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Help[Opinions] Re: Earl and Earline
in reply to a message by )(
Though I personally don't care for the sound of Earl, it seems perfectly acceptable as a name to me.
I really don't think anyone in the USA thinks of the title when naming a child Earl. It has been established as a regular given name in the USA for so long that Americans think of it primarily as a first name and certainly don't perceive themselves as using the name because it was a title. Though people in the UK may think of the title when seeing or hearing something like "Earl Rochester", an American would automatically assume this is someone's name. You have to put the "of" in (Earl of Rochester) before Americans would think of it as a title.
Earl, Duke, Queen, and King are all also English surnames, and probably as much or more of the original motivation for using them as given names in the USA comes from that. I think many of those who name sons King in the USA these days are honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.
I really don't think anyone in the USA thinks of the title when naming a child Earl. It has been established as a regular given name in the USA for so long that Americans think of it primarily as a first name and certainly don't perceive themselves as using the name because it was a title. Though people in the UK may think of the title when seeing or hearing something like "Earl Rochester", an American would automatically assume this is someone's name. You have to put the "of" in (Earl of Rochester) before Americans would think of it as a title.
Earl, Duke, Queen, and King are all also English surnames, and probably as much or more of the original motivation for using them as given names in the USA comes from that. I think many of those who name sons King in the USA these days are honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.
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