SETH ADAMS

Biblical name (from a Hebrew word meaning ‘appointed, placed’), borne by the third son of Adam, who was born after the murder of Abel (Genesis 4:25, ‘And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew’). It is recorded in England from the 1400s and was popular among the Puritans (particularly for children born after the death of an elder sibling). By the 20th century it had become rare. It was used for the darkly passionate rural character Seth Starkadder in Stella Gibbons's satirical novel Cold Comfort Farm (1932), and has recently enjoyed a revival.

English (very common in England, especially in the south Midlands, and in Wales) and German (especially northwestern Germany): patronymic from the personal name Adam. In the U.S. this form has absorbed many patronymics and other derivatives of Adam in languages other than English. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.)