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I've been trying to find out about the origin of the name Susara. It's a feminine name, used by Afrikaners. It seems to have been in use for some time: I've found a record for a woman named Susara who was born in 1815. Does anyone have any information on its origin? I think it could be a combination of Susanna and Sara, but I can't find any sources to verify this.
Thanks.
Thanks.
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Replies
The only data would be baptismal records which one would have to trace back through the generations. South African census returns get pulped as soon as the number-crunchers have crunched!
That said, Afrikaans-speaking South Africans have a history of naming children after older relatives - first son after paternal grandfather, second son after maternal grandfather, then on to the uncles ... and since families used to be very much larger than today and the available name pool was not large, amalgamations like Susara would have been a good way of avoiding two sisters named Susannah Sara. But that would mean mining countless church records to establish the presence of ancestral Sara(h) and Susanna(h) people. There used to be a good local genealogy website which would have been a go-to source, but it died about a year ago.
The tradition of merged names continues. I know a Janine who married a Rudolf and had a daughter named Runine. Give me Susara any day! Though I also had a colleague once who was known as Sue (she'd married an Englishman) but her given names were Susara Susannah. Someone asked her if the minister who christened her had a stammer ... but it was another instance of "having to" name her after relatives.
Other familiar mergers are Elizma (Elizabeth + Maria) and Marelise (Maria + Elizabeth). Once I knew a Marelna whose full names were Maria Elizabeth Helena; she gave her daughter Marelna as her full name. Jomarie, from Johanna Maria, is also well known, and pronounced like the English Joe + Marie - JOmaREE.
That said, Afrikaans-speaking South Africans have a history of naming children after older relatives - first son after paternal grandfather, second son after maternal grandfather, then on to the uncles ... and since families used to be very much larger than today and the available name pool was not large, amalgamations like Susara would have been a good way of avoiding two sisters named Susannah Sara. But that would mean mining countless church records to establish the presence of ancestral Sara(h) and Susanna(h) people. There used to be a good local genealogy website which would have been a go-to source, but it died about a year ago.
The tradition of merged names continues. I know a Janine who married a Rudolf and had a daughter named Runine. Give me Susara any day! Though I also had a colleague once who was known as Sue (she'd married an Englishman) but her given names were Susara Susannah. Someone asked her if the minister who christened her had a stammer ... but it was another instance of "having to" name her after relatives.
Other familiar mergers are Elizma (Elizabeth + Maria) and Marelise (Maria + Elizabeth). Once I knew a Marelna whose full names were Maria Elizabeth Helena; she gave her daughter Marelna as her full name. Jomarie, from Johanna Maria, is also well known, and pronounced like the English Joe + Marie - JOmaREE.
This message was edited 10/26/2013, 8:12 AM
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