Tag: unusual names

When a name means a Lot

Reader David Severs’ Auntie Carlotta’s grandfather James Foster standing next to his boiler at Baxter’s Brewery in Thornton Le Moor in the late 1800s

 

Reader Davis Severs’ Great Auntie Carlotta, far left, with her brother Lancelot standing behind their parents Ada and Robert Armin from Thornton Le Moor.

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!

Do you have opinions, memories or ideas to share with me? Get in touch with me using the ‘Contact’ button on the top right.

This column appeared in the Darlington & Stockton Times on Friday 3rd and the Ryedale Gazette and Herald on Wednesday 1st Oct 2025

To name but a few

Dad was very good at coming up with quirky character names in his novels

Back in 2018 I wrote a column about unusual names inspired by an archive piece I’d found by my dad from April 1978 in which he explained that he’d had a schoolfriend called Septimus thanks to the fact he was his family’s seventh son. He was unique because his father was also a seventh son, and so he was in the auspicious position of being the seventh son of a seventh son. These fortunate humans were supposed to have been blessed with supernatural powers, but Dad observed that his friend, whom everyone called Sep, displayed no discernible mystical talents.

Dad was good at coming up with quirky names for the characters in his novels. His best-known was the loveable rogue Claude Jeremiah Greengrass who appeared in many of his Constable books that inspired the TV series Heartbeat. According to Dad, that was a genuine name he had come across as a young bobby and he stored it away in his memory bank until it resurfaced many years later on the pages of the first ‘Heartbeat’ novel (Constable on the Hill, published in 1979). Other fun names he conjured up included Detective Inspector Montague Pluke, Detective Sergeant James Aloyisius Carnaby-King, Sergeant Oscar Blaketon and Constable Alf ‘Volcano’ Ventress.

Brian Reader got in touch via my Countryman’s Daughter web page and informed me: “Two of my grandfather Rocious’s sisters were named Fera and Ellengor! So far I haven’t found the origins.”

I’ve never heard of Rocious, Fera or Ellengor. The only reference I came up with for ‘Rocious’ was in a dictionary of slang where it means ‘amazing’ or ‘cool and trendy’. I wonder if his parents had those traits in mind when naming him? The nearest known name I got to was the Spanish ‘Rocio’, a gender neutral name meaning ‘dew’. The Spanish have used it to refer to the Virgin Mary – ‘La Virgen del Rocio’ (Mary of the Dew).

The next nearest I could get to was ‘Roscius’ which online dictionaries say was a noun first used in Englsih in 1607 to mean ‘actor’. It links back to a famous Roman thespian called Quintus Roscius Gallus, whose reputation in the theatre was legendary, and thus the word ‘Roscian’ became commonplace in the 1600s to refer to someone who had delivered a particularly fine stage performance.

I found a bit more on the name Fera. It is a feminine name derived from the Latin ‘ferus’ which means ‘wild’ or ‘untamed’, and today the Italian word ‘fiero’ means ‘fierce’ or ‘fiery’. ‘Fiera’ as an adjective means ‘proud’ and as a noun means ‘a fete’ or ‘a fair’. In the Calabrian dialect of Italy ‘Fera’ means ‘dolphin’. Fera is also used in Arabic regions and means ‘brave’. It is close to the Irish ‘Feara’ too, which means ‘truth’. I wonder if Brian’s great aunt Fera possessed any of these characteristics?

As for Ellengor, I can find very little in terms of its history as a name or its etymology as a word in any language, never mind English. To me, the name sounds like a character from Arthurian legend, or a queen from Viking mythology. I have found a few mentions of women called ‘Ellengor’, most of whom came from the Northallerton area and one of which might well be Brian’s great aunt. We have Ellengor Barker (1862-1955), Ellengor Bramley (1871-1965), and Ellengor Barker Rollins (1889-1977) all from Northallerton and who might well be related. My guess is that Ellengor Barker Rollins is the daughter of Ellengor Barker.

There are also a couple more: Ellengor Kimberley (b.Boynton) who was born in either 1889, 1899, or 1900 and died in 1961, and her daughter Ellengor Collins (1922-2015). Both of these women came from the Bedale area. I wonder if all the Ellengors are related and named after one original family matriarch?

I’d love to know if any of you have interesting names or do you have a relative who has or had a quirky name? Get in touch with me using the methods below.

(Thanks to Brian inspiring this week’s column, and I hope readers will forgive this public personal message, but it’s the only way I will know that he will see it! Brian just to let you know that I replied to you by email, but have a feeling they may have ended up in your junk folder!).

Do you have opinions, memories or ideas to share with me? Get in touch with me using the ‘Contact’ button on the top right.

This column appeared in the Darlington & Stockton Times on Friday 19th and the Ryedale Gazette and Herald on Wednesday 17th Sept 2025