A Guy Named Ethel

A Guy Named Ethel

I've been doing some genealogical research, trying to trace back one line of my family (the Gates line) back through several generations. Some interesting male names were apparently popular in the 1800s. A lot of them start with the letter E: Elias, Elisha and, surprisingly, Ethel. Yes, Ethel, which means "noble," was once a male moniker. Now I'm wondering if the reason why no one in my family seems to know the name of my grandfather's grandfather is that Grandpa never talked about him, at least by name -- possibly because his name was Ethel and he didn't want to have to explain that, or listen to the snickering. A Google search for "Mr. Ethel" reveals that it was a fairly common male first name before the 20th century, and still is in some places, like Nigeria. It also reveals that Ernest Borgnine was once known as "Mr. Ethel Merman."