Perhaps no people were more prone to give names to their children that "preach" than the Puritans of 17th century New England. The names they gave their kids leave us to wonder if, after all, the Puritans were just kidding. I assure you, they were not. Dead serious was the young Puritan couple who named their new baby boy "Kill Sin." So, Mr. Kill Sin Pimple shows up in a marriage list of official county records. (It would be interesting to know whether his friends called him by his first name, Kill; or by his middle name, Sin. Then again, perhaps they just called him Bubba!)

Then there was Mr. and Mrs. Fowler, who delivered a sermon on the fruits of the Spirit when they named their little boy, "More Fruit." We learn from court records that one Mr. More Fruit Fowler was seated as a juror i…