As Juliet Capulet asked, “What’s in a name?” Well, for some Virginians of centuries past, quite a lot. So much so that a few staff members began keeping a list of interesting names discovered while working on the public service desks at the Library of Virginia. Soon, other staff members in the archival processing sections began contributing interesting and unusual names to the list.
We thought these names were too good to keep to ourselves, so we started posting them to the Library’s Twitter feed under the hashtags #FunnyNames #FromTheArchives. We share these in the spirit of good fun and hope you’ll enjoy the interesting array of monikers. Who knows, maybe the posts can help revive period names like Elmadoras and Waldegrave and liven up roll call in Virginia’s schools.
-Vince Brooks, Senior Local Records Archivist
