Epaphroditus Champion.
Yes, yes, there is a saint named Epaphroditus, but it sounds quite similar to a number of unfortunate medical conditions. I would link to the Wikipedia page for epispadias, but it's NSFW.
Epaphroditus Champion paid for a gravestone in East Haddam, CT dedicated to Joel Jackson, a free man who had once belonged to one of Champion's relatives. Angelica Kruger-Kahloula mentions this stone in her Markers article as an example of former masters' self-identification as benefactors even after emancipation. It reads:
TO THE MEMORY OF JOEL A BLACK MAN BORN A SLAVE FOR LIFE
BUT BY HIS INDUSTRY, FIDELITY, AND FAITHFULNESS OBTAINED
HIS FREEDOM AT THE AGE OF 26 YEARS AND LIVED 14 YEARS IN
THE FULL ENJOYMENT OF THE PRIVILEGES OF A FREE MAN.
HE DIED JULY Ye 12th 1802 AGED 40 YEARS
Epaphroditus Champion joins Epaphras Shrimpton among my favorite names beginning with the letter E. I don't know my New Testament very well, but Wikipedia tells me that Epaphras is a shortened form of Epaphroditus and that both mean "beloved by Aphrodite." Quite a name for 18th-century New England.
2 comments:
As an onomatophile, I thought you would appreciate a fellow I just came across: Tamerlane Pliny Marsh, a college president in Ohio in the late 1800s.
That's a good one. As a college president, it seems that he lived up to the "Pliny" part more than the "Tamerlane" bit. Though, I'm not exactly sure what parents are hoping for when they name a kid Tamerlane. Skull pyramids in the backyard?
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