As a writer of Colonial fiction, one of funnest things to do is choose names for characters. More and more I see the huge influence the Puritans had on what became common names in the American colonies. They also had a lot of names that didn’t rise in popularity as some of the Bible names did, but still hold a lot of meaning…and sometimes a chuckle (like ‘Search-the-Scriptures’, ‘Joy-in-sorrow’ or ‘Sorry-for-Sin’)

Here are a few of my favorites:

For girls: (Besides the usual Bible names)
Berenice
Charis
Charity
Chastity
Comfort
Constance
Chloe
Clemence
Damaris…

Pop over to Colonial Quills for the rest of this blog, including an excerpt from The Scarlet Coat!