'Twas Ever Thus: War Baby Names

One of the first ever 'Twas Ever Thus posts I wrote, looked at the late Victorian fashion for naming babies after significant events and people involved in the Boer War, a fact which cropped up again when I catalogued the Top 200 names in England and Wales in 1900 and could see a whole host of children named Redvers, Baden, Roberts and Pretoria. 

This fashion for war-inspired baby names, it seems, persisted right through to the First World War, as we can see from these articles:

 

Yorkshire Evening Post - Tuesday 12 January 1915 

Yes, the First Lord AdmiraI at this time was indeed Winston Churchill. 

I rather love the idea of boys named Jellicoe. It makes me wonder whether Jude Law and Sadie Frost's son Rafferty got this middle name from his family tree. 

This idea of war names was obviously prevalent enough to still be of note decades later:

Dundee Courier - Friday 29 April 1932

Amy Johnson, CBE was a pioneering British aviator and quite an amazing woman. I rather hope there were some girls named after her. 

By the time of the Second World War, opinions on war names seem to have swung the opposite way, with this cautionary advice given to prospective mothers.

Gloucestershire Echo - Thursday 13 August 1942

So, action men and movie starlets are in, politicians and battle places are out, and (thankfully!) no babies were named Stalin.