What’s In a Name?

Last night I had dinner with my very lovely and very smart website designer and was scolded for not posting on my blog lately. Yes, I have been lazy and since she has gone to the trouble of setting up my website, the least I can do is use it properly. So……

Another dear and lovely friend (I am very blessed in that regard), has retired from nursing and has developed a new interest in genealogy. Having researched her own and her husband’s family trees she looked for new worlds to conquer and decided to work on mine. So far she had followed my father’s line, the Gilmans, mostly in Manchester. I’m sorry to say we are a very undistinguished crowd. Professions on my grandfather’s side include: pattern maker; labourer, lamplighter, bootmaker, fustian cutter, legging maker and mattress upholsterer.  My grandmother’s side were mostly barge people, which is, perhaps, a little more romantic.

As a novelist I’m very conscious that the right name can do wonders for a character. In my family there were lots of men named James and George on both sides. There is many a Fanny and a few Annies. But one name stands out. My great, great  grandmother had ten children. Their names are: Ada, John, David, Julia, Mary Ann, William, Andrew, Annie, Susan and Seberina. Seberina?

Seberina Parker, born 1872, no date of death. Her father was Daniel Parker from Birmingham, a waterman. He would have been 45 when Seberina was born, his wife Sarah would have been 36. Seberina was the 7th child.  I wonder how a middle-aged bargee in Birmingham reacted when his wife wanted to call her new little girl by that strange and fanciful name. Perhaps he was the indulgent type and just shrugged and put his arm around her shoulders, smiling down at the little child she nursed. ‘If that’s what you want, love.’

Where did she get the name? I googled it and found it isn’t that unusual. I think it’s a variation of Sabrina and is, probably, Spanish. Perhaps someone can enlighten me. But that doesn’t explain where Sarah found it.

I think I have the answer. There was a book published in 1846, Seberina by George C Judson. Sarah would have been 10 when it was published. Could Sarah read and write? I know her granddaughter couldn’t because I have her wedding certificate signed with a X (Ada Males, her mark). But Sarah was brought up in Uttoxeter, a quiet, market town. She might have attended Dame School and learned to read. I have an image of her curled up on a window seat pouring over her precious book following the adventures of Seberina.

I love the idea of Seberina, Sarah’s one romantic flight of fancy. I am wondering, if I ever have a granddaughter, is there the slightest chance of persuading either of my sons to keep Seberina in the family?