Gallery IV · 1500 to 1800
The Colonial Americas
Settler names from Spain, Portugal, France, England and the Netherlands, and the virtue names of the Puritans.
Each settler people carried its own naming customs across the Atlantic. Spanish and Portuguese families named children for saints and the Virgin Mary; Dutch New Amsterdam used patronymics; and English Puritans chose biblical names or virtues and phrases such as Patience, Mercy and Increase.
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Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.