Name of the Day

Today I introduce a new category to the colonial New England naming Olympics: most asymmetrically named couple. Our first nominees are from Groton, MA:

Mephibosheth and Jane Adams

According to Samuel Abbott Green's history of Groton, Mr. Adams was called "Fib" by his neighbors. The Adams family had seven children: Susanna, Lucy, Jane, Lydia, Amos, James, and John.

Mephibosheth's parents, John and Mary Adams of Lexington, had a somewhat erratic naming style. Their children were

• Mephibosheth (b. 1715)
• John (b. 1717)
• Michael or Micah (b. 1718)
• Mary (b. 1721)
• Abijah (b. 1722)
• Prudence (b. 1727)
• Samson (b. 1729)
• George (b. 1733)
  

As far as I can tell, Mephibosheth was not named for any relatives — his grandfathers were named George and Gershom, his great-grandfathers were George, Thomas, Michael (itself an unusual name for a Puritan), and either John or William (records disagree). I haven't found many other Mephibosheths in Massachusetts, though there was a Mephibosheth Cain residing in the town of Canaan in 1797. Others:

• Mephibosheth Bigsbie (or Bixby), b. 1690, Andover, MA
  
• Mephibosheth Coddington, b. 1799, Taunton, MA
  
• Mephibosheth Baily, b. 1778

As far as Biblical names go, Mephibosheth does not strike me as a particularly promising appellation. Beyond the spelling and nickname issues, there is the problem of the Bible's two Mephibosheths: one, a son of Saul hanged for his father's crimes in 2 Samuel 21, and the other a son of Saul's son Jonathan who is maimed during the escape from the Gibeonites who lynch his father and uncles and grows up to betray King David.