Name of the Week

^.


The miserly-yet-redeemed Scrooge for many Brits,
but dig a little deeper and Ebenezer is not only a deeply 
spiritual symbol, but also an act of defiance against oppression.

 

Origin:

Ebenezer derives from the Hebrew Eben Ha-Ezer, derived from eben "stone" and ezer "help" therefore "stone of help." It was, however, never intended as a given name. Instead it was term given to to a stone erected by Samuel in the Old Testament.  The story goes that the Israelites had begun to worship local pagan deities while suffering heavy defeats from the Philistines including losing the Ark of the Covenant. Samuel prayed for divine intervention and sacrificed telling the Israelites: ""If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, get rid of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths that are among you, dedicate yourselves to the Lord, and worship only Him. Then He will rescue you from the hand of the Philistines." (1 Samuel 7:3). The Israelites were successful in defeating the Philistines, and so Samuel erected a stone in commemoration:  Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, 'Thus far has the Lord helped us' (1 Samuel 7:12). The Ebenezer stone, and the place it stood which was also named Ebenezer, is for Christians a symbol of God's help, eternal presence and faithfulness, and also a symbol of a new beginning. For some Christians, and 'ebenezer' can be anything (a cross, a hymn, the Bible) which reminds them of God's love and presence.

Usage:

Given the the Ebenezer was a religious and symbolic object and not the name of a Biblical character, it isn't very surprising that Ebenezer has no use as a given name either in the ancient world, or into the Middle Ages.  What is interesting is how Ebenezer came to be used as a given name in the 17th century, as it is very much tied to the non-conformists'dissenters: that is Christians who separated from the Church of England such as the Puritans and the Quakers, many of whom emigrated to the New World.  Some of the earliest records come from non-conformist registers, such as the burial listed in the Quaker Death register of a fifty year-old man named Ebenezer Golledge in 1681 (putting his birth c.1631), or the birth of Ebenezer Barber in 1622, the son of a non-conformist who emigrated to America. Then there is Ebenezer Erskine (1680-1745), a Scottish minister who founded the Secession Church, whose father Henry Erskine was ejected from his parish in Northumberland and imprisoned from several years for being a dissenter.  It is interesting to note that there several 17th century examples of non-conformists using Ebenezer for their daughters as well as their sons. These include the baptism of a girl named Ebenizer Bretherton in Croston, Lancashire in 1843; the Quaker burial record of an infant baby girl in 1667 named Ebenezer Tennison in Hull, Yorkshire and more notably, Ebenezer Crofton, the tenth child of Zachary Crofton (1626–1672), an Anglo-Irish nonconforming minister and controversialist whose baptism in 1660 in London lists her as female. Given that it was the name of a biblical place and object, and not already a 'Christian' name, it is perhaps not too surprising that it was used initially equally as often for girls as for boys. Most of the 17th century records for Ebenezer occur after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 and the Act of Uniformity in 1662 which required Anglican episcopal ordination for all clergy in which they had to swear an oath. Over 2,000 clergymen refused to take the oath and were consequently expelled from the Church of England in 'The Great Ejection' of 1662.  The use of Ebenezer, therefore, by non-conformists during a time of such religious upheaval is notable. Clearly Ebenezer, already a symbol of divine aid and intervention and new religious beginnings, was very apt and significant for non-conformists; so much so that we can directly pinpoint the time and circumstances under which the name Ebenezer was 'born'.  As Ebenezer wasn't used as a given name in the Middle Ages, it was not around at the time when most surnames were being established. Ebenezer however, does have some limited usage as a surname, thanks to its adoption in the 17th century. Some have suggested that some dissenters may have deliberately changed their surnames to honour their faith (even they they were already doing that by bestowing it as a given name), but the evidence clearly shows that it is actually all thanks to the Welsh patronymic system of using the fathers name as a 'surname'.  This was a tradition that carried on through to the 18th century and even, in some pockets of Wales, even longer. This is why Ebenezer Jones of Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, baptised his children as Mary Ebenezer in 1792, and Sarah Ebenezer in 1794. By the 18th and 19th centuries, Ebenezer had become firmly established as a bona fide given name. It was mostly male, but still had some feminine use. The 1841 UK census, for example, lists 4,828 males with the name Ebenezer and 74 females. Data from the 1881 census (right) shows that the name was used across England, Wales and Scotland. It was most notably used in Cardiganshire in Wales, which is also where there was a concentration of the surname (again, indicating the Welsh use of passing on the father's given name as a surname). In 1843, Charles Dickens used the name for his famous character Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. It seems likely that Dickens chose the name deliberately thanks to its symbolic connotations. Like the biblical Israelites, Scrooge has lost his way at the beginning of the story but thanks to divine intervention and help throughout the story, he is redeemed at the end and is offered a new beginning.  Ebenezer was already in good use -- ranking in the bottom half on the top 100 of England and Wales -- when the novella was published, and initially had only a little effect on the name's usage. Ebenezer peaked in the 1860s, after which it declined in use: 1840: 197 births 1850: 221 births 1860: 234 births 1870: 195 births (#89) 1880: 160 births (#121) 1890: 97 births (#172) 1900: 56 births (#214) During the 20th century, Ebenezer fell very much out of fashion with only a handful of births per decade, and, from the 1960s onward, Ebenezer was being used almost exclusively by African-migrant families in Britain.  Since 1996 in England and Wales, Ebenezer has been continually outside of the top 1000. In 1996, it ranked #1591 with 7 births. It's lowest point was #3036 (3 births) in 2000 and its highest was #1125 (21 births) in 2007.  Short-form Eben once ranked concurrently with Ebenezer but since 2006 has been on the rise. In 2013, Eben ranked #544 with 67 births. In 2013, Ebenezer ranked #1796 with 12 births in England and Wales. It did not rank at all in either Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Famous Bearers:

History: * Ebenezer Cooke (c. 1665–1732), London-born American poet. * Ebenezer Erskine (1680–1754), Scottish minister and founder of the Secession Church. * Ebenezer Rhodes (1762–1839), English topographer. * Ebenezer Cobb Morley (1831–1924), English footballer, regarded as the father of the Football Association and modern football. * Ebenezer Beesley (1840–1906), writer and composer of Mormon religious music. * Ebenezer Howard (1850–1928), British urbanist who helped the founding of the garden city movement. Contemporary: * Ebenezer Obey (b. 1942), Nigerian pop musician. * Ebenezer Ekuban (b. 1976), American football player. * Ebenezer Assifuah (b.1993), Ghanaian football player Literacture and Other Media: * Ebenezer Scrooge, the main character in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843). * Ebenezer Balfour of Shaws, a character in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Kidnapped (1886). * Ebenezar McCoy, a character from The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.

Variants:

Eben, Benezer

Pronunciation:

e-ben-EE-zə [key]

Possible diminutives:

Eben, Ben, Bez, Benz, Ebby

Sibling Names:

Damaris     Hephzibah     Cornelia     Philomena     Priscilla     Theodosia  Theophilus     Bartholomew      Sylvester     Augustine     Octavius     Cuthbert

Name Lists:

Funky-Clunky   Quirky Biblical   Gorgeously Georgian   Victorian Darlings   Dickensian Names

 

If you like Ebenezer you may also like:    Ezekiel, Cornelius, Zephaniah, Nicodemus, Hezekiah, Lazarus, Septimus, Eleazar, Nehemiah, Solomon

 

Thanks to Winter for requesting this post.