Fearless Females 3: Rabage BEERE and Beaton DOWNE

Once again, in honour of National Women’s History Month, Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist blog presents Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month.

March 3 - List the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree.

This is a truncated version of the blogging prompt.  It also asks if you share a first name with one of your ancestors - well, last year I wrote about my own name (Rosamund) and my aunt, Rosamund Gwendoline HAYWOOD, so I can't really do that again this year.  At that stage, the most unusual female first name I had come across in my family tree was that of Loveday Anna FRENCH - but I've done some research since then and found a new one.

Rabage BEERE was christened in Modbury, Devon on 2 January 1617.  Her parents were Emanuel BEERE and Ursula TWIGGES.  That's all I know about Rabage - in fact, I don't even know the meaning of her unusual first name and where it comes from.  Even Google hasn't helped (and I thought Google knew everything, including everything about me!).  Does anyone reading this have any idea?

And the female first name which made me groan the most was when I found a girl named Beaton.  Unusual, you might think, until you found her surname - DOWNE.  Who would call their new baby "Beaton Downe" (say it out loud and you will groan as well).  Mind you, Beaton was christened on 25 September 1592 in Winkleigh, Devon.  Maybe the phrase hadn't entered the English language back then.