unnamed child?

[Matt Wilson]

Apologies if someone asked before but does anyone kniw why a birth certificate wouldnt carry a childs first name? george kingdon had a daughter in barnstaple 1866 with his wife matilda but only listed her surnsme, i thught this might be merely a stillbirth so bought the cert to be a completist but theres no nearby death notice or correction on cert, i dont think they would have called her thingy kingdon for the rest of her life:) Any ideas?

[ShaunJ]

It would seem likely that they had not decided on a name at that stage.

[LizzieL]

Was the registration date close to the 42 day from birth deadline?

[scotmum]

Given proximity of the town to river and sea, was the father a fisherman/sailor? If yes, and he was away and the mother or someone else registered the birth, it is possible the wife wanted to await his return to name the child, but didn't want to risk missing registering her. That said, I think you are implying that he registered the birth, so it could just be, as has been suggested, that no name had been chosen at that time.

[Matt Wilson]

hi guys, the baby was born 8th march and registered by her mom 31st march, yes george was a shipwright thsnks for the great advice.

[aghadowey]

Birth certificates are only listed for babies born alive and it was only in the 1900s that a Stillbirth Register began to record those babies.

If no first name(s) are listed on the birth certificate then the registrar wasn't given any name(s) at the time of registration. Nowadays it's uncommon but it wasn't in the 1800s. (in the 1990s hospital registrar looked horrified when I said I could register child's birth now but hadn't decided on middle name yet)

Often a bapismal record will record a child's full name- sometimes even if before civil registration without name listed.

[philipsearching]

If the child was alive in 1871 it should be possible to match the details from the family on the 1871 census.  Otherwise, if you have the family address from the birth certificate you could check the local church records to see if there was a baptism in the months after the birth (although not everybody was baptised in infancy!).

All the best
Philip

[stanmapstone]

The birth certificate states in column 2  "Name if Any" there was no requirement to give a name. In column 10 a Baptismal Name could be added within six calendar months after registration of the birth.

Stan