Origins of Given Name "Paschel" | Anthroponymy | Forum

Hello! I found this forum via Twitter when I was asking around about research or knowledge of the given name "Paschal."

I blogged about it here at Jennealogy:

http://jennealogy.wordpress.co.....iven-name/

But long story short, I noticed the male given name "Paschel" cropped up a few times in my West family from South Carolina and Georgia, USA. (Their father's origins are a bit murky but he was born in South Carolina, and their mother was from County Antrim, Ireland.) Paschel is alternatively spelled as Paschal or Pascal.

I looked up this name and found - fascinatingly - that Paschal comes from the Hebrew "pesach," and that it is a Hebrew tradition to name a child born around Easter or Passover "Paschal." It appears this practice was widely adopted because the term "paschal" is apparently now used in Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican rites around Easter time. Interestingly, my ancestor was born in April 1845. Could he have been named Paschel due to tradition?

I would like to connect with other people researching Paschals and try to track down this tradition of naming Easter children Paschal/Paschel/Pascal. If you have any Paschals in your line and they were born near Easter, please contact me through my blog: http://jennealogy.wordpress.com/contact/

Was this tradition perpetuated in a certain country? Among a certain ethnic group or religious group? One not-overly-reliable-seeming internet source said that it's a French and German naming tradition but I couldn't find anything to back that up. I'd love to research it further.

I'm also open to further resources - experts, books - on naming that might point me in the right direction. Thanks for reading!