Thread: what names do you put on your tombstones?

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I am tired of the funny names and silly poems that are on tombstones, and now that I am trying to make better ones,I'd like to put more realistic names on them. I suggested the names of all the Ripper victims,I am a serious Ripper fan,and hope to do a Jack the Ripper over the winter to put out next year....my hubby is like "okay,I guess" when I ran it by my Mom,she didn't like the idea,but didn't have a clear idea why she didn't like the idea.
What do you guys think,and what do you all put on yours??? ~Shelley

I have a book I picked up at the National Funeral Museum (located here in Houston!) that has tons of real epitaphs that are funny, sad or just weird. If I do any more stones, I've got some good ones marked.

I have used epitaphs from real stones I've seen - my take of a beloved stone. I made one for "Lawrence Talbot" the Wolfman with the rhyme used in the movie and a cool wolf shield with lit-up red eyes (those two are in my albums).

I also have a few funny ones - the Ann Mann one who died an "old Mann" and a Vacancy tombstone.

There are several threads on here and just doing a search on the interwebs for epitaphs will get you a nice selection. I think using the Ripper victims is a nice idea - it's your graveyard, so do what YOU want to do.

A really good source for the real stones is Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records

I think any place you see something that you like is good - funny, sad, real or made-up, they all are good.

My tombstones are engraved with last names of friends, dead poets, philosophers, and others. I'm more about an authentic cemetery look, however I do have one that will be engraved with "up the river without a paddle" in Italian (funny to me and anyone who speaks Italian).

I agree with you, Shelley. We have always tried to make our props look as real as possible, and when we re-do our tombstones for next year, we want the epitaphs to be more believable.

I was thinking of putting the neighbors ex wives lol

We started out with silly epitaphs then last year, my teenage daughters decided to make new ones with their friends names on them. They chose names of people they new were attending. The kids got a kick out of it.

My son came up with this idea almost 20 years ago, and I think it's a good one. Engrave the names of well known persons who were involved with the Horror Genre. Names like Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, Lon Chaney,Boris Karloff and so on. You can have some fun with this, using names that are not all that well known. We've had H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe and Gaston LeRoux, the author of "The Phantom of the Opera".

It pays homage to those who started this whole "Scarey" fixation we all have.

I've always wanted more realism, and making custom tombstones helps that, but I also think a well-placed funny name or epitaph is fun as well. For instance, my "Dead Ringer" tombstone has a poem about a man being buried alive, ringing the safety bell and no one hearing so he died and still rings the bell to this day (and the bell rings on its own on my prop). the name is "Lyve" on the poem side with a date of 1825-?? and on the other side is his full name, Barry A Lyve.

yeah its "cutesy", but I felt that it reinforced the story of the tombstone and since i spelled "Live" differently, its almost believable that someone could have had that name.

But just look at Davis Graveyard...it looks so darn real, but most of their stones are gag names and poems.

I'm in agreement. I wanted to keep the creepy atmosphere but still use my own names for my tombstones. For year one I used:

Sarah Winchester - The 'cursed' widow who built the Winchester Mystery House.
Lizbeth Borden - Easy, but still historical and very creepy.
Alan Pinkerton - The famous detective. This is a personal one, my grandparents lived for a short time in the Pinkerton Larch Farm in Illinois. I grew up with their stories about footsteps in the halls, voices, stove pieces rattling and flipping, rocking chairs rocking, underground tunnels, etc.

I wanted to do John Bell, but he's been pushed to year 2. I read about the Bell Witch when I was a kid, it's my favorite ghost story. I've only seen parts of that movie that came out a few years ago and I wasn't very impressed.

I've found there's no lack of historical haunts, creeps, wierdos, and madmen. Just use Google! Here's a link to my year one album if you want to see the epitaphs in all their glory:
Halloween Forum - frughoul's Album: Year One

I guess I'm superstitious, I can't bring myself to put the name on anyone I know on a tombstone.