My middle name

Theodore Stevens Norvell

My middle name is "Stevens", a common family name, but rarely a given name. Where it comes from is an interesting story.

This makes a total of ten people I know of with the name "Stevens Thompson" (or some variation): four S. T. Norvells, four S. T. Masons, Ann S. T., and her father, the original (?) Stevens Thomson. The first was born about 250 years before the latest.

As for my first name ... that is simple: It is my mother's name pronounced backwards.

Sources:

John E. Norvell, History of the Norvell and Related Families, 2006.

C. P. Keith, "Armistead Family", The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol 7, No. 1, pp 17--24, July 1898. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1919906

Kate Mason Rowland, "Sir William Thompson, brother of Stevens Thompson, Attorney General of Virginia", The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol 3, Num 3, pp. 154-162, Jan. 1895. http://www.jstor.org/pss/1914768

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/PACK/2009-04/1239390670

Lots of Wikipedia entries (accessed in 2010 and 2011) including

Joseph Lemuel Chester and John Ward Dean, "London marriage licences, 1521-1869", page 1334. http://books.google.ca/books?id=Xf8cAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA274&lpg=PA274, Bernad Quaritch,1887.