Welcome to the Backwoods!

[pegasus2o5.livejournal.com]

My family is from backwoods Alabama and I wanted to share some of the awesomely awful names dangling in my family tree. :) I love my family but sometimes I want to just ask "Where did you get this name?" Here are all the names, "normal" and non, of my grandparents and their siblings, and a few spouses. We're white, for what that's worth--it makes a big difference with naming norms in the South.

Mom's side of the family:
Denzil Dewey
Unita (f)
Gleason (m)
Lavene (m) (goes by Pete)
Valerus (m) (went by his last name, Floyd)
Evelyn Dorris (called Dorris, prn DAR-is)
John
Edgar
Marzella
Lena Kate (goes by Kate)
Brian
Walker (m)
Ollie Belle (f)
Bera (prn Beer-ah) (f)
Agnes
Mavis (f)
Leona
Joseph Clayton, called JC
Gladys
Ola

Dad's side of the family:
Charles Mina (mostly called Mina, prn MY-na) (m)
Willie Gay (called Gay) (female)
Melda (f)
Allen
Durrell (I was 15 before I realized this wasn't spelled Durail.) (m)
another Evelyn
Lula
Isabell (prn more like Izzabull)
Lavelle (f)
Annie Mae
Ishmer (m)

Comments

[spaceandclouds.livejournal.com]

Aw, I love Annie Mae, that's adorable.
I also like Allen.

Does Willie Gay ever have to take any crap from people (I mean, especially since you're in the South and all...)?

[pegasus2o5.livejournal.com]

Annie Mae was my grandmother, and yes, she was adorable. :)

Since Willie Gay was a woman (I did put an F by the name, I know it's not very noticeable), I don't think she got much crap about her name. It seems to have been considered a perfectly acceptable name for a girl. I'm guessing it stopped being an acceptable name for anybody in about 1970.

[spaceandclouds.livejournal.com]

That's great =)

& Ah, I see. Well, good for her!

[bloomingtulip.livejournal.com]

is Ollie Belle male or female? (not that it makes a big difference, but I'm curious)

[pegasus2o5.livejournal.com]

Female. I had thought the Belle made that clear but I didn't think about Ollie being a rather male name. The first time I heard Ollie on a guy was a little startling for me, because I'd only ever heard it on Aunt Ollie!

[mystiaunknown.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm from AL too and this sounds a bit like my family tree. I should post mine too, there are some crazy ones!

[laminy.livejournal.com]

I like Agnes.

[pegasus2o5.livejournal.com]

Really? I think Agnes is hideous. What would you call her for short, Ag?? The French pronunciation, an-YEZ, isn't as bad, but no one in America would ever pronounce it that way.

[nothingtolose19.livejournal.com]

My friend's middle name is Agnes, and some of our friends used to call her Aggie sometimes :P just to annoy her. I personally don't like the name Agnes much, either! It just doesn't sound appealing to me at all.

[laminy.livejournal.com]

I'd call her Agnes, since that'd be her name. I don't really like nicknames much, but that aside, I wasn't much a fan of Agnes, just because I thought it sounded old, but once I saw it work on a younger girl I started to like it a lot. It's fifth on my list.

[lustdumpster.livejournal.com]

lol thank goodness you know how awful these names are

i used to work at a QVC call center and because of my location, most of my calls were from the south. some of the names made my jaw drop.

[beepandetch.livejournal.com]

I actually think most of these are great. But I have a huge soft spot for southern names.

Ollie Belle would be an adorable name for a little girl.

[arbus.livejournal.com]

um ok well lets see, i do like...

evelyn
kate
ollie (for a boy, short for oliver)
willie (again, for a boy)
annie mae

[pegasus2o5.livejournal.com]

I actually like Evelyn as well, though I don't know if I could use, it has a pretty ingrained "old lady" connotation for me, understandably enough. I like Kate, too. I don't like Ollie or Willie, on a boy or a girl!

Annie Mae was my grandmother. I think the name is cute, in a very cornpone kind of way. She was always a little embarrassed of it, which is funny to me because she was the ultimate Annie Mae--she was a farmer's wife, spent her time tending chickens, swattin' younguns, making biscuits and chicken dumplings... I would actually love to use her name when I have kids, probably use Anne as a middle name I guess. It doesn't have the same spirit as Annie Mae but I think the last thing she'd want me to do is embarrass a kid with her name!