unique and uncommon first names in jazz

[Rooster_Ties]

Ornette is obvious -- did that name even exist before he got it?

Same with Thelonious - did that name ever exist before Monk got it??

Hobart Dotson is another -- I'd never heard of the name "Hobart" before, but perhaps that was a slightly more common name back in the day.

What other uncommon and/or unique first names are there in jazz -- and just how "unique" are they?? (in terms of the general population, that is).

Edited February 5, 2007 by Rooster_Ties

[clifford_thornton]

Grachan...

[J Larsen]

There aren't a whole lot of Djangos out there, are there?

[J Larsen]

Or Miles, for that matter.

[J Larsen]

Booby.

(Sorry, couldn't help myself.)

[Aggie87]

There aren't a whole lot of Djangos out there, are there?

Django Bates!

[clifford_thornton]

Booby.

(Sorry, couldn't help myself.)

and "Baby."

Or are you referring to Booby Hutcherson?

[sidewinder]

'Webster', as in Webster Young.

[Spontooneous]

This message from the Hobart Chamber of Commerce:

Edited February 5, 2007 by Spontooneous

[Scott Dolan]

Bix

[brownie]

Keeter (Betts)

[clifford_thornton]

Well, it may not be that utterly unique, but I do like the name "Maceo."

As in bassist Maceo Gilchrist, from Byron Allen's ESP record...

[brownie]

Reinhardt's official first name was Jean. He was Django (even Djengo, as it is spelled on his gravestone) to his gypsy family and kins!

His birth certificate spells his name Jean Reinhardt. Same went for his death certificate.

[Rooster_Ties]

Bix

I almost listed Bix in my original post in this thread, but it appears that his full name was Leon Bismark Beiderbecke (the "Bix" was short for "Bismark"). Some discussion from Wikipedia, FWIW...

His name

There has been much debate regarding the full name of Bix Beiderbecke: was he baptized "Leon Bix" or "Leon Bismark"? (Bix being simply a shortened form of the latter; a name that also his father had.) At least from the early 1960s onwards, Bix' living relatives (noticably his brother Charles "Burnie" Beiderbecke) forcefully claimed that his actual name had always been Leon Bix, and this was accepted as a fact by Bix researchers Phil and Linda Evans. Other researchers, including Rich Johnson, have however presented several documents showing the real name to be Leon Bismark. These documents include church records from the Early First Presbyterian Church which the Beiderbecke family belonged to and records from Tyler School which Bix attended. There is also the will of a relative, Mary Hill, which included young Bix as a benefiter and which his mother signed for him writing "Leon Bismark Beiderbecke". There are however also several indications that Bix himself already at an early age did not like the name Bismark. For example: in a letter to his mother written when he was nine (1912) he signs it "frome [sic] your Leon Bix Beiderbecke not Bismark Remeber [sic]" (this letter is re-printed in Evans & Evans pp 28-29). Also the German name may have been regarded a bit uncomfortable during and after World War I, which might explain the wish of the Beiderbecke family to claim Bix as the real name. (This question has recently been discussed in the Bixography Discussion Group: [1])

Edited February 5, 2007 by Rooster_Ties

[Claude]

Branford Marsalis

[Shawn]

Mose

[J Larsen]

Mose

One of my best friends in high school was named Mose. As far as I know, he wasn't named after Alison.

[paul secor]

Or Miles, for that matter.

I have a neighbor named Miles - don't think it's that unique.

[J Larsen]

Same with Thelonious - did that name ever exist before Monk got it??

Yes. He was named after his father.

Frankly, I never really considered Ornette an unusual name, though upon further consideration I am hard pressed to think of other Ornettes. Maybe it just sounds so much like a first name to me that it never struck me as unusual.

[clifford_thornton]

Or Miles, for that matter.

I have a neighbor named Miles - don't think it's that unique.

Yeah, strangely I've known several.

[brownie]

Same with Thelonious - did that name ever exist before Monk got it??

Yes. He was named after his father.

Monk's birth certificate indicates he was christened Thelious Junior. His father's name was Thelious Monk. A copy of that certificate of birth appears in the book 'Blue Monk' by Jacques Ponzio and François Postif. The book was published in French in 1995.

[J Larsen]

And according to Wiki at least, they were both listed as "Theloins" in the US Census. I wonder if there was a literacy problem or simply confusion on the part of the people filling out the forms here.

[Michael Weiss]

Cedar

[WD45]

Talmadge Holt Farlow

[Noj]

And according to Wiki at least, they were both listed as "Theloins" in the US Census. I wonder if there was a literacy problem or simply confusion on the part of the people filling out the forms here.

Ain't that a kick in the loins.