Re: Tennessee
in reply to a message by flossie
I think Tennessee works as a given name. I do prefer it for girls rather than boys, as in the name of the famous 19th century feminist Tennessee Claflin:
https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/claflin-tennessee-1846-1923
The names of almost all the American states have been used as given names on occasion, by the way. Vermont Connecticut Royster (1914-1996) was an editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was named after his grandfather. His great-grandfather, a North Carolina farmer, had named his sons Arkansas Delaware, Wisconsin Illinois, Oregon Minnesota, Vermont Connecticut, and Iowa Michigan; and his daughters Louisana Maryland, Virginia Carolina, and Georgia Indiana. (This family would of course have been born in the middle of the 19th century.)
https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/claflin-tennessee-1846-1923
The names of almost all the American states have been used as given names on occasion, by the way. Vermont Connecticut Royster (1914-1996) was an editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was named after his grandfather. His great-grandfather, a North Carolina farmer, had named his sons Arkansas Delaware, Wisconsin Illinois, Oregon Minnesota, Vermont Connecticut, and Iowa Michigan; and his daughters Louisana Maryland, Virginia Carolina, and Georgia Indiana. (This family would of course have been born in the middle of the 19th century.)
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Thank you for all the information! Vermont has a pretty nice ring to it, in a mid-19th century kind of way.