Thursday, December 11, 2008

Census Fun with Christmas names

Here's an oldie but a goodie for my devoted readers --

I was devastated when the post came out two years ago about the Christmas characters that Dan Lynch posted on his web site, http://www.1930census.com/santa_clause.php. I had worked on most of those names for two weeks and was waiting for the "season" to post them.

So, here are the rest of my "character" findings (originally posted in 2006) -

1) Ebenezer Scroggs (1850, Harrison County OH) is as close to Ebenezer Scrooge as I can get.

2) Robert Crachet (1880, Scott County AR). Another Robert Crachet flew into New York City from Paris on Air France on 2 August 1956 - maybe to perform in a play on Broadway?

3) Three Grinch brothers (Charles, John and Lenwards) came into New York City on 6 September 1875 aboard the "Egypt." There is no word if they came to steal Christmas. Obviously, if they did, they failed.

4) There is a Jasper Magi and Baldermo Magi (1930, Fairfield County CT) but no Melchior; there are Gaspar Wiseman (1930, Queens County NY) and Melvin Wiseman (1930, Muskegon county MI), but no Balthasar or similar.

5) There are 18 Harold Angel persons in the 1930 census. No Hark Angel, however.

6) Sila Knight (1870, Randolph County, AL) is the closest to Silent Night I could find. Lots of Silas Knight people.

7) There are 3 Noel Noel persons in the 1930 census.

8) Angel Angel (1930, Maricopa County AZ) is one of the repeating angels.

9) There are two Merry Christmas girls in the 1930 census (there are lots of Mary Christmas females too).

10) Holly Bush (1930, Roanoke County VA) sticks out.

11) Christ Tree (1930, LaPorte County IN) probably extended his branches

12) Jessie Manger (1930, Polk County IA) parents were not Joseph and Mary

13) Then there are Santa's reindeer: Were they:

Cupid Wiseman
Melvin Dancer
Hugo Blitzen
Chris Donder
Rudolf Dasher
Dasher Berry
Prancer Saner
Vixen Locke
Theodore Comet

Just wondering!!

You know, if Bah Morgan (1900, Stephenson IL) had married Cecil Humbug (1900, Delaware County PA) we would have had more Humbugs than we would know what to do with.

I'm wondering if Alvin Monk (1930, Schoharie County NY), Simon Monk (1930, Lonoke AR) and Theodore Monk (1930, Cotton County OK) really got together in 1958 to sing The Chipmunk song. I guess they were a figment of Ross Bagdasarian's imagination.

OK, I'm done! I hope you enjoyed this little prance down Santa Claus lane.

What other Christmas related names are there? C'mon, lay them on me.

4 comments:

Abba-Dad said...

Not sure about Christmas names, but I found a bunch of J Macabee for Hanukkah :-)

BTW: My word verification for this comment was 'chesses'!

Amanda Erickson said...

Thanks for this. It made my day. Great finds! I especially loved the Bah Morgan/Cecil Humbug mention. That would have been something.

Marlys Hesch Sebasky said...

My mothers' Uncle Henry was listed in the 1925 Iowa census as Hy Naber...I hope it was intended!

Dan Lynch said...

This made me laugh again - I recall that posting from 2 years ago and your reply - wow, was that 2 years ago? I don't have any names to add with this post, but always enjoy reading these. One day a couple years ago, my young daughter was home sick from school (at the time, 5th grade). I stayed home with her and she loved using my laptop - to my surprise, she spent hours searching through the census for funny names, disney characters, silly words - but those are names for another time. Happy Holidays to all - thanks for sharing this Randy!!