Daily Genealogist

ARMIDA (f): One of the main female characters in the epic Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso (Italian Renaissance); the story also inspired several operas, such as those by Jean-Baptiste Lully (1686), J.-W. Glück (1777) and G.A. Rossini (1817):

She was a beautiful sorceress, with whom Rinaldo [one of Charlemagne's paladins, based on his nephew, the hero Roland] fell in love, and wasted his time in voluptuous pleasure. Two messengers were sent from the Christian army with a talisman to disenchant him. After his escape, Armida followed him in distraction, but not being able to allure him back, set fire to her palace, rushed into the midst of a combat, and was slain. (Brewer, p. 64).

Armida Potter (1765–1798, daughter of Dr. James and Abigail [Barns] Potter) m. New Fairfield North (Sherman, Conn.) Congregational Church 23 Nov. 1797 Bennett Pickett (1764–1854), and apparently died bearing an only child, Armida Pickett (1798–1826) who herself died unmarried. Why Dr. and Mrs. Potter (several of whose offspring bear imaginative names) named one for an apparently love-crazed sorceress, we cannot now determine; certainly such a choice reflects eighteenth-century America's discovery of non-Puritan literature and ideals. Perhaps Dr. Potter shared his reading material with the neighbors, as the name is more common than usual in the Sherman/New Milford area. For example, Armida Giddings (1773–1827, daughter of Jonathan and Mary [Baldwin] Giddings), later wife of David Gaylord, was one of several siblings bp. New Fairfield North 26 May 1776; other local Armidas were her niece, Armida Giddings (1815–1818, daughter of Samuel Giddings by his first marriage to a cousin, Lydia Giddings) and Mrs. Gaylord's sister-in-law Armida (Sanford) Giddings (1796–post 1881, daughter of Ebenezer and Jerusha [Buck] Sanford), second wife of Samuel Giddings above.

AQUILA (m) (Latin 'eagle'). In Christian iconography the eagle is the symbol of the Gospel of St. John. A man named Aquila was associated with St. Paul; a later Aquila (fl. early half 2nd century A.D.) translated the Hebrew Bible into a very literal Greek. Both men are said to have been natives of Pontus [in Asia Minor], the latter prob. a native of Sinope in that region (Henry Wace and William C. Piercy, A Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century A.D., with an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresies [London: John Murray, 1911, repr. Peabody, Mass.: Henderson Publishers, 1994], pp. 38–39).

Aquila Chase (1618–1670) was an early settler of Hampton, N.H. (1640) and Newbury, Massachusetts (1646). John Carroll Chase and George Walter Chamberlain, Seven Generations of the Descendants of Aquila and Thomas Chase (Derry, N.H., 1928, rev. ed. Camden, Maine: Picton Press, 1983, 1993), note that the exact parentage of the immigrant Aquila Chase and his brother Thomas seem to be still unknown; although several earlier English Aquila Chases have been identified in Chesham, Bucks, and in London, no positive matches have been found for the immigrant. The other seventeenth-century immigrant to New England bearing this rare given name was Aquila Purchase of Kingweston, Somerset, and Dorchester, Mass., brother-in-law of Bernard Capen of Dorchester in Old and New England. Both Chase and Purchase were likely named for Aquila, husband of Priscilla, mentioned by St. Paul.

The 1790 census lists 21 men named Aquila, with occurrences from Vermont to South Carolina, with the largest number in Maryland. In 1850, there were 111 men with the name, and, in 1940, there were 77.

AMELIA (f): Derived from the Germanic root amal-, which is of uncertain meaning, this name became popular at about the same time as the similar-sounding EMILY, which is derived probably via French EMILIE, from Latin AEMILIA, feminine of a Roman family name. (The French equivalent of AMELIA is AMÉLIE.) Amelias abounded in many German royal families, including that of Hanover, a reason for much of the name's popularity in English-speaking countries. The name may well have gained further currency due to the character of Amelia in Henry Fielding's novel (1751) of that name; the virtuous heroine is said to have been modeled on the author's wife, Charlotte Cradock.

Amelia Potter, daughter of Stephen Potter, of Coventry, Rhode Island, married Chandler Holmes of Woodstock, Connecticut, in Woodstock on January 4, 1787 (Woodstock, Ct., Vital Records, 1686-1854 on AmericanAncestors.org). On May 21, 1856, Pascal B. Simons of Manchester, N.H., married Amelia Henry of Goffstown, N.H., in Goffstown. (Goffstown, N.H., Town Records, on AmericanAncestors.org).

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.