Living in Utah pretty much guarantees that I encounter people with Mormon names like Moroni or Nephi. Do any of you have a Mormon given name?

No one in my family that I'm aware of that's living. In genealogy records there's an occasional Moroni or Alma. They go further back. I feel sorry for someone whose parents lacked the foresight to name their children after a BoM character. They'd have gotten more mileage with a biblical one. At least they're more universal and accepted.

Although I knew an Alma once. An elderly woman, who was a never mo. Her name suited her; for her it was a feminine use of the name.

Alma is Latin for gentle or nurturing and was a woman's name long before JS used it

Back in my junior high school days, there was a new science teacher at our school in Sandy, UT, which was still a few years from starting it's population explosion. His first name was Moroni. I'm not sure I remember his last name but it was one of those common church names.

I didn't have him as a teacher but IIRC, a friend told me that the first day he told them he was named after his grandfather but didn't say if grandpa was a polygamist etc.

RfM tends to bring out the oddest memories for me :)

I got the latest Jonathan Kellerman novel from the library today (actually from their online resource, Overdrive). This is the series featuring Alex Delaware, the psychologist who helps his cop Buddy, Milo Sturgis, solve murders in the LA area. He’s been writing these books for years and while kind of formulaic, I always enjoy them.

In this new one, which I’ve not finished yet, one of the detectives who is assigned to investigate and question a subject, is named Milton Moroni. There’s nothing in the story about him being Mormon, and I don’t remember if he’s been in other books in the same series.

My TBM grandpa named my dad "Sharon."
After the region in the "holy land."

I don't think my dad ever forgave him for that...he went by a nickname all his life. The other two boys got "normal" names, don't know why grandpa did that to dad. Interestingly, the one with the "holy" name was the only one of grandpa's kids to leave the church...:)

Spencer became a big name in Utah with Kimball as president. Hyrum is one I hear here in Cache Valley a lot. I remember seeing some reality show and one of the people had a name like Hyrum and I thought, "They have to be mormon." Sure enough.

Oh, I saw the movie "Phantom Thread" a few weeks ago and the main woman character's name is Alma.

Alma means "soul" in Spanish. Went to middle school with a kid named Brigham. Yes, he was a descendant.

When I was a youngster, I remember one of the old high priests in the Ward was Mahonri. As I recall, no nickname for him, just Brother Mahonri. I'm glad my parents didn't name me that.

I have a cousin named Mahonri. Those close to him call him Hon's. I've always felt sorry that he has suck a ridiculous name.

LaVell and LeGrand should get honorable mention, so to speak.

As a writer, when I need a Utah name, I look at state ranks in Utah high school rodeo, and always find something useful. I might take a family name from the boys' lists, and pair it with a girl's name from the girls' list.

I notice among girl names, there is a penchant for "ie," "ee," "ey" and lots of "y's," often substituting for other vowels and vowel combinations. Boys names are quite Western, with lots of geographic references (towns, mountains, etc.)

The Utah baby namer

http://wesclark.com/ubn/

I know of several LDS primary aged kids around here (upper midwest) named Brigham. I think it's a current trendy name in Mormonism.

I have a distant elderly cousin named Nephi. I have a new baby cousin named Hyrum. I know 2 people named Ammon.

They are all Mormon, but don't live in Utah.

The little town where the majority of my formative years was spent is Ammon, Idaho named after guess who?

We were known as the "Ammonites" for our mascot during Junior High.

;-)

Hope your sports rivals didn't find your team too disarming.
(Sorry, couldn't resist)

"Ammonites" -- that's too funny!

I'm from northern AZ, which was pretty much colonized by Mormons and most of the small towns have names connected to the church, like Joseph City & Heber. But I've never heard of a school mascot named for a BofM character. :)

I thought this was going to be about "ewenique" spellings and made up names that are more prevalent in Utah than BOM names. I keep a word document on my laptop and add new names that I hear about and I think are amusing.

My favorites are parents names combined to name their child. HILARIOUS!

Addy Here is one for you. My sister is named Jalee. Ja=Jack Lee= Shirlee.

Me I was known as baby girl until I was 6 months old because they could not think of a good name for me.

My Dad (born 1905) and his ten sibs (not mormons) got to a certain age, and their parents asked them what they wanted to go by. The kids decided. Most chose their nicknames. No middle names.

A name I don't particular appreciate is "Hyrum". I would much rather see the name "Hiram Walker". The bro of JS is not to be admired.

Just to show how I felt about "Mormon" names from the fake BOM, I named our children including the names of four of Christ's twelve apostles, three names of women from the OT and five of women in the NT! ZERO from the BoM.

So how many children in total did you have rhgc? Was it four boys? And up to eight girls? Or was that a combination of first and middle names for girls?

I went with my daughter and a friend to see a production of "Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" at a local high school in the Salt Lake Valley last weekend.

The school did a pretty good job, the text adjusted for Mormon ears and the part with Mrs Potiphar was almost non-existent.

One of the cast members was named Hyrum. I'm not sure how common it is in Utah schools.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2018 08:51PM by memikeyounot.

I don't have a Mormon given name. I converted at twenty two. I always knew Alma as being a girl's name (as others had posted). It was the name of my late great aunt. And I knew more women with that very name, so hearing men named Alma was new to me.

I don't know if it was because I lived in a suburb of Baltimore during my time in the TSCC, but I did not know many people with "Mormon" names. Maybe a few with the first or middle name of Ammon. That seems to be a popular name from the looks of things.
Although I've meet people that had given their children the name of Joseph and Oliver and Emma. One parent mentioned that they named them after the church leaders/members of old times.

South of the border, all the way to Antarctica, many, many parents name their sons after the leader of the church of Jesu Cristo, etc., etc.

In a famous "I Love Lucy" show, when she and her husband were having a fight over who owned a TV with the Mertsons(sp?), The judge who was ruling on the issue (in real life) is named Mahonri(spl.?), or something to that effect.

(How's that for not being very clear?)

Actually, the guy who played the judge is Moroni Olsen, who was a long time Hollywood performer, never a star but according to Imdb he had 100+ parts in movies and TV shows in his career, from 1935 to 1955. Many of his parts were uncredited. He was born in Ogden.

I watched a movie named "The Long, Long Trailer" last year starring Lucy and Desi, made in 1954 during the height of her I Love Lucy fame. It gets 7.1 rating but I found it just awful, and the story and the characters are really bad. It was made after he played the judge in I Love Lucy in 1952.

At one point in the movie, they haul the trailer to visit relatives and Moroni Olsen has about 4 lines as Mr Tewitt. I can't remember who the character was but he was in and out of the scene very quickly. My favorite part is the car they use to tow the trailer, a 1954 Mercury Convertible, yellow in color to match the trailer.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047191/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

He was a good looking guy.

Wasn't he a closet gay? Who remained steadfast Mormon, but never married in Hollywood.

Fred Mertz

I was going to call my first son "Mahonri Moriancumer" but then decided to not use a name that JS literally pulled out of his ass. That's a sh!ty name.

I teach at UVU, and I have had students in my class with the names of Moroni, Nephi, Alma, Ammon, and (no lie) Abinadi.

My dad's family had an Alma (male), and a Lorenzo and dad's middle name (that he hated) was Heber.

My dad's first name was Arza, and I'm not sure if he hated as much as he said, but his middle name was LePhell and I know he hated that name. He said his mom made that up because she couldn't think of anything else.

I don't know if Arza is a church name, but whenever I look at cemetery sites in Utah, there are lots of men named Arza, not always with my same surname.

Some kid in my ward was named Jared. Surprisingly, he was allergic to bees.

You never hear mormon names when you grow up in a suburb of

L.A. and I'm so glad . Dodged a bullet.

Yeah, but you were surrounded by Lamanites!!! You had to know some guys named Jesus!!

Hello. I need some help and don't know where to post. I had my name removed from Mormon records 3 years ago and have never been happier. I coparent my 11 (almost 12) year old son with my ex-husband who is planning to ordain him after he turns 12 later this month. HOW CAN I STOP THIS FROM HAPPENING?

Pues Si , lots of them. Jesus, Jaime, Javier, Julio....... I could go on .

I'm sure ex-mos love their mormon names. I truly feel sorry for them.