From a 1991 Gazette article by Arthur Railton:

We can all quote William Shakespeare on the subject: What’s in a name? Forget how he answered the question. He was dead wrong. There’s a lot in a name. And the Vineyard provides proof, plenty of it. Years ago, many parents turned to the Bible when naming their children. But when Biblical names seemed inappropriate, parents often came up with something truly inspired.

There’s the story of how Welcome Tilton of Chilmark got his name. It was born of love and gratitude. When he arrived in 1856, things weren’t going well with the family. Times were tough. His father, George Oliver Tilton, looking at the newborn boy screaming on the kitchen table, said, “We ain’t got much, son, but you’re welcome to it.” And so he was. As his father promised, he was Welcome Tilton for the rest of his life.

Maybe the story was similar nearly 200 years earlier in another Chilmark borning room when Mrs. John Mayhew had her first child. Her labor may have been strenuous and the worry great for the young mother and her husband, the Reverend Mayhew. When it was over, as they admired their first child, one of them may have exclaimed: “What an experience!” And so the little boy was named, growing up to be the Rev. Experience Mayhew, famous missionary to the Vineyard Indians.

Experience enjoyed his good name and looked around for one to match it. And he found one. He married Thankful, daughter of Gov. Thomas Hinckley of Massachusetts Bay. With parents named Experience and Thankful, it comes as no surprise that their first child was named Reliance. After Thankful died in a later childbirth, Experience took for his second wife, Remember Bourne. That was a family in which names meant a lot, a whole lot.

Descriptive names were common among Island families. There are girls named Deliverance and Patience, Charity and Love, not to forget Mercy Freeman and Fear Gifford. Or Temperance Allen, Desire Jennie and Prudence Parker. Those are only a few of the descriptive names chosen by parents, no doubt, to provide character guidelines that children were expected to follow, And, we can hope, most of them did, fulfilling their parents’ dreams.

There were other given names that were less descriptive, but no less interesting. Take Zeno and Zebulon Tilton, not to overlook Tabitha Lambert, Palathia Huxford, Meribeth Jackson and Wealthea Makepeace.

It may just be coincidence, but most of these interesting names were in Chilmark. Even today it’s true. The best names are there. It’s a delight to drive along reading the names on up-Island mailboxes. Now there’s a name that has confused tourists for generations. Where’s up-Island and where’s down-Island? And why is one up and the other down? Who can blame them for being confused by a highway sign pointing “Down-Island?” It’s confusing, just like the signs directing drivers to Tisbury. Where’s Tisbury? Is it anywhere near Vineyard Haven? What in the world is Dutcher’s Dock (misspelled, by the way)? And how come you can drive the whole length of Lambert’s Cove Road and the only water you see is Uncle Seth’s Pond? Fresh water, at that.

Up-Island is fun and games for folks who like to play with names. You get mailboxes with Hough, Clough and Pough and are tormented, wondering how to pronounce them. Do they rhyme with rough or cough, or though? And folks claim English is simple!

Chilmark has more than its share of interesting names. Across from the Allen Farm on South Road there’s a gate post with three name boards nailed to it. Arranged no doubt deliberately, they tell you that down this lane are the houses of three families: Young, Noe, Moore.

I don’t know how old the others are, but the Noes are young enough to sail a Sunfish named Noe Fun. Chilmark friends, the Bill Clarks, thought and thought when they bought their Sunfish about a name for her. Finally, there was a flash of inspiration. It should be the Sea-lark in honor of the family name, C-lark.

My favorite example of fun with names is on a mailbox along South Road displaying a brutally frank admission by its owner. Only a Chilmarker would be so honest. It reads: Dull Barrrett. I have been told, although I can’t vouch for it, that his brother, the interesting Barrett, lives on North Road.

Compiled by Cynthia Meisner

library@mvgazette.com