New Mexican Names in the late 1800's

The list above is popular names in the USA today. Some of them were in use in New Mexico long ago also.

Ramon, Roman, Andelacio, Ygnacia, Justinaniano, Refugio, Dolores, Domingo, Librada, Guadalupe and on and on and on. These were very common names in the 1800's.

In a lot of cases they would go just as well on a man as a woman. Refugio could be used for either. Same with Ygnacia(o), Dolores, Librada(o) Guadalupe, Domingo(a), Ramon(a) Roman(a).

I liked these type of first names and do not see them much any more. Now we are in the process of merging all of the names in the country, or so it seems. No more Domingo's, no more Refugio's. Lucky if we get a Robert or a Jane in there. At least we can call them Roberto or Juana. But I guess we must move on.

I notice that folks in the bigger cities do this "merging" more so than folks in the smaller towns. But all is ok I guess till we start like the pro basketball players mothers. No two have the same first name. When was the last time you saw a Bob playing basket ball. Now baseball is different, with all of the folks from South America and Cuba, Puerto Rico etc.

And good bye to the nick names associated with a person's real name, some of them were funny. My grandmother's name was Ignacia and her nick name was Nacha. There were Nacho's, Kiko's, Chavela's, Tito's, Lalo's and a whole lot more. For the most part, they are gone forever.