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When you're 10, just about everything, besides homework and tetanus shots, can be perceived as hysterically funny.

Your teacher's new haircut: hysterical. The neighbor kid getting hit in the head with a tether ball: hilarious. Purple cars: side-splitting.

It was no exception when my aunt, my primary source for Allison family history factoids in my elementary days, told me the names of my great-grandfather's brothers.

Great-granddad's name was George, which was moderately funny. His brother John, however, bored me. Every other boy in my class was named John.

It was the other brother's name that set off an eruption of nearly uncontrolled hysteria: Otho. It was pronounced with two long os at each end. What kind of name was that?

I was even more incredulous when my aunt informed me that brother John had named one of his kids Otho, too.

I was a budding genealogist, though, so I gained control of myself and duly noted these pieces of family namelore on the little index cards I created for everyone in my extended family.

Fast forward 18 years to my first visit to a bonafide genealogy library. Clueless about how to conduct serious genealogy research, I wandered through the stacks of books organized by states.

My index cards from so long ago, that I still had, indicated that grandpa George and his brothers were from somewhere in Illinois. So, I started pulling Illinois books off the shelves scanning the indexes for the Allison surname.

I picked up a book of cemetery records from Vermilion County. Holy cow! Right there in the index was that name: Otho Allison. This couldn't be just a coincidence.

And it wasn't (even though it was dumb luck). Turns out this Vermilion County Otho was the grandfather of the three brothers. Not only that, there were half a dozen other Othos in the Illinois family branch.

Most family trees are over-populated with Johns, Elizabeths, Henrys and Marias. It's the unusual given names that send up a caution flag. Honing in on peculiar names can help with our research.

Even though today's parents tend to create unusual names for their kids by randomly selecting eight or nine Scrabble tiles, our ancestors usually latched onto oddball names because someone near and dear already had that curious name.

Naming kids after family members was popular, but don't make assumptions about relationships.

Some quirky names came from godparents, friends, neighbors or people the proud parents admired. My ancestor's middle name, Bedell, came from the last name of his father's commanding officer in the Revolutionary War.

Mothers often christened their kids with their maiden names, which can certainly be handy information.

Another curious naming habit can help create a time frame for your ancestor's migration across the continent. I've encountered many children named Missouri. The parents were so happy to have moved there that they named their first child born in Missouri after the state.

Because some ethnic or religious groups have traditional naming patterns, it's a good idea to study those when trying to sort out offbeat name clues.

So, when you stumble upon an unusual given name, search for others with the same name and you might be able to solve some family mysteries.