Names and current affairs

[Manchester Rambler]

While looking up some births on Free BMD, an unusual name caught my eye, and sent me off on a completely different track...
 
During the Boer War (1899-1902), hundreds of children were named after the commanders, battles and heroes of the time.  Among the more popular leaders were:

Henry Redvers Buller
Frederick Sleigh Roberts ("Bobs")
Horatio Herbert Kitchener
Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell
Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

And the battles:

Pretoria, Ladysmith, Tugela, Colenso and Mafeking all scored highly in the name stakes.

However, some parents were even more imaginative...

Among my favourites:

Pretoria Surrender H Evans
Mafeking Roberts Turner
Tugela Royal Kallsen
Mafeking Baden P[owell] H MacDonald
Pretoria Ladysmith Ellis
Tugela Colenso P A Rooke
Kitchener Bobs Thornton
Baden Welcome Jordan
Colenso Victory Custance
Ladysmith Shamrock and Thistle Dujon
Redvers Buller K[itchener] R[oberts] B[aden] P[owell] Perrin
Winston Pretoria B Wright
Veldt Rose Brewer
Natal Bishop
Transvaal Roberts Jury
Vereeninging Annie Dorey
Kimberley Mafeking Edwards
Magersfontein Paardeberg Somers
Bloemfontein Salmon

The end of the war coincided more or less with the coronation of Edward VII, so in addition to all the little Edward Alberts and Alexandras, there are gems like:

Coronation Edward Akehurst
Peace Albert Akehurst (Corrie's twin)
Peace Coronation Hammond

I'd love to have a few of these names in my tree!  Did other world events affect our naming patterns?  When I get time, I'm certainly going to check it out....

MR

[Nessie]

Don't know if the two I found in my tree today are anything to do with current affairs or not
But for a miners family to have twins a boy and girl by the way and call them Pyrah and Merab seems a bit unlikely. Anyone come across these as christian names?

[RJ_Paton]

Merab is a name from Caucasus area see
http://www.geocities.com/khabazim/ for one example

[Nessie]

That is interesting, but it was the girl twin who was called Merab I have a faint memory from Sunday School that when David beat Goliath, he was then betrothed to a Merab. Maybe from that part of the world it is a uni-sex name. Still neither of the names seem to go with Scargill as a surname.

[RJ_Paton]

They can't be worse than some of the "modern" concoctions that parents saddle their children with.

"But it came to pass at the time when Merab Saul's daughter should have been given to David, that she was given unto Adriel the Meholathite to wife." (1 Samuel 18:17-19 KJV)

[RJ_Paton]

A further search shows that Merab was an egyptian male name .

[Paul E]

From 1881, I particularly like

William Waterloo Napoleon Saunders, b1868

Paul

[Paul E]

And I've just noticed that he had a brother...

Pius Romulus Saunders, b1877

[DebbieDee]

My gt gt grandfather had two sons named Ebert (b1880) and Metford(my gt grandfather).

Don't know where my family got Ebert from - it may be from a German surname.  The first president of the Weimar Republic (in Germany 1919) was a Friedrich Ebert who lived from 1871-1925.

Unfortunately my granddad was named Ebert Walter Metford  .  Even worse he was born (in Somerset) in 1920.  No wonder he was always known as plain old 'Bert'.