Pilgrim Baby Names

Tuesday, November 20, 2007, 11:27:41 AM | Neil

I did a post recently about Pilgrim baby names, and now that it’s almost Thanksgiving, I thought it would be fun to see what kinds of names the original Mayflower settlers brought with them.

As I mentioned in that post, a baby boy was born aboard ship as the Mayflower sailed west — he was named Oceanus. And when the ship anchored in Cape Cod Harbor — but before it reached Plymouth — the first English child born in New England arrived, and his name was Peregrine.

But what about the passengers on the Mayflower? What kinds of names did these early settlers bring with them to the New World?

A complete Mayflower passenger list can be found at the excellent Mayflower History site.

On the male side, there were lots of Johns, Richards, Williams, and Edwards. But some unusual boys’ names slipped aboard, including Wrestling, Giles, Degory, Resolved, and Myles.

The girls’ list included some equally unusual names. Beyond the typical Elizabeths and Marys, there sailed women or girls named Love, Remember, Humility, Desire, Jasper, and Constance.

It is a more varied group of names than I expected. It goes to show that unique or unusual baby names are not just the modern phenomenon that people sometimes seem to think!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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