[or-roots] Why the given name squire

[Leslie Chapman]

I think the "delusions of grandeur"  answer is probably closest; I don't know exactly what got into our ancestors with regards to given name, perhaps in response to the confusion of twenty generations of "John son of John son of John"  they decided to be original in a fairly outrageous way. 
In today's world Manlove is kind of an unfortunate choice but I have a family in my file where that was one of the better ones, Patience was another one that works for me, but most of the family must have cringed every time they were asked for their given name.
I was attempting to find the file and seem to have locked up FTM so am going to post this without the listing of names I found offensive, but I am sure most of you who have traced any line back to the 17th century know the types of names I mean.
Les C
PS Wiki and other online info sites don't address the issue of Squire used as a given name at all, 20,001 baby names only refers to the age of chivalry meaning and it's metamorphosis into aide-de-campe. My dictionary doesn't even list it.


      
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