What’s in a Name?

Recently, I have been asked by my classmates: “Who is the immigrant in your family?”.  Everyone in the US is an immigrant, right?  I have always had some interest in my heritage and that is frankly one thing that attracted me so strongly to the history and lore of the Armenians is the fact much of their history is intact.  I have always felt somewhat without “heritage” as I have German (Maternal Great Grandmother – Immigrant), Swedish (Maternal Great Great Grandfather) and English (Sprague / Kimball / Walker lines) blood.  In the end, I am American which represents more of an association than an ancestry.  Absent is the ideal of a “homeland” and is its place is a feeling of support for the ideals of freedom and individualism.

At one of my rugby meetings, a fellow referee said to me that there were all sorts of Spragues around Gloustershire (the region just north of Bristol).  I was under the impression the origin of Sprague was an Americanised derivative of a northern German name.  I have no idea why I had that conception.  Come to find out, we are living in the greater area that the name “Sprague” first is found.  Another interesting tidbit is it is suspected of being of Dutch origin from the 8th Century.  Isn’t the internet wonderful!?!?   If found most of this interesting information here:  The Sprague Project, The Sprague DNA Project, and come to find out there is even a coat of arms (if you believe that I have a bridge to sell you 😉 ).

You are probably asking why I am rambling but I do have a point.  Our child is going to be born shortly and we will give it an Armenian first name of Tigran {tee-gran}, for a boy, or Anush {an-oo-sh}, for a girl.  I was thinking if our child asks about its heritage, what do I tell him/her?  I guess I will tell him/her that you have at least American Indian, English, Dutch, German and Swedish blood and a very strong Armenian name.  Ancestry and heritage as understood by the ancient cultures will never be a luxury afforded to you as you come from a long line of wanders.  Of course, you could argue that taken in the abstract modern man really is a product of a long history of migration.  I will ignore that as it begs way too many questions to deal with here.

In conclusion,  Anush Lee Sprague or Tigran Lee Sprague will fit right into the greater linage on both sides (Bensink / Sellers and Sprague / Tellinghuisen).  It would be wonderful to know more about our great grandparents and their parents.  I would love to know where they were born, what languages they spoke, did they leave any brothers or sisters there before they moved on?  Does anyone have any of that information or know where I can get it?