My grandmother and her sisters were named Eunice, Millie Gray, Celestial and Sophronia. Her bothers were Dodd and Milton. I’d particularly love to know how their parents, living waaay the hell out in rural North Carolina in the 1910s, came up with Celestial and Sophronia.
Same situation, except in my case, it’s my great-great-aunt Juanita.
Gandalf? Fridfrod? Explain yourself, man.
Most of out names are pretty average. Some of my cousins have a little more trendy names (Jennifer, Kenzie, Brittany).
The youngest cousins have weird names, but then they are in Welsh (Calum and Rhys).
The oddest name I can think of in the family is Sherrilyn. My Auntie Sherry. The only reason I found out was I had an old sleeping bag from Grandma with the name on it and I asked her who the heck that was,
Ellis.
It’s my father’s middle name; I believe it came from a friend of his father’s (whether it was a first or last name, I can’t say).
Since one of my nieces now also has it as her middle name, it can officially be called a “family name” among us.
In my family:
Darence (female) Oddly, she goes by “Kitty” instead of the lovely “Darence”
Alfie (another lady!)
Drucie (my grandma)
Bernard (pronounced BER-nerd) go figure…
Autha
Toadie (male)
Carl Gustav
Millie
Modell (female)
I think some of my ancestors were dippin’ into the moonshine.
I know there are a few more odd ones but can’t think of them at the moment.
Bolding mine.
A-HA! That’s why! You’re brimming with such Lord of the Rings dork cred because it’s part of who you are.
This explains lots.
I also have a cousin called Tick (real name George) and a great-uncle who goes by Rat (real name Paul). If we’re including nicknames in the survey.
My mother-in-law’s name is Sheralyn. She named her three sons very ordinary names, except Jonathon. Normal name, weird spelling.
My mom had an Aunt Lou and an Aunt Tom; Lou being short for Louise (changed from Lulu, who had a sister Hattie) and Tom for Thompson (her last name). I get odd looks when I offer people Aunt Tom’s Sugar Cookies, a recipe she passed down to my mom.
I have a cousin Dorinda (Dori for short), and my middle name is Learn. That’s all the weirdness I can think of for my family, though I have a friend with the middle name Burley, his grandfather’s nickname.
Some great names in this thread!
My oldest son’s middle name is my grandpa’s middle name – Lane. It was either that or Wilmer.
My best friend’s daughter’s middle name is Skeie, pronounced Shy-ah. It’s Norwegian, I think. Her grade school teachers were forever telling the little girl that she must be spelling it wrong.
I had twin second cousins named Avon and Avonelle.
My sons middle nme is Hunter. After you know whom.
I’ve got a Bernard (BER-nerd) too! And a:
Willa (hey - it used to be much more uncommon. She was named for her dad, William)
Alpha (nope, she was the second child)
Venice (2 of 'em! Pronounced Veneece, not like the city)
Lanier (as a middle name)
Milan (again, a middle name)
ShyAnne (yep - phonetically. We railed against that one, but no dice)
Janae
Shad
Irma
Maybelle
Corny
Oate
Aim
Bontje
Let’s see, in my family there are:
Dakota
Odelia
Franz
Marney
Nothing too crazy, but definitely out of the ordinary.
She wasn’t scandinavian, by any chance?
In my family:
Waldeen (female)
Arthea (female)
Violet Ora (female)
My great grandmother’s name was Birdella, or Birdie for short. She named her son (my grandfather) Myron, but he went by his middle name (Ken).
My mothe is of French descent, so many of the names on her side sounded odd to me as a child, though I recognise that some of them are fairly common now. Odette and Danica are a couple that I’ve not heard elsewhere though, and my mother got the French version of Theresa for her middle name
My father’s side was a lot more bland, but his step-father (who was also of French descent, unlike my father), got saddled with the name Ulysses–he went by the equally unusual name of Romie.
I think I’ve posted it before, but my late grandfather’s middle name was Fozdick. And he was nice enough to hand the name down to my uncle, too.
My MiL is Antoinette. Until I met her, I didn’t know any one in the past 200 years had such a name.
My great-uncle Phil was not Philip, but Philemon.
He named one daughter Charman, pronounced as in please don’t squeeze the.
That was my grandpa’s middle name.
My grandma’s middle name, as well as her mother’s first name, was Orlou.
Some lunatic in our family named his daughter Tasman.
oh wait, that was me… :rolleyes: 
Girls:
Louisiana (sometimes spelled Louisianna)
Paralee (sometimes spelled Para Lee)
Adelaidina
Temperance (several of these on both sides of the family)
Roda-Joicee
Boys:
Arlington (2 of them)
Abishalom (a variant of Absalom, of course)
Salathiel (it appears in the begatting section of the Bible; the last member with this name died this year in his early 90s)
Robert Toombs (the name of a particularly vicious white-supremacist Confederate [even by Confederate standards he was a fanatic] for whom 3 members of the family were named [all in the same line, the younger two named for the elder two])
Yancey (also dates to the Civil War and for Alabama politician Wm. Lowndes Yancey, though the current holder is an 80-something woman)
Zadock (the last holder died a few years ago and he was at least the 4th)
The weirdest (and there are 6 members who have one or the other of these names including 2 who have both): Judieth Tresvant [sometimes spelled Trezevant].
My father/grandfather’s given names were Stephen Garland, both of which mean “wreath” or “crown”- I’m not sure if this was coincidental.
My mother’s name was the quintessential southern belle name, Blanche, though she was named for the silent film actress Blanche Sweet (who my grandmother was a huge fan of- had she been a boy her name would have been Douglas after D. Fairbanks).