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Man's name Savannah
Guest
1
2015/10/07 - 2:02pm

In fact I can't find any references online to Savannah as a man's name either. Has anyone heard of this before? He was born on the New York/Canadian border in 1842, family was English/Scottish. Thanks in advance.

Guest
2
2015/10/07 - 4:02pm

Hiya CrimsonChin, and welcome to the forum.

Personally, I've never know a "Savannah" either male or female. But take a look at this result from NamePlayground.com. It shows only female names. But there's a link on that page that takes you here for male variations. Any chance you have the male spelling incorrect?

So from your username, I'm guessing you're a "redbeard" ???  🙂

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3
2015/10/07 - 5:25pm

Hi Heimhenge,

I'm glad to be here, and thanks for the reply. I've been a fan of the podcast for a long time.

The name is definitely Savannah (sometimes spelled with one "n") according to census records and family history. His father was Sylvester Hamilton Slate and he is Savannah Hamilton Slate.

Here is a photo, Uncle Van is in the middle with the dark cap and moustache. This was probably the entire population of Grindstone Island NY at the time.

 

The Crimson Chin is a silly cartoon hero who resides in the city of Chincinnati protecting the world from villains like the Bronze Kneecap, Spatula Woman, and H2Olga.

deaconB
744 Posts
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4
2015/10/08 - 1:54am

If you look at the frequency charts for given names of female babies, Savannah was 0.01% rarely jumping to as much as 0.03%, but the movie "Savannah, Smile" came out in 1982, with an immediate jump, and then really soared in the 1992s.  With the Girl Scout cookie of that name introduced in 2012, it'll probably be popular for yeas to come.

There's much less variation in guys' names than women's.  In the 1950s, you only needed ten or twenty different bicycle license plates to handle a majority of all boys.  What were the unpopular names?  They often were family names (think Stone Phillips, from the family of Stonewall Jackson), were familiar names from a strong ethhnicity (think Don Novello's "Father Guido Sarducci) or are place names (think Tex or Cincinnati).

I think Uncle Van's mother might have thought the plantations of Savannah, Georgia were romantic.  It would have been easier to ignore the heat and humidity, the dry rot and the mosquitos from Canada, especially in an era without air conditioning.

I read a story in high school of a guy whose family moved a lot, and every baby got named for the place he was born.  He hated his name, and was embarrassed to introduce himself as "Kissimmee".  These days of liberated women, he'd say Kissimmee, and she's likely to say "sure thing" and plant one on his lips.

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