“May 15, 1576. Wedding of William Brickhead and Affera Lawrence.”—St. Peter’s, Cornhill.
This last entry proves how early the name had arisen. In Kent it had become very common. The registers of Canterbury Cathedral teem with it:
“1601, June 5. Christened Afra, the daughter of William Warriner.
“1614, Oct. 30. Christened Aphora, the daughter of Mr. Merrewether.
“1635, July 20. Robert Fuller maryed Apherie Pitt.”
In these instances we see at a glance the origin of the licentious Aphra Behn’s name, which looks so like a nom-de-plume, and has puzzled many. She was born at Canterbury, with the surname of Johnson, baptized Aphra, and married a Dutch merchant named Behn. When acting as a Government spy at Antwerp in 1666, she signs a letter “Aphara Behn” (C. S. P.), which is nearer the Biblical form than many others. It is just possible her father might have rolled himself several times in the dust had he lived to read some of his daughter’s writings. Their tone is not Puritanic. The name has become obsolete; indeed, it scarcely survived the seventeenth century, dying out within a hundred years of its rise. But it was very popular in its day.
Rachel, in her dying pains, had styled, under deep depression, her babe Benoni (“son of my sorrow”); but his father turned it into the more cheerful Benjamin (“son of the right hand”). Of course, Puritanism sided with the mother, and the Benonis flourished at a ratio of six to one over the Benjamins:
“1607. Christened Benony, sonne of Beniamyn Ruthin, mariner.”—Stepney.
“1661, Dec. 20. Christened Margrett, d. of Bennoni Wallington, goldsmith.”—St. Dionis Backchurch.
“1637, May 6. Order to transmit Benoni Bucke to England from Virginia.”—“C. S. P. Colonial.”