A Bratt by Any Other Name

Having dealt all my life with an ungainly, made-up, parents-combo prénom, I determined to give my children ordinary, dignified names, easily spelled and understandable on first hearing and unlikely to turn into poisonous acronyms. So I mostly did that (though sometimes Katherine and Stephen have to clarify spelling), except that for some reason I called my first child Emmelyn. It turns out to be a good name for Em, a nice stage name, and I don't think she minds too much the mispronunciations, the need to make explanations, the burden of countless "phone home" jokes, her initials being ET. Her fortunate sister's initials were her nickname, KT. Their father calls them Katie-bird and Emmaline-fine. Very cute, no?

I thought I made up the name Emmelyn, with the Y looking good with Thayer, and the second E suggesting the way the name should be pronounced, and the one N preventing a "lynn" sound at the end. I had forgotten a possible influence, however. A resonance at least. Finding that picture of Grandma Sarah while putting away Christmas I felt myself being drawn back into pedigree charts after a 39-year hiatus (during which time genealogy had become Family History). Whereupon I rediscovered that my father's mother's paternal grandmother was named Lucy Emmaline Avery. Lucy married Sylvester S. Fort, whose grandfather Sybrant was married to Fytje Bratt. I should note that Fytje was also known as Sophie, and that by the time she died she had become Sophia Bratt Fort.

Sybrant descends from one Jean Le Forte, apparently born in Cher, France in 1650. Oddly, however, Jean's father, Jan Orangien Fort, seems to have been born in Puerto Rico in 1600. Jan married Marie Grande in New Amsterdam, America in 1641. So they were French or Dutch or both ... Huguenots fleeing oppression, as were most of my paternal ancestors, or else buccaneers! At any rate they certainly got around, for 17th-century folks. "Fort(e)," of course, means strong, which everybody's ancestors were.

Another French Connection is Esther Ann Hardin, my father's grandfather's maternal grandmother, born in 1827 in Québec, where our Emmaline-fine served her mission.

While I'm reveling in names, I could mention that ancestors of Lucy Emmaline Avery include Patience Fish, who married John Rathbone (unfortunately, no son named Fish Rathbone) sometime around 1730 in Rhode Island, and Lucy Everett, eldest of 10 children whose siblings included Eliphalet and Mehitable. Use those names in fiction before I do, and I’ll send Grandma Sarah to haunt you! Assuming she has actually passed on.

Notice: I would dearly love a grandchild named Brattfort Orangien Fishbone. How ‘bout you, Em & Stu? Brattfort Orangien Fishbone Freitas! BOFF. Sounds almost presidential. Or maybe just gustatorial. I should never write when I’m hungry.