Has anybody heard of this christian name?

Question

My dad's middle christian name was Rectus. Which as you can well imagine, he hated. His father also had the name. I was wondering if anyone else has heard of this name and if so, where it originated from.

Answer 1

From the Latin word rectus, which means straight.

I could find no references except to various straight muscles in the body.

It could have come from an ancestor with that name.

Answer 2

I looked for people named that in the LDS site and found three.

1880 US Census - 3  

1. Rectus CHAPIN - 1880 United States Census / Vermont

FatherL   Gender: Male   Birth: <1799> MA



2. Rectus ORR - 1880 United States Census / Vermont

Self   Gender: Male   Birth: <1817> VT



3. Rectus MURCH - 1880 United States Census / Vermont

Father   Gender: Male   Birth: <1796> CT



It is rare and old-fashioned but not unknown. I could not find a definition.

http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.c...

has 21 entries, many of them duplicates for Mr. Chapin, born 1799.

I searched the King James Bible to see if anyone obscure was saddled with it. The word doesn't appear there.

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/kjv.browse...

Answer 3

It is latin meaning "upright" or straight as in unerring, faithful, valient.  We have similar words in English.  Erect, Rectangle, Directory, etc.

Answer 4

........'Ragn', or judgement, the leading word in this class of names, is connected with the Latin 'rego', to rule, and as 'rectus' sprang from the one, so the Gothic 'raihts' and our 'right' arose from the Teutonic forms............

Extract from (page 374) :-

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=CBQaA...

Answer 5

hmmm never heard before....