Mr. Somers Little Boy

Early in my prowling through local cemeteries here in Massachusetts I noted the same surnames appeared over and over again on schools, roads and headstones.  All the usual suspects, Conants, Ayers, Edgells, appear repeatedly in each early American town.  It is often the unique first names that I find interesting.

Winters Day Somers

Leominster, MA

I wonder if he went through any growing pains with that name in elementary school?  It seems a name that a celebrity of today would saddle their child with.

  

Thankfull, wife of Mr. William Brooks

Concord Center - Main Street Burial Ground

(also known as South Burying Place - late 17th century)

She was thankfully, name after her mother.  That's really lovely.  So often this is only a tradition for males. 

One of my favorite monuments and first names is that of Aurelia Burage from Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain:

Aurelia Burrage

Forest Hills Cemetery

Sculpture by 

Hugh Cairns, 1903

I've always felt that cemeteries are a well of possibilities for writers of fiction who have trouble naming characters.  They are all there just waiting for you to read their names.