What’s in a name?

             Portrait of Sullivan and Mary King

   Sullivan King the patriarch of our branch of Chazy Lake Kings was baptized Séraphin Maximin Roy on March 09, 1840 in St-Laurent, Quebec.  He reportedly immigrated to northern New York in 1854 and was naturalized in 1856.  Thus, by the time he was only sixteen this young King had moved to a new country, embraced its citizenship and was probably well on his way to becoming many things including a shoemaker, farmer, bar proprietor and land speculator.   In his heritage, there has been quite a bit of speculation about the roots and transformation of his name. 

    One of my family’s favorite sayings goes, “There’s the right way, the wrong way and my way to do this, and we’re going to do it my way.”  I have to think that the concept carries back to Sullivan’s personality.  He certainly looks like a self-assured man in his portrait. I sense that the changes that occurred to his name were as swift  as his desire  to become a U.S. citizen.  Although the handwriting on the 1860 census record is difficult to read, and his first name has been interpreted to be ‘Solomon’ or ‘Salman’ King in that document, my deciphering of the entry is  that he was already using the name Sullivan King.

   Just how might the entire name transformation have occurred?  Let’s start with the easier part, his surname.  Roy and the modernized spelling in French, Roi was simply directly translated to King in English.   This was a common pattern in name shift among French Canadians who moved to the U.S. when a direct translation could be made.  It can also seen in his wife’s name. She was baptized Marie Meunier in Saint-Jean-Chrysostome, Quebec but later known in New York under the name Mary Miller.  Meunier is the French word for Miller.

   The given names have given me pause for more thought.  I tried to trace the Latin roots in the names.   My high school Latin is back there some time after Caesar crossed the Rubicon. Given its dated and cloudy locale in my brain I first thought that Seraphin Maximin (often misinterpreted to be Maximum) was a unit.  However, the seraphs are already classified as the highest order of angels.  There’s no need to ‘maximize’ their hierarchy.  I decided to seek out some help  with my name search refinement and was directed to Father Jerry Plotkowsky at the Tribunal Offices of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.  We met on June 09, 2008 and read over the baptismal record for Séraphin.  His conclusion was that the two given names are separate units. The first is Séraphin. Although his mother may have seen an angelic vision in her newborn son, I must add that Old Sullivan’s legend holds that he was no angel on this Earth.  With the move to New York, Séraphin probably substituted the very ‘English’ sounding Sullivan for his French first name given the similar rhythm  between Séraphin and Sullivan.   Sullivan King does have an impressive ring to it and befits the image I have of the man.

    The second given name, Maximin is the modern French name Maxime, as in the famous parisian restaurant, “Maxime’s”, not to be confused with the feminine version, Maxine.  Sure enough.  I came home from my visit with Father Jerry and consulted my trusted old copy of the “Petit Larousse” dictionary from my college  French classes,  and lo and behold we have listed two Roman emperors under the name Maximin and three more under Maxime.  So, we have the derivation of Old Sullivan’s French name:  Séraphin Maxime Roy.  High-ranking angels, Roman emperors and Kings.  You have to think that his parents had great expectations for their son.  I think he met their predictions down to Sullivan being the owner of what may have been the first drinking parlor in Chazy Lake.  Shall we call it, “Maxime’s of Chazy Lake”? 

With sincere respects from a great-grandson,

Donald Sullivan King