Middle initial 'B P'

[*bunty*]

Something I discovered while researching my normally bland line of Smiths was the initials 'B P'. These were given to a David Smith born in 1900. His siblings either side were rather plain in name, and lacked middle names completely. I started digging into what the 'B P' stood for, and on seeing his name in the BMD index he was surounded by dozens of other Smiths with the B P in the middle, all born in 1900. I also discovered the B stood for Baden, and after googling Baden Powell discovered he became a national hero from a famous battle in the Boer War, and this battle took place in 1899. Hence, many of the children born shortly after this time had his name as part of theirs. So my David Baden Powell Smith was named for this reason, as were many other children of his era. Very interesting! Anyone else have ancestors with Baden Powell as middle names?

[suedent]

I don't have a Baden Powell but I do have one with the middle name Kitchener, named for similar reasons. I also have a Samuel Mafeking Bray born in 1901, sadly young Samuel died in 1905.

[Jan1954]

So, I thought that I would throw the first names "Baden Powell" into FreeBMD to see what came up.

Between 1899 and 1910 there were 452 entries - this does not include those registrations with these as middle names.

Of these, in 1900, there were 392 entries - 225 alone being in the June quarter.

Can't see anything like that happening today...

[*bunty*]

John David Beckham Smith?

Sarah Britney Spears Jones?

Not a lot of real life heroes left . (well there probably are, but we tend to hero worship the wrong people these days ).

[suedent]

So, I thought that I would throw the first names "Baden Powell" into FreeBMD to see what came up.

Between 1899 and 1910 there were 452 entries - this does not include those registrations with these as middle names.

Of these, in 1900, there were 392 entries - 225 alone being in the June quarter.

Can't see anything like that happening today...

There are those poor children entered into the Guinness Book of Records because their doting fathers have given them the names of a full football squad.

[Sandyhall]

Hi

I have a George Baden-Powell Mafeking Hutchins b1900 Brentford, Middlesex
in my Family. What a mouth full.
Also Christopher Inkerman Moss and George Alma Moss twin brothers named after battles in the Crimean War.
Sandy

[Colin Moretti]

There are celebrities and celebrities; I once worked with Lloyd Askwith Winston Ewart surname - guess which political party his parents supported!

Colin

[MarkJ]

I have a couple of ancestors with various famous names from their times, but the best (and strangest) is the one with a middle name of Census! As you may guess, he was born on the day of the 1861 census and I suppose his parents thought it a good name - rather like those born on Christmas Day called Holly and other similar things!

Mark

[Ladkyis]

When my husband began his research his father asked "Have you found Ramsey yet?" we said we hadn't yet and he smiled.

A cousin of my father in law was given the wonderful name of James Ramsey MacDonald Macey.

[daleaway]

It's worldwide.
Down here in the South Pacific it is not unknown to name children after an event, like a big storm, which happened at the time of their birth.

We have plenty of baby boomers named after World War II locations their returned soldier fathers fought in - Tobruk, Alamein, Cairo, Cassino etc. We recently had a lady Member of Parliament called Alamein.


I had a neighbour once called Whakairi. "Unusual name," I said, "What does it mean?"

She said: "It means hanging. I was born on the day my grandmother hanged herself."

There's no adequate reply to that.