when the Catholic Church appointed a feast day for St.
Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin. Towards the end of the
eighteenth century the Emperor Leopold christened his son Joseph, and
this, and the fact that Napoleon's first wife was named Josephine,
made these two names as a boy's and a girl's name very popular. We
have both Joseph and Josephine in English, and the French have Fifine
and Finette as well as Josephine, for which these are pet names. In
Italy, too, Joseph, or Giuseppe, is a common name, and Peppo, or
Beppo, are short names for it. These pet names seem very strange when
we remember Rachel's solemn choosing of the name for the first Joseph
of all.

Sometimes the early nations called their children by the names of
animals. The beautiful old Hebrew name _Deborah_, which became also an
old-fashioned English name, means "bee." In several languages the
word for _wolf_ was given as a personal name. The Greek _Lycos_, the
Latin _Lupus_, the Teutonic _Ulf_, from which came the Latin
_Ulphilas_ and the Slavonic _Vuk_, all mean "wolf." The wolf was the
most common and the most treacherous of all the wild animals against
which early peoples had to fight, and this, perhaps, accounts for the
common use of its name. People were so impressed by its qualities that
they thought its name worthy to give to their sons, who, perhaps, they
hoped would possess some of its better qualities when they grew up.

Sometimes early names were taken from the names of precious stones, as
_Margarite_, a Greek name meaning "pearl," and which is the origin of
all the Margarets, Marguerites, etc., to be found in nearly all the
languages of Europe.

Among all early peoples many names were religious, like the Hebrew
_Ishmael_, or "heard by God;" _Elizabeth_, or the "oath of God;"
_John_, or the "grace of the Lord." The Romans had the name
_Jovianus_, which meant "belonging to Jupiter," who was the chief of
the gods in whom the Romans believed.

In some languages names, especially of women, are taken from flowers,
like the Greek _Rhode_, or "rose," the English _Rose_, and _Lily_ or
_Lilian_, and the Scotch _Lilias_.

A great many of the Hebrew names especially come from words meaning
sorrow or trouble. They were first given to children born in times of
sorrow. Thus we have _Jabez_, which means "sorrow;" _Ichabod_, or "the
glory is departed;" _Mary_, "bitter." The Jews, as we can see from the
Bible, suffered the greatest misfortunes, a