Daily Genealogist

CLEMENTINA (f): Derived from the Latin clemens ("mild, merciful") with addition of productive suffix -ina to the adjective root, this name has long been used in England. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the female name had strong Jacobite connotations; one of the fabled romantic stories of that era was the journey in 1717/18, across much of Europe, of [Maria Casimire] Clementina Sobieska (d. 1735), Princess of Poland, to meet and marry James Francis Edward Stuart (1688–1736, the Jacobite "James III"). Her namesake, Clementina Maria Sophia Walkinshaw (ca. 1720–1802), mistress of their son "Bonnie Prince Charlie" (Prince Charles Edward Stuart, 1720–1788, the Jacobite "Charles III"), bore him several children. After the mid-1750s, however, and the appearance of Samuel Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison (1753/4) — one of whose two heroines is the noble Italian Clementina della Porretta — the name was favored by readers across the political spectrum. Clementine was a variant form which gained great currency in the mid-nineteenth century with the popular song "Oh, My Darling Clementine," which requires no previous knowledge of Richardson.

Clementina Janes (b. 1802), daughter of Peleg Cheney and Patty (Coy) Janes of Brimfield, Mass., m. there 1 Jan. 1828 Edward Parsons of Northampton, Mass. (Brimfield VRs, p. 207). Clementina (Ballou) Wright (1812-post 1888, daughter of Rev. Hosea and Ruth [Washburn] Ballou) had no issue by her marriage to Col. Isaac Hall Wright, but namesakes included nieces (both b. 1834) Clementina (Ballou) Mason (daughter of Rev. Hosea Faxon and Mary [Ballou] Ballou) and Clementina Clarissa (Ballou) Tucker (daughter of Rev. Massena Berthier and Mary Sheffield [Jacobs] Ballou, who named their daughter for two Richardson heroines), herself mother of Clemmie Richmond Tucker (b. 1863).

LAVINIA (f): Female form of a Roman family name. In Roman legend, Lavinia was the daughter of King Latinus, king of Latium [the area around Rome: modern Lazio]. She married the Trojan newcomer Aeneas, hero of Vergil’s Aeneid. Her name springs from the same root as the ancient city of Lavinium, about seventeen miles south of Rome. In Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare’s bloodiest play, the eponymous hero has a daughter by this name (Clarence L. Barnhart, William D. Halsey et al., The New Century Cyclopedia of Names, 3 vols. [New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1954], 2:2399).

Familiar forms often seen in New England are VINEY or VINNY. Lavinia Dickinson (1833–1899) of Amherst, Mass., sister of the poet Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (1830–1886), arranged for publication of Emily’s poems after the poet’s death. In the 1850 census, 5,195 women named Lavinia were enumerated. The 1940 census listed 4,436 women with that name.

ETHELBERT (m): Derived from a compound of Anglo-Saxon æthel- "royal," "noble" + beohrt/berht "bright," this last derived from an Indo-European root *bherəg- "to shine," "bright," "white" (Calvert Watkins, The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, 2nd ed., 2000, p. 11). Æthelberht I of Wessex (ruled 860-865, a brief reign bedeviled by Viking raids) was the third son of Æthelwulf of Wessex. Æthelbert was preceded by an older brother Æthelbald (co-king with his father ca. 855-858, then full king 858-860), and was succeeded by his younger brothers Æthelred I (ruled 866-871), and, finally, Alfred [Ælfred] the Great (ruled 871-899). Alfred's grandson Æthelstan (ruled 924-939), the victor of Brunanburh, is the first king of all England (rather than Wessex).

The history of the Anglo-Saxon period was not much studied until the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but New England does have the example of Ethelbert Child Lyon (1744-1787) of Woodstock, Conn., and Holland, Mass., a son of Moses and Grace (Child) Lyon of Woodstock. Moses Lyon, a Yale graduate, apparently enjoyed choosing learned names for his numerous offspring. The 1850 census shows 216 men with the name Ethelbert.

The name ALBERT developed from ADELBERT, a cognate Germanic form of both elements of this name. (Speak "Adelbert" fast, say five times, and you'll see how that first consonant falls out; ALICE evolved in much the same way from forms such as ADELICIA.)

ANANIAS (m): In the Bible, this name is found only in the Book of Acts, where it is borne by at least three people of notably differing character:

(1) Ananias, husband of Sapphira. This covetous couple, members of an early Christian church in Jerusalem, sold land and kept back the proceeds, and when rebuked by St. Peter, were struck dead (5:1-5).
(2) Acts 23:2 and 24:1 mention Ananias the High Priest, who in 23:2 ordered that Paul be struck on the mouth, and in 24:2, "descended with the elders, and with a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul."

Probably the Long Island families (especially the Conklins) who favored this name were thinking of

(3) “a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias” who, acting on a vision from God, laid hands on the blinded Saul/St. Paul and restored his sight, after the latter’s conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:10-17), or (4) “one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there” (Acts 22:12) [perhaps the same as (3)].

Ananias Conklin of Kings Swynford, Staffordshire; Nottingham; Salem, Mass.; and Southold, L.I. (TAG 21 [1944-45]: 48-58 had grandsons Ananias Conklin “Jr.” (East Hampton, L.I. ca. 1674-by 22 Oct. 1730) (Jeremiah and Mary [Gardiner] Conklin (TAG 21:58, 142-43); Ananias Conklin “Sr.” (Benjamin and Hannah [Mulford] Conklin (East Hampton, L.I. ca. 1672/3-by 26 Aug. 1740) (21:135), father (by wife Hannah Ludlam) of Ananias Conklin [Jr.], bp. East Hampton 21 Aug. 1708.