where does the name Itura come from?
About a month ago I asked if any one had ever heard of my name? Since then I recieved an email that said my name may have come from the Alconquin Indians. Can any one give me any information on how to find out if this is true? I was named after a nurse my mom had when she was 16 and burned. They have both been gone for over 20 years. I live in VA and all I know about the nurse is she was born and raised in VA also.
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By putting "Itura" and "Virginia" together into Google, I found several references to women named Itura born in Virginia in the 19th century, the earliest being an Itura McPeak who was born about 1838. Since all the examples I've found, however, have been in counties west of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, an Algonquian origin doesn't seem likely, since there simply weren't many Indians living in the Applachians during the 1700s. The only place I found through Google that links Itura with "Algonquin" is a site giving the text of the book Oahspe, an occult religious text which was written in a trance state in 1880, and is not therefore a good source of accurate etymology. :) Since I have Virginia mountain ancestry also, I'm intrigued by this one and will keep looking. It may simply have been invented by a creative parent (yes, parents in the 19th century were known to invent new names occasionally), or it may have some literary or historical origin yet to be discovered. It certainly is interesting, however! :)
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