Monday, February 12, 2018

Week 6 - Nimrod Shepherd, My Favorite Name

Nimrod Shepherd is my favorite name. He is my husband's 5th great-grandfather.

Nimrod was born during 1782 in North Carolina. He married Gemima Smith about 1808. They had 10 children. He was enumerated in Georgia for the 1820 census but had moved to Kentucky by the 1830 census. He spent the rest of his life in Kentucky and died in 1874.

I wondered why anyone would name their child Nimrod. The only definition of that word I knew meant they were dull or dimwitted. A quick Google search showed me a better reason to use that name - Nimrod was the great-grandson of Noah. The name itself translates to skillful hunter. You can learn more about the Biblical Nimrod at Wikipedia.

The bottom of the Wikipedia article states that the first recorded usage of nimrod to mean slow or dimwitted was by Bugs Bunny in 1932. He called Elmer Fudd "nimrod" ironically referring to him as a "skilled hunter." Further internet research show that this may not be entirely accurate. I did find a snip where Daffy Ducks uses the term in 1948. I did find this 4 second clip from 1942 when Daffy Duck uses the word . . .

No comments:

Post a Comment

Week 6 - Nimrod Shepherd, My Favorite Name

Nimrod Shepherd is my favorite name. He is my husband's 5th great-grandfather. Nimrod was born during 1782 in North Carolina. He marri...