Those Modern Kids' Names

I was out the other day and overheard a father calling his two boys, "Hunter!  Porter!"  I've heard both boys and girls with these occupational names and wonder if the parents realize they mean what might not be regarded as so upper class.  They might have thought twice and chosen more promising names, like Lawyer or Psychotherapist..

• Baxter - this originally was a female baker


• Booker - a bookbinder or possibly a scribe


• Carter - someone who drives or ships merchangise by cart


• Chandler - a candlemaker


• Cooper - a barrel maker


• Hunter - someone who hunts for game


• Porter - a person who carries something, such as baggage or cargo, or a doorkeeper


• Sawyer - someone whose job it was to saw wood


• Taylor - a constructor of clothing


• Tucker - another word for a cloth fuller, who takes woven cloth and soaks it in water and urine to make it tighten up and become a denser weave.  This is the origin of the name Walker also.


• Tyler - someone who tiles roofs.

And don't forget, all these names can be in other languages too.



Of course people have long used names, mostly for boys, that they thought of as derived from surnames.. Mason, Abbot, etc.



The good news is that names do not predict the future of the child.  Good thing too since I'm not sure how many fullers there are around any more.



"Hunter!  Go shoot a deer for our supper!  Porter, answer the door!  Cooper!  Make us a barrel to store our grain in!