Unusual Shakespeare Christian Names

An interesting phenomenon which occurs among the Shakespeare families in various locations is a tendency towards using unusual forenames. Among the many occurrences of the usage of John, William, Thomas, and to a lesser extent Richard, which makes sorting out the relationships of the numerous families very difficult there appears the use of distinct christian names whose uses seems peculiar to particular families, or branches of families:

1. Humphrey: occurs amongst the family at Lapworth, simultaneously in the Gloucestershire family, and also the family at Preston Bagot and their descendants in Feckenham, Worcs. Interestingly, this is also the name of one of the children of John Shakespeare, Shoemaker, of Stratford, who is possibly a sibling of the Poet.

2. Christopher: occurs at Lapworth and Rowington, but also appears elsewhere among possibly related families.

3. Adrian: scattered references, seemingly all members of the family at Fillongley and the surrounding area, which seem to be related - includes an Adrian Shakespeare claimed to be a member of the Poets family.

4. George: occurs among both the Fillongley and Little Packington families, and also Arley.

5. Edward: unusual among the Shakespeares, but occurs across over 400 years in the 'Black Country' families. Also appears in one isolated reference in the Lapworth family, and the Poets brother Edmund is occasionally referred to as Edward.

6. The 'Black Country' families also used two more very unusual  names: Ferdinando, which appears in several generations of the family in Dudley, and Nehemiah: which occurs almost to the present day among the Kingswinford families.

7. Ursula: occurs among the children of John Shakespeare, Shoemaker, of Stratford, who is possibly a sibling of the Poet. Also occurs among the children of the family of Humphrey Shakespeare of Preston Bagot. There is a baptism at Allesley of an illegitimate son, Hezekia, of Ursula Shakespeare - this Ursula is probably the daughter of  John Shakespeare, Shoemaker, of Stratford. These are the only occurrences of the name Ursula and may be a clue to the common descent of the family at Preston Bagot and the 'Fillongley area group of families.' [Allesley is in the same area] from one of the children of John 'the Shoemaker' of Stratford - a theory compounded by the claim of the descendants of Adrian Shakespeare to descend from 'a brother of everybody's Shakespeare' - their claim is a descent from a Phillipa Shakespeare, Adrian's daughter: the three children of John 'the Shoemaker' of Stratford were Humphrey, Phillip and Ursula.

8. Mordecai: occurs among a seventeenth century Birmingham family.

9. Manasseh: occurs among an seventeenth century London family.

10. Edmund: used by the Northamptonshire Shakespeares

The two names, Mordecai and Manasseh, might be thought of as indicating a possible Jewish connection. However, correspondence with Jewish genealogists has indicated that this is unlikely. First, there were hardly any Jews in England at the time. Second, they could have been nonconformist families some of whose sects, at that time, were greatly interested in the Old Testament and in Judaism. Some adopted Jewish practices (eg keeping Saturday as the Holy Day).