On Massey’s You You’re From St. Mary’s Facebook page Debi Siegel posted a nice item about her Grandfather Thomas Ridgell. He and my Grandfather were brothers.
However, when I read the listing of Thomas’ siblings I had to pause when I saw my Grandfather’s middle name listed as Hozier. I have it hi lited it below.
Because my Father Buzzy was a Junior named Clarence Hugh Ridgell I had always assumed that my Grandfather’s middle name was also Hugh. I called cousin Joe White, our family historian, to ask about this and he confirmed that Hozier was indeed correct. He noted that when he asked our Grandmother Miss Hattie about not giving Buzzy the middle name Hozier she said that she couldn’t put that on him and changed it to Hugh.
Joe then followed up in a message to me: “I tried to research the origin of the name Hozier several years ago, and all I could find is that it is an old Anglo Saxon name defining a hose tailor. I don’t know how that fits into our family, nor do I know anyone else who had it as a name.”
I made a couple attempts to Google Hozier only to find a zillion references to an Irish singer by the name Andrew Byrne. He is better know by his middle name Hozier and does a great job here on this Van tune.
PS – As for the word hozier’s similarities to the word hoosier, I found various explanations of the word’s origins such as one about a bar owner cleaning up the next morning and when finding bitten-off-body parts asking “Whose ear?” Seriously, click here.