RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: ValJJJ on Sunday 18 January 26 11:03 GMT (UK)
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I've just come across Doctor as a given name, and thought it might be a mistranscribed name, but no, looking at FreeBMD, there are quite a few over the years, and mostly in Lancashire. Some are quite recent too.
Is it a corruption of another name, or is it the parent's ambition for their child? Apparently the name is banned in NZ due to problems with confusion. Understandably!
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This could explain a family anecdote - 'his father was a doctor'. Maybe his name not his occupation?
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Online sources state that it was often given to the seventh son born in the family.
I hope this link works
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01u5u/
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Slightly different from Heywood; my recollection (no source as yet) is that it was given to the seventh son of a seventh son.
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Interesting - why though? BTW there is a paywall for that link. Perhaps it has the reason there.
Edit: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26855313
Another edit: even more here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0015587X.2019.1618068
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2 July 1909: Dartmouth & South Hams chronicle
WITCHCRAFT SURVIVALS.
Remarkable stories of the prevalence of witch. craft in Somerset and of strange medical beliefs common in the county were told at a meeting of teachers at Bury, near Dulverton, on Saturday.
Dr. Sydenham, Dulverton, said that herbalists and white witches were still living among them, to say nothing of “The Doctor" or seventh son. The belief was widely held that whooping-cough could be cured by by placing the sufferer on the ground in a sheepfold; epilepsy by procuring silver coins from friends and having them made into a necklace or bracelet to be worn by the sufferer, and hemorrhage and burns by the chanting of a strange prayer. A seventh son, especially if he were the seventh son of a seventh son, was as much sought after in some parishes as if he were a Harley-street specialist. His patients were attended on Sunday mornings, after fasting, the cure being by touch and prayer.
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Wonderful.
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Now listening to Seventh Son of a Seventh Son by Iron Maiden ;D
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;D
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There's a Doctor Septimus W Howson born in 1876 in Blackburn, so looks like that one would be a 7th son.
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Septimus also meaning 7th. Perhaps Doctor Septimus means 7th of the 7th?
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So far only 5 earlier brothers, but one may have died between censuses
added
got all 6 now - two Fredericks, presumably firs tone died.
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I see that Doctor Who (?) got married in Lewisham in 1994!
I can't see any birth by that name so I wonder if this person had changed their name by deed poll!
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I see that Doctor Who (?) got married in Lewisham in 1994!
I can't see any birth by that name so I wonder if this person had changed their name by deed poll!
I haven't seen birth records for Gallifrey on line yet
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Now listening to Seventh Son of a Seventh Son by Iron Maiden ;D
Ha, good one, mrcakey!
Wonder if these counted...as I just looked for Docter "misspells" on FreeBmd and got 79 results... ;D
*added: ;) ValJJJ! Looking at the same day for marriage there's also a reference to David Robertson who is also the Dr. Who, above? Others on page as well:
Freeman... Agyemang...and other repeated names including real names for some duplications.
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Lots of Doctor surnames too on FreeBMD.
This is putting a new light on 'his father was a doctor'. ;D Perhaps 'his father was a Doctor'?
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So far only 5 earlier brothers, but one may have died between censuses.
In my wife's tree there is a 19th-century Robinson family with 7 brothers AND 7 sisters. Don't know whether the father was a seventh son (don't think so) but a few of the later births were from a second wife.
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Any Doctors? Or were they not Lancashire people? Second wife's children might not have counted? Literally. ;D
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They were a Suffolk family, many of whom scattered around England to spread the load. No Doctors or Septimi anywhere as far as I know.
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I didn't have the link handy when I posted that reference to ValJJJ's "Doctor Who" FreeBmd find, but obviously the groom was a huge fan as he wants his name associated with the series in other ways as well. His rather unnerving concept of blending facial recognition using all Drs.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-25466389
https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2016/research/dr-who-new-companion/
The other name I referred to is Dr. Who's assistant (actress). How is it that someone at the GRO allowed them all to name themselves more than once!??
There may be other references among the "18" results on the Doctor Who FreeBMD result page
Now listening to Seventh Son of a Seventh Son by Iron Maiden ;D
Ha, good one, mrcakey!
Wonder if these counted...as I just looked for Docter "misspells" on FreeBmd and got 79 results... ;D
*added: ;) ValJJJ! Looking at the same day for marriage there's also a reference to David Robertson who is also the Dr. Who, above? Others on page as well:
Freeman... Agyemang...and other repeated names including real names for some duplications.
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I've just come across Doctor as a given name, and thought it might be a mistranscribed name, but no, looking at FreeBMD, there are quite a few over the years, and mostly in Lancashire. Some are quite recent too.
Is it a corruption of another name, or is it the parent's ambition for their child? Apparently the name is banned in NZ due to problems with confusion. Understandably!
Not doubting that NZ has a restriction but this must have happened relatively recently. I went to boarding school in the late 1960s, in NZ, and at that time at the brother boarding school there was at least one Doctor, we knew him as Doc. He came from a family where this name had been passed down. I think this had come about originally after being named for someone in early Colonial days. I have read of others in NZ over the years.