Doctor as a given name

[ValJJJ]

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!

[ValJJJ]

This could explain a family anecdote - 'his father was a doctor'.  Maybe his name not his occupation?

[heywood]

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/

[AlanBoyd]

Slightly different from Heywood; my recollection (no source as yet) is that it was given to the seventh son of a seventh son.

[ValJJJ]

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

[AlanBoyd]

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.

[ValJJJ]

Wonderful.

[mrcakey]

Now listening to Seventh Son of a Seventh Son by Iron Maiden 

[ValJJJ]