Re: Name Exchange

E-Traveller wrote:
"C Rihan" <csrihan.no.spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:rfOdnXHV3ZQF1G7YnZ2dnUVZ8vudnZ2d@xxxxxxxxx

"E-Traveller" <E-Traveller@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:8TXHh.1285485$R63.890981@xxxxxxxxxxxx

My g-g-g-g-grandfather James Phillippo (1798-1879) became great friends with James Mursell while at college preparing for the life of a missionary between 1821 and 1823. Phillippo went to Jamaica and Mursell stayed in England, but before they left school they exchanged names. Hence, James Mursell Phillippo and James Phillippo Mursell.

Was this a common practise at the time?

It's not something that I've ever heard of before.

I've heard of people naming children after friends though..

best wishes
C.Rihan


My middle names are Phillippo for my g-grandmother Emma Louise Phillippo (James' granddaughter) and Rich for my gg-grandmother Elizabeth Rich (It's a multi-generational thing.), but I had never heard of sharing names before.

Maybe its an old Norfolk practise.

Jim

As in 'normal for Norfolk'? :-)

As a Suffolk/Norfolk border girl I have never come across the practise ..

It sounds to me like the result of a schoolboys' 'sentimental friendship' which might have a meaning ranging from 'blood -brotherhood' to something with homosexual undertones .....

Quite passionate life-long friendships with former schoolfellows were a feature of the period and it would be a mistake to impose modern interpretations. But I would think this may have been a token of such a friendship ..... especially if they knew they would be parted geographically after their schooling ....

Liz (Greenwich UK)

.