/ 12 September 2005

Elizabeth Disco, Gentle Fudge and Obedience Ginger

Horatio Hornblower is an odd name, but consider his siblings: Azubia, Constantia, Jecoliah, Jedidah, Jerusha and Erastus.

Rene Jackaman, archive assistant at Cornwall County Record Office, found all those names after coming across a real-life namesake of CS Forester’s fictional naval hero in county census records. The Hornblower name has been on record for centuries.

Inspired by that discovery, staff and researchers at the office compiled a list of more than 1 000 unusual names found in censuses as well as births, deaths and marriage records going back as far as the 16th century.

”My all-time favourites are Abraham Thunderwolff and Freke Dorothy Fluck Lane,” she said.

Other discoveries included Boadicea Basher, Philadelphia Bunnyface, Faithful Cock, Susan Booze, Elizabeth Disco, Edward Evil, Fozzitt Bonds, Truth Bullock, Charity Chilly, Gentle Fudge, Obedience Ginger and Offspring Gurney.

Levi Jeans was married in Padstow, Cornwall, in 1797.

Some remarkable duos in the marriage records included Nicholas Bone and Priscilla Skin, joined in wedlock in 1636; Charles Swine and Jane Ham in 1711; John Mutton and Ann Veale in 1791; and Richard Dinner and Mary Cook in 1802. — Sapa-AP