Wednesday, April 16, 2014

N ~ Names

Popular Amish names in the community I grew up in were:

Boys
  • Albert
  • Noah
  • John
  • Simon
  • Henry
  • David
  • Mark
  • Bennie
  • Lewis
  • Menno
Girls
  • Naomi
  • Ruth
  • Mary
  • Elizabeth
  • Miriam
  • Nancy
  • Emma
  • Esther
  • Martha
  • Malinda
Another interesting fact about Amish names is once a girl gets married she will be called by her husband's first name followed by her name. For example, let's pretend the first names on both lists were to get married, Naomi would now be known as Albert Naomi and if we would want to go visit them we would say we're going to visit Alberts. Adding an "s" to the husband's first name indicates we're talking about that entire family.

14 comments:

  1. Well, having your husband's first name has to be a whole lot better than things round here. My husband is Tafern Newydd and I'm Tafern Newydd Mussis. Our son is Jacob Tafern Newydd. We are no longer people, just extensions of our farm!
    It came as a shock at first as we'd moved from a long way off and weren't used to being greeted with ' Good morning Tafern Newydd and his Mussis!' but it as actually an honour as most new comers are just known a Muster or Mussis, followed by their surnames. It is hard to be properly accepted here unless you join in everything and ,sadly, many incomers from England try to be lord of the manor, which obviously doesn't go down well with the Welsh neighbours who have always lived here, so they are treated as outsiders.

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  2. I didn't realize that the custom of adding an s to the husbands first name indicating the entire family was just a custom of Mennonites or Amish, until we had a friend live with us from non-Mennonite background. He asked me why I say, "We are invited to "Dan's." I was puzzled and asked him what he would say when invited somewhere, and he said, "We are invited to Shetler's." (Using the last name.)Interesting. Maybe because so many of us have the same last name and we wouldn't know which family we are talking about?

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  3. Interesting! You are doing a great job posting every day!

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  4. So happy to have found your blog -- through your comment on my blog! I am interested in the Amish & we often travel to Amish communities. I am your newest blog follower. Blessings.

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  5. Very interesting information about when a couple gets married - adding the husband's first name to the woman's name. We say "going to visit the Alberts" but you don't add a "the" beforehand. Stopping by from the Blogging A to Z Challenge. I enjoy reading your blog. www.dianeweidenbenner.com (I'm a little behind in the alphabet)

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  6. That was a really interesting post. I had no idea about the name custom. I'm really enjoying your posts MaryAnn.
    Blessings,
    Betsy

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  7. Interesting fact. I do like those popular names, though Menno is a new one to me.

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  8. I'm really enjoying reading your blog...visiting from A to Z.
    ~Katie
    TheCyborgMom
    Visual Proof

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  9. I didn't know about the wife adding her husband's name in front of hers, but aren't the children called by their mother's name? Miriam's Joseph? Or am I thinking of something else entirely? (Which has been known to happen.)

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  10. I didn't know that about the first names after marriage! I worked with a woman who was Hispanic and their tradition was for the wife to keep her last name and add her husband's last name onto the end with "and" (y) between it. I think that was it. HERNAME y HISNAME.

    Visiting you from the A to Z challenge sign-up page. Great to meet you!

    Stephanie Faris, author
    30 Days of No Gossip
    http://stephie5741.blogspot.com

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  11. Lady Anne, No, the children would be called by their father's name. I was David's Mary Ann until I got married at which point I became LV Mary Ann. Also another little tidbit I forgot to mention, single girls when their name was mentioned without their father's name first was with an "s" in front of it .....S'Mary Ann. Married women when mentioned without their husband's name had "die" (pronounced dee)in front of their name.

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  12. I have a book written by an amish woman and on the front under her name is 'Jonas Em' in parenthesis. I always wondered what that meant and now I know!

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  13. I love old-fashioned names, so most of the names on that list are favorites of mine. Fascinating to learn about naming customs.

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment. I love hearing your thoughts.