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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: locksmith on Monday 11 June 07 09:29 BST (UK)

Title: Named after a world event
Post by: locksmith on Monday 11 June 07 09:29 BST (UK)
Adjacent to a birth I was looking up in the births for July Quarter of 1969, I saw someone had been given Neil Armstrong as their forenames.

Now I know popular or world events can influence people's judgement when naming children (taken to extremes names of complete football teams are popular) so why wasn’t I named James Dean or Albert Einstein (both died in my birth year).  :) :) Or maybe I was born in a year when nothing happened and ended up with two unrelated forenames which didn’t position me to a point in history. :(  Well thank goodness for that.
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: kojack on Monday 11 June 07 10:25 BST (UK)

Hi Locksmith,

I reckon I got off lightly.

My name or middle name could have been, Hydrogen Bomb. lol. The Peoples Republic of China, announced a successful test on the day I was born!  17th June 1967.

Kojack    ::)  ;D
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: toni* on Monday 11 June 07 10:27 BST (UK)
glad i wasn't called Boney M - they were number one when i was born

i'm actually named after my mums best friends daughter Antonia but was shortened to Toni, i am therefore just Toni!
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: Suffolk Mawther on Monday 11 June 07 11:12 BST (UK)
My late mother in law had the middle name

St Quentin

after a WWI battle in northern France that her father survived.

I also worked with a woman called Mons many years ago, same reason. 
In researching over the years, I found that it appeared to be 'fashionable' to name children after successful WWI events in the years following that war. 
And I guess earlier if you think of the Kitchener middle names of many lads  ;)

SM ...

Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: Sarndra on Monday 11 June 07 11:26 BST (UK)
My late mother in law had the middle name

St Quentin

after a WWI battle in northern France that her father survived.

I also worked with a woman called Mons many years ago, same reason. 
In researching over the years, I found that it appeared to be 'fashionable' to name children after successful WWI events in the years following that war. 
And I guess earlier if you think of the Kitchener middle names of many lads  ;)

SM ...



Indeed...a few called Cazna and Anzac also

Cheers
Sarndra
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: KathMc on Monday 11 June 07 11:31 BST (UK)
My great-great aunt married a man, born 1864, named Ulysses Grant Channell, after the Civil War general and future president of the United States. I thought it odd and searched on Ancestry for just the first name and many came up. I guess it's something that has been done for a long time.

Kath
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: PrueM on Monday 11 June 07 13:08 BST (UK)
I know Anzac in particular was a very popular name during and after 1915 (for AUstralians, anyway).  And a friend of mine's grandfather, who was born during WW1, was named Dardanelles for the same reason!

Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, one-time governor of NSW, gave his son the middle name "Australia", poor lad!

Prue
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: mshrmh on Monday 11 June 07 15:03 BST (UK)
Not after a world event, but I read in today's paper that Lewis Hamilton (winner of yesterday's Canadian Grand Prix) was named after the athlete Carl Lewis. That's quite a good "subtle" tribute in my view.
On the original theme I found a Victor in my family born early 1919 - I don't know whether the name became more popular then, but I assumed it might have been related to ending of WW1.
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: stonechat on Monday 11 June 07 15:27 BST (UK)
I had an aunt named Lille, who had a brother called Verdun

Also I seem to remember that when England won the world cup there was someone name after the whole team!
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: KathMc on Monday 11 June 07 15:29 BST (UK)
I have a stepbrother who named his daughter Dallas, as he is a huge Dallas Cowboys fan.  :o
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: w105uk aka Margi :-) on Monday 11 June 07 21:01 BST (UK)
don't think any major event occurred

was probably named after the younger Princess

which is a relief  ;) ;)
I could have been named after the annual event

Grouse  ::) ::)

born on 'The Glorious 12th'  ;D ;D
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: rancegal on Monday 11 June 07 21:39 BST (UK)
We used to have a lovely old neighbour whose middle name was Verdun

  Good job they didn't call you 'Glorious' either, Margi
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: acceber on Monday 11 June 07 22:35 BST (UK)
I have seen people with the surname 'Mafeking' on freebmd when looking for my ancestors. They seem to have been named after the seige in the second boer war of 1900 which made Baden-Powell a hero.

Have also see people with the first name 'Lloyd' and the middle name 'George' after the prime minister.

acceber
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: locksmith on Tuesday 12 June 07 07:54 BST (UK)
Pity the poor souls named after subsequently fallen stars. ANy gary Glitters or OJ Simpsons out there?
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: stonechat on Tuesday 12 June 07 08:22 BST (UK)
Remember a Victor from schooldays who was born on Nov 11th
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: gig on Tuesday 12 June 07 09:26 BST (UK)
hi
thankfully my mam got her own way and name me after an astronaught ,if my dad had had his way i would have been called
kirk after captain kirk from star trek  ::) and you did not want a name like kirk in my school  :P ,my middle name is my dads first name his middle name is my grandads first name my grandad was name after one of his mums brothers killed in ww1 ,but first and second names switched round , im the first eldest male for 4 generations not to have frederick in thier name

acceber i to have a rellie with mafeking as a middle name
william mafeking mugglestone bn 1900 stonebroom

i carnt imagine middle names from places in todays war becoming very popular  john basra doe
gig
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: Suffolk Mawther on Tuesday 12 June 07 09:48 BST (UK)
Gig,

Captain Kirk eh?

When we rehomed our little dog six years ago that's exactly what his name was, he was known as Kirkie!

He was renamed Jack by our family, which he responded to with great enthusiasm - I think even he was not happy being named thus!

sorry - I am wandering off the topic  ::)

SM ...

Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: toni* on Tuesday 12 June 07 11:07 BST (UK)
if my dad had had his way i would have been called
kirk after captain kirk from star trek  ::) and you did not want a name like kirk in my school  :P
Quote

my brother in law is called Kirk he is 25 and my friends brother is called Kirk also he is 36.

 
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: Jean McGurn on Tuesday 12 June 07 15:25 BST (UK)
This thread has given me an idea. I have two ancestors that have unusual middle names (George JONES McGurn and John Robert PASHON Harris) so I wonder if there is a famous Jones or Pashon for the years they were born.

Me? Apparently I was names after two nurses in the maternity hospital where I was born. Oh well

Jean
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: WHS1899 on Tuesday 12 June 07 15:39 BST (UK)
We have a female  in the family who has the middle name Victory, given to her when Victory was declared in WW2.....
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: Vasquez109 on Monday 02 July 07 22:16 BST (UK)
It could have been worse! Being a child from 1979, I could have been called 'Thatcher'!

Luckily, the gods were smiling on me that day, and it was averted.
Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: indiapaleale on Tuesday 03 July 07 00:52 BST (UK)
I was named after Pamela Barton  -  a British lady golfer who won the French open in 1934 at age 17.
She died, aged 26, in 1943 in an air crash while serving her country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Barton

My Dad had always said that I was born with a golf club in my mouth!!!

Not true.......I couldn't hit a golf ball if you paid me!...but....I do enjoy the 19th hole
 :P :P :P :P
Indi

Title: Re: Named after a world event
Post by: bodger on Tuesday 03 July 07 08:09 BST (UK)
I was named  Anthony, after   Anthony Eden, and my pal next door was named Neville, after Chamberlain, not sure if either of us considered it a bonus, but i do know both our fathers were strong Labour supporters ?
                                                      bodger