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 == The Aldens' childrens' names == 

 The current entry contains the following: ""However, there are no further occurrences of the names George, Richard, and Avys in his family which would have been unusual in the seventeenth century."" 

 This observation about the naming patterns would hold true among most Christian families in the 17th c. But among Puritan families, this was not so. The Puritans wanted to ""purify"" their church and their society of anything not found in the Bible; let family traditions dating back hundreds of years be cast out. Puritans bestowed on their children Old Testament names: ('Sarah, Rebecca, Jacob, Joseph, and virtue names (Constance, Prudence, Faith'') If you will study the names of John and Priscilla Alden's children, you will note that the names chosen very much conform to the pattern of the typical Puritan family.  

    

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