We return this week to the theme of unusual names. If you recall, Brian Reader contacted me about his quirkily-named relatives Rocious, Fera and Ellengor. In my piece I had found a number of Ellengors from the Northallerton and Bedale areas. They included Ellengor Barker (1862-1955), Ellengor Bramley (1871-1965), and Ellengor Barker Rollins (1889-1977).
After having read my piece, Brian got back in touch to say: “The Rollins and Bramley families are all related to Barker. The earliest Ellengor I have found so far was Ellengor (Ellen) Barker (nee Elliott) born in 1822 in Woodhouse and who died on 4th June 1887 in Northallerton. I have yet to follow up the Elliott family.”
As we have seen from the successive Ellengors, the same name used to live on in a family’s descendants for many years. I wonder if it was considered familial duty to pass down a name, or was it done just because people liked doing it? Today, new parents seem less inclined to follow the tradition, and I wonder why that is too.
Horacio Romeo, who reads my column online, has his own list of uncommon names. He said: “Living in Brazil, unusual names are quite usual to find…Azize, Kilber, Alison (male), Glademir, Suelí, Dagna, Adilson, Claudiceia…I can spend the whole day!”
David Severs comes from a family where quite a distinctive name persisted: “My grandfather Arthur Robert Foster was born at Thornton le Moor in 1879. His sister, Ada Mary Foster, had been born in 1874. Their father, James Foster, was the boilerman at Baxter’s Brewery in the village.
“Ada married Robert Armin, the Armins being a longstanding local family (There is still an Armin House in the village). Robert and Ada called their son Lancelot and their daughter Carlotta. I was always intrigued by my Auntie Carlotta’s comparatively unusual and quirky name, apparently common on the continent as a variant of Charlotte, but not in the UK.
“When I researched my ancestry I found that several successive generations of Armins had been given the biblical name Lot. It seems Robert and Ada did not want to follow the family practice but wanted to recognise it, so they called their offspring LanceLOT and CarLOTta.
“Although I had an explanation I was still intrigued by their use of the comparatively unusual name Carlotta.”
Some years later, David discovered what could be the answer when a history of the village was published in the year 2000 to mark the Millennium. The book explained that the driving force behind Baxter’s Brewery was a man called Newsome Baxter who died in 1889.
David continues: “He left the brewery to his son William Newsome Baxter who died only three years later. The brewery then passed on to William’s wife Emma, their two sons and their daughter Ethel Carlotta.”
It was the earliest date in his research that David had come across the name: “So now I knew whence Robert and Ada Armin found the name Carlotta.”
David did wonder what the wealthy and influential Baxters would have made of their lowly boilerman’s daughter snaffling the family name for her own child.
I’ve recently been watching the series ‘The Yorkshire Auction House’ which features Kirkbymoorside-based Ryedale Auctioneers and their charismatic owner Angus Ashworth. Angus was helping to clear the house of a retired policeman whose daughter was called ‘Myron’ or ‘Meiron’ (I only heard it so am unsure how it would be spelled). It was a new name to me and upon a quick Google I discovered ‘Myron’ is Greek in origin and is normally the male version of ‘Myra’. Meiron, however, is a Welsh girl’s name meaning ‘the admired one’.
This show has captivated me because it deals with a subject close to my heart, and one which almost all of us will have to face at some point in our lives – that of having to sort through the possessions of a loved one after they have passed away. What do we do with it all? It is a very emotional and difficult process, and I have to say that Angus and his team deal with it in a very sensitive manner.
My dad accrued so much ‘stuff’ over his lifetime that having someone like Angus on hand to deal with it all might be just what we need!
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This column appeared in the Darlington & Stockton Times on Friday 3rd and the Ryedale Gazette and Herald on Wednesday 1st Oct 2025
The Countryman's Daughter 