Names in the news

Huncamunca

Huncamunca

The Knowledgeable One
One of my relatives had the middle name 'Buller' and I wasted some time trying to find a link with this name before I discovered that there was a famous general called Redvers Buller, and that many boys of a certain generation were named Redvers or Buller after him.

Similarly there was quite a crop of boys with the first names Baden Powell.

Search FreeBMD for children with the middle name Mafeking and you will find a great many of them, boys and girls, the vast majority of whose births were registered in the second and third quarters of 1900. Ladysmith was another popular middle name at this time, mainly given to girls.

The Siege of Khartoum doesn't seem to have inspired so many babies' names, perhaps not surprisingly given its outcome: I could only find Gordon Khartoum Gilchrist (birth registered Q3 1885).
 
Also lots of babies with middle name Jubilee in 1887 and 1897 . . . some of them with first name Victoria. Among the 1897 batch was the extraordinarily named Diamond Jubilee RECKLESS.
 
Inspired by Jane, I've been having a peek for some weird and wonderful 'historical' Christian names which some poor children were lumbered with.

There are a few christened Balaclava, lots of Florence Nightingales and many Horatio Nelsons. I didn't really expect to find many named Queen Victoria or Prince Albert, but some parents were obviously royalist in the extreme! No surprise that there is a spattering of Winston Churchills. I'm sure there are many more to be found.......:rolleyes:

Ann
 
Blackmogs said:
My grandfather was called King Edmund. He was born in Wandsworth in 1884. There were no other royal type names in the family
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How intriguing, Blackmogs: I wonder what inspired that name?

The name mystery in my family is not so grand: one of my ancestors had the middle name Chicken. I still haven't found any connection to anyone of the surname Chicken, so can't (yet) claim to be descended from Chickens.
 
mugwortismy cat said:
I have a Florence Nightingale in my tree (not a relative -- she got in there via some circuitous torturous path) --- she has a brother called Joseph Garibaldi -- plenty of siblings and half-siblings who all seem quite normal, except for their surname of DIAPER
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Diaper is a common surname in part of Southampton. My tree even links into the Diaper family via marriage. The name can be an embarrassment for those travelling to the US!
 
Battle names of the First World War include Ypres Verdun Dickinson and Verdun Somme Newman (both died 1965 according to the National Probate Calendar). I was surprised to see how many babies were named Ypres: it seems to have been particularly popular in Wales. Many other battles and campaigns can be found as baby names, such as Arras, Loos and Dardanelles.

Happier names to bear include Peace, Pax and Armistice.
 
A relative of mine had the name Bokhara. A Google found it to be the ancient capital of Persia or a Persian rug pattern that originated in that area. In fact he was named after the boat he was born on in the Bay of Biscay as his parents were returning to the UK from military service abroad. Took me a while to find as the birth was registered in Aldershot, but did subsequently find a birth at sea document although he was un-named on that.
 
So that's where 'Redvers' comes from! I did wonder. I have it twice in my family, on mine and my husband's lines.

Also, 'Albert Jubilee' came up yesterday. I imagine they'd hoped for a girl so that they could call her Victoria.
 
I thought I wouldn't find any of the following, but children really were christened Crimea, Transvaal and Boer.......o_O

Slightly off track, but I thought fascinating - the top 1000 most popular names for both boys and girls in the 1890's
http://www.
baby2see.com/names/1890s.html

Ann
 
After I had posted the above, I realised it was a list of popular American names during the 1890's (still fascinating nevertheless) so here's a British list
http://www.
britishbabynames.com/blog/2011/05/victorian-darlings.html

Ann
 
Leslie Dunkling's The Guinness Book of Names has some lists of the 50 most popular boys' and girls' names at various dates. It is interesting to see changes in fashion.

Here are the top 10 names in some of the lists:

Girls' names, England and Wales
1875: Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, Annie, Alice, Florence, Emily, Edith, Ellen, Ada
1900: Florence, Mary, Alice, Annie, Elsie, Edith, Elizabeth, Doris, (joint 9th) Dorothy and Ethel
1925: Joan, Mary, Joyce, Margaret, Dorothy, Doris, Kathleen, Irene, Betty, Eileen
1950: Susan, Linda, Christine, Margaret, Carol, Jennifer, Janet, Patricia, Barbara, Ann
1975: Claire, Sarah, Nicola, Emma, Joanne, Helen, Rachel, Lisa, Rebecca, (joint 10th) Karen and Michelle

Boys' names, England and Wales
1875: William, John, George, Thomas, James, Henry, Charles, Frederick, Arthur, Joseph.
1900: William, John, George, Thomas, Charles, Frederick, Arthur, James, Albert, Ernest
1925: John, William, George, James, Ronald, Robert, Kenneth, Frederick, Thomas, Albert
1950: David, John, Peter, Michael, Alan, Robert, Stephen, Paul, Brian, Graham
1975: Stephen, Mark, Paul, Andrew, David, Richard, Matthew, Daniel, Christopher, Darren
 
Huncamunca said:
Leslie Dunkling's The Guinness Book of Names has some lists of the 50 most popular boys' and girls' names at various dates. It is interesting to see changes in fashion.

Here are the top 10 names in some of the lists:

Girls' names, England and Wales
1875: Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, Annie, Alice, Florence, Emily, Edith, Ellen, Ada
1900: Florence, Mary, Alice, Annie, Elsie, Edith, Elizabeth, Doris, (joint 9th) Dorothy and Ethel
1925: Joan, Mary, Joyce, Margaret, Dorothy, Doris, Kathleen, Irene, Betty, Eileen
1950: Susan, Linda, Christine, Margaret, Carol, Jennifer, Janet, Patricia, Barbara, Ann
1975: Claire, Sarah, Nicola, Emma, Joanne, Helen, Rachel, Lisa, Rebecca, (joint 10th) Karen and Michelle
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Well, now know what decade I belong to :D
My Mom thought she was being "different" and there were 3 of us in our small town all born on the same day. ;)
 
Half Hour said:
Well, now know what decade I belong to :D
My Mom thought she was being "different" and there were 3 of us in our small town all born on the same day. ;)
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Going back to Leslie Dunkling's book, it has lots of statistics about first names from the England & Wales GRO.

He doesn't include any data for the 1940s but Susan seems to have been most popular in the 1950s: in 1935 only 14 out of 10,000 girl babies were called Susan, whereas the figures had gone up to 654 out of 10,000 in 1950, and 692 out of 10,000 in 1955. By 1960 the number of Susans was on the way down again.

As for my name, Jane, it was fashionable in the 1920s but I am not that old: I come from another wave of Janes in the early 1960s (127 out of 100,000 girl babies called Jane in 1960, and 146 out of 100,000 in 1965).

That might explain why I was one of four Janes in my class at school.
 
Darn it - now you all now how old I am:D
I must remember to chastise my sister as she picked my name, and yes there were always at least three of 'us' in every class I was in throughout my schooling.

Sue (born between 654 and 692 out of 10,000 births).
 
MollyMay said:
Darn it - now you all now how old I am:D
I must remember to chastise my sister as she picked my name, and yes there were always at least three of 'us' in every class I was in throughout my schooling.

Sue (born between 654 and 692 out of 10,000 births).
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So....you could have been in school with me as well, MollyMay :D
All February birthdays as well :p
 
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