him, asks to be allowed to change his name
for some other; "certain," as he says,
"that no member of taste will oppose his
request."

Another individual, Alexander Hamilton,
also petitions for leave to change, on the
double ground of the inconvenient length of
seven syllables in writing or speaking (a true
go-a-head Yankee), and on his inability to
"support the dignity of a name so famous
in history!"  It must be observed that
this smart mechanic did not refer to the
Conqueror of Darius, but to the greatest
Alexander he had ever heard of, Hamilton,
Secretary of the Treasury to Washington;
and I only hope (for the sake of American
amour propre) that a portion of my readers
may know who is meant.

To these instances of ever-shifting alterations,
I may add one of a Miss Hogg who
became Miss Howard; of another, a highly-
estimable family, the Crowninshields of
Marblehead, whose original name was Grunsel;
and still another, the former Tinkers,
who are the present Buckinghams. So much
for them!

In looking at this scanty number of
examples, and reflecting that such arbitrary
changes are every year taking place over the
whole extent of the Union to a very large
amount, we may imagine, apart from the
absurdity of the custom, the confusion and
the mischief it occasions. Yet, however
strange it appears to us, it is perhaps more
wonderful that, considering the facility of
the operation, it is not still oftener practised.
A recent American paper tells us of a family
in the town of Detroit, whose sons were
named, One Stickney, Two Stickney, Three
Stickney; and whose daughters were named,
First Stickney, Second Stickney, &c. The
three elder children of a family near home
were named Joseph, And, Another; and it
has been supposed that, should any more
children have been born, they would have
been named Also, Moreover, Nevertheless,
and Notwithstanding. The parents of
another family actually named their child
Finis, supposing it was their last; but they
happened afterwards to have a daughter
and two sons, whom they called Addenda,
Appendix and Supplement.

Whatever exaggeration there may
possibly be in these last-quoted instances, there
is certainly, in New England as well as in
the less established parts of the Union, a
curious taste for grotesque, though less
startling, combination in names. In what
degree fathers or godfathers are responsible
for this, or whether existing individuals have
capriciously altered their children's christian
and surnames in the present generation, I
cannot determine. It is equally puzzling
to account, on either hypothesis, for such
names as strike the eye on the shop-signs or
door-plates, or in the newspapers of New
York, Philadelphia, Boston, and elsewhere.

For instance: Apollo Munn, Quincy Tufts,
Orlando Tomkins, Bea Tiffany, Polycretus
Flag, Sylvester Almy, Peleg Sprague, Rufus
Choate, Abiza Bigelow, Jabez Tarr, Asaph
Bass, Azor Tabor, Hiram Shumway, Ransom
Sperry, Nahum Capon, Elihu Amadon,
Gigeon Links, Zichri Nash.

Gideon, Hephzibah, Hasiph, Gibeon, Uriah,
Seth, Elnathan, Jeduthan, Virgil, Pliny,
Horace, Homer, with Faith, Hope,
Charity, and all the other virtues, are common
prenomens all over the country. Many
of these, while making us smile, recal
associations Scriptural and classical, or of our
own historic and puritanical absurdities;
while some of the fancy names of America
remind us of nothing. Mr. Preserved Fish
was a well-known merchant of New York.
Perhaps the most whimsical of all is that of
a young lady of a country town in the state
of Massachusetts, Miss Wealthy Titus.
Attractive and auspicious compound! Pray
Heaven she will change it, and that without
losing a day, like her imperial namesake!
And who knows but that every one of those
eccentric appellations here recorded are, by
this time (like Uncle Toby's oath), blotted
out for ever!

However that may be in regard to
individuals or families, the national
nomenclature, as far as the names of places are
concerned, gives a permanent proof that the
Americans are at once a remarkably
imitative and unimaginative people. In the
immense catalogue of the names of counties,
towns, and cities, there is hardly one they can
claim as their own invention. They are all
of foreign or Indian derivation. The
inconceivable repetition of certain names of towns is,
without joke, "confusion worse confounded."
There are one hundred and eighteen towns
and counties in the United States, called
Washington. There are five Londons, one
New London, and I don't know how many
Londonderrys. Six towns called Paris; three
Dresdens, four Viennas, fourteen Berlins,
twenty-four Hanovers. There are twenty
odd Richmonds, sixteen Bedfords, about a
score of Brightons, nine Chathams, eleven
Burlingtons, sixteen Delawares, fourteen
Oxfords, as many Somersets, a dozen
Cambridges, twenty-five Yorks and New Yorks,
and other English names in proportion.
There are twelve towns with the prefix of
Big, four Great, and sixteen Little. There
are nine Harmonys, double as many
Concords (but no Melody); thirteen Freedoms,
forty-four Libertys (and plenty of slavery).
Twenty-one Columbias, seven Columbuses,
and seventy-eight Unions. There are one
hundred and four towns and counties of the
colour Green, twenty-four Browns, twenty-six
Oranges, and five Vermilions—all the hues of
an autumnal forest; but they shrink from
calling any of them Black, though they
sometimes would make white appear so,
especially in the Repudiating States. Fifteen