1.24.2008

Thursday 13--A Wealth of Cajun Names

Aerial view of Abbeville, La.



Special thanks to the Louisiana GenWeb project and especially the Vermilion parish website for the wealth of information I was able to find in just a short amount of time.

As I was ruminating on possible topics for this morning's TT, I was reminded of a bit of genealogy research I did about six years ago. Although my mother staunchly refuses any Cajun roots and proudly calls herself a Texas girl, I know better. Her family, the Harringtons, were among the first English speaking settlers along Bayou Teche. From the 1850s on, the Harringtons (patriarch William) have repopulated Vermilion Parish in south Louisiana.

The point of this brief history? Well, nowhere else will you find more colorful-sounding names than south Louisiana in the 19th century. Here are just a few:
  1. Let's begin with Arelise. When Arelise was 40 years old, she was mother to 10 children. That's right. I said 10. No, she didn't even start her world population mission until she was 20. At this point, she and her husband Joseph had a child every two years. I will never catch up.
  2. Aristide--he was a son of Arelise and Joseph. He did his part to multiply the population of Vermilion parish as well.
  3. Alzina--youngest daughter of Arelise and Joseph.
  4. The 1860 and 1870 censuses (censi) are a wealth of pleasurable names, beginning with Zerilda (spelled Serelda in a different census).
  5. Eugenie, Orisca, Selenie and Eulalie--what musical sounding sisters!
  6. Eloi--now there's a name that usually stays in the Bible (remember the last words of Jesus on the cross? Eloi is Aramaic for God). I came across more than one Eloi while researching...
  7. Octave and Gustave
  8. Odile--now that is a Cajun name that I know I have heard in my own lifetime!
  9. Zelia, Ezilda and Melina
  10. Nastasie, Celeaus and Belzire
  11. The 1900 census provides us with more great names, beginning with Rosella and Clerfe
  12. Zeoline, Enercide and Cleophas
  13. Followed by two of my very favorites: Telesmar and...Jessie James!

1850 Vermilion Parish Census


Check out more Thursday 13ers here!

11 comments:

Laura Paxton said...

Wow...awesome names! I'm from Abbeville, South Carolina... Happy T-13!

Melanie said...

What awesome names! I wish I knew some of them when I was naming babies...would be interesting to find out what each one means! Thanks for sharing.

Neen said...

A name nerds dream list!

Stephanie Appleton said...

Some of those are very pretty. I love unusual and old fashioned names!

Sandee said...

What a great family history. Even if your mother disagrees. I love all the names. Having a baby every two years wouldn't do it for me. Yikes. Have a great TT. :)

cindy kay said...

A glimpse into another world.... very interesting names.

Anonymous said...

My grandmother was Cajun. My Grandfather's folks disowned him for marrying her. She was so proud of her middle name Recella (Maggie Recella)She told everybody her name.

Unknown said...

That is so neat, great names for book characters.
Great TT this week.
Mama Bear
http://cafeendofuniverse.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Very interesting names, though I don't think I'd want to saddle a child of mine with one of those.

Unknown said...

Sorry for commenting on a post that's nearly a year old! I'm working on the Harrington branch of my family, and I stumbled on your post after googling "Enercide". I figured there had to have been some mistake with her name, but perhaps not! Her name's strange enough, but I'm really scratching my head over a couple of her kids' names.

Anyway, thank you for posting the link to that website! Looks like it might be very helpful.

Dear Europe said...

Those are some beautiful names. I am so happy I ran into your blog.