Period or Not . . . Holiday Names

In several countries (but particularly in England), it was common practice to name children for holidays.  It is believed that these given names were applied to children born on these particular days, but that’s not certain.  Examples of documentable period given names based on holidays include:

Christmas[i]

Noel[ii], Noelle[iii] or Nowell[iv]

Pentecost[v]

Easter[vi]

Pascall[vii] or Pascual[viii]

The English also had a large number of surnames for people born on or near certain holy days or holidays.  Examples of documentable English surnames based on holidays include:

Christmas[ix], Cristemesse[x] or de Cristemasse[xi]

Noel[xii], Nowel[xiii] or Nowell[xiv]

Yule[xv], Yoel[xvi] or Youle[xvii]

Midwinter[xviii]

Midsumer[xix]

Candelmes[xx] (for someone born on Candlemas)

Paskes[xxi] (for someone born on Easter)

Myglemas[xxii] (for someone born on Michaelmas)

---

[i] Christmas Pell; Female; Christening; 22 Dec 1594; Quadring, Lincoln, England; Batch: C03102-2 (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JQR9-K4R)

[ii] Found as a given name in English, Scots, Dutch and French sources, including “French Names from Paris, 1421, 1423, & 1438” by Sara Uckelman (SCA: Aryanhwy merch Catmael) (http://heraldry.sca.org/names/french/paris1423.html)

[iii] “Names from Antwerp, 1443-1561” by Sara L. Uckelman and Kym Banoczi (SCA: Aryanhwy merch Catmael and Kymma Godric) (http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/dutch/plaiser.html).

[iv] “Index of Names in the 1582 Subsidy Roll of London” by Sara Uckelman (SCA: Aryanhwy merch Catmael) (http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/english/engmasclondon1582.html)

[v] Dated to 1221 and later in C.W.E. Bardsley, Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature, p. 98.

[vi] Dated to 1595 in Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature, p. 96.

[vii] Dated to 1553 and later in Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature, p. 96.

[viii] “16th Century Spanish Names” by Kathy Van Stone (SCA: Elsbeth Ann Roth) (http://heraldry.sca.org/names/spanish/male-given-alpha.html)

[ix] Tannekyn Christmas; Female; Burial; 10 Apr 1561; St. Botolph Aldgate, London, England; Batch: B02101-3 (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NRX4-R6L)

[x] Dated to 1185 and 1191 in P.H. Reaney & R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames, s.n. Christmas

[xi] “Middle English Bynames in Early Fourteenth-Century London” by Sara Uckelman (SCA: Aryanhwy merch Catmael) (http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/english/bynames1319.pdf), p. 72.

[xii] Dated to 1155 in A Dictionary of English Surnames, s.n. Noel

[xiii] Dated to 1248 in A Dictionary of English Surnames, s.n. Noel

[xiv] Dated to 1587 in C.W.E. Bardsley, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, s.n. Nowell

[xv] George Yule; Male; Marriage; 23 Jun 1589; Polstead, Suffolk, England; Batch: M06302-2 (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NLMR-NYN)

[xvi] Dated to 1297 in A Dictionary of English Surnames, s.n. Youle

[xvii] Dated to 1379 in A Dictionary of English Surnames, s.n. Youle

[xviii] Dated to c. 1248 in A Dictionary of English Surnames, s.n. Midwinter

[xix] Dated to 1224 in A Dictionary of English Surnames, s.n. Midwinter

[xx] Dated to 1379 in A Dictionary of English Surnames, s.n. Christmas

[xxi] “Middle English Bynames in Early Fourteenth-Century London” (http://www.ellipsis.cx/~liana/names/english/bynames1319.pdf), p. 77.

[xxii] Dated to 1547 in A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, s.n. Michaelmas