differentiate between all those kids named the same thing?

How does a father manage to call one of them without bringing in the whole group? That's where middle names come in handy and that brings me to a reason behind the southern tradition of double names!

As we all know southerners are famous for double names. Some are forced to resort to triple names so that their little Johnny and Sally stands apart from the rest. Why this is a tradition attributed to the south I'm not really sure. I would like to think it's because southerners have so many beloved kin that they want to claim. This fact makes it necessary to give each child many names so that eachillustrious departed family member is sufficiently honored.

I can't name the many theories where credit can be given for the reasoning of traditional southern baby naming patterns and the traditions behind them. There seems to be no real answer on why family names and history appear to be more important to new parents in the sunny southland than in other parts of the land. There is however, no argument that the results are some of the most beautiful and romantic names you will find written on a birth certificate anywhere. The next time you feel driven to laugh at a baby named something antiquated consider that the first person that bore the same name may not have perished defending a southern debutant's good name but that he may have died defending our liberty and our country.

Article Source: http://articles.directorygold.com

Jan Bay is a Freelance Author of Nursery Decorating Articles Baby Gear Reviews and Webmaster for www.unique-baby-gear-ideas.com Use of this article requires an active link to Popular Baby Names

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