In honor of Thanksgiving Day, I decided to take a look at a list of the names of the people that were on the Mayflower. Names interest me, and I am curious about what the names of the Mayflower passengers were, and whether those names are still popular today. I think that my interest in names comes from having a very common name and always wishing for something a bit less ordinary.
There were about a hundred passengers on the ship, and among them there were quite a few classic names like William, John, Richard, Peter, Mary, Catherine, and Rose. These names are still quite popular today. There were other names, though. Names that are unique. Names like Desire, Love, Wrestling, Remember, Resolved, Peregrine, Constanta, Damaris, Oceanus, Humility, and Digory. I looked into the popularity of some of these names, and found that Peregrine is not a popular name, and Digory is even less popular. Love is popular, but is used mainly as a girl‘s name today.
The meanings of some of the names, such as Resolved, Desire, and Love, are exactly as they would seem to be. It is interesting to note that Love was a boy. Young Oceanus Hopkins was certainly aptly named, as he was actually born on board the Mayflower during its journey. Many of the names were biblical in nature, such as Damaris, which means “gentle”. The name that I am most curious about is Peregrine, which could refer to a type of falcon, but also means “stranger” or “Pilgrim”. That means that one of the Pilgrims was, quite possibly, literally named “Pilgrim”.
On this day of Thanksgiving, we can remember the bravery of the one hundred people that made the voyage on the Mayflower in hope of a better life. It is unfortunate that half of them died within the first year, but those that survived went on to build the life that they had come to America to build. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.