PITY THE CHILDREN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 25 May 1915, Page 3

PITY THE CHILDREN.

BETTER SENSE IN OLD TIMES.

Mr H. A. Hamilton remarks in his "Quarter Sessions from Queen Elizabeth" : "In looking through so many volumes of county records, I have seen many thousands and tens of thousands of proper names belonging to men or all ranks and degrees, and in no single instance down to the reign of Anne have I noticed any person bearing more than one Christian name. The first instance occurs in 1717, when Sir Copplestone Warwick Bampfield appears among the Exeter justices. The first instance I have met with elsewhere is that of Henry Frederick, Earl of Arundel, named after the eldest son of James 1., who was born in Scotland. No King of England bore two Christian names before William 111., who was'a Dutchman." jSnglish children used to be protected by law against- any super-abundance of names. ."A man cannot have'two names of baptism," says Coke; and this rule was not relaxed until the accession of James I. The Scotch were then in. the habit of duplicating baptismal names; but the 18th , century was well advanced before* such a practice became general in England. The late Francis Marion Crawford might have been instanced as a man with a woman's name. 'Ihen, too, we have the case of Mr Rose-Innes, and a writer, of charming Irish lyrics received in baptism the name of Denis 'Florence McCarthy. Among other names common to the two sexes may be mentioned Evelyn and Sidney, Jesse and George. For George is somehow the feminine chojce of the agricultural name when it comes to book-writing. Mary is not by any means the only 'name that has been borne by .men and women alike. Sir Patience Ward was Lord Mayor of London in ]JBBO, Eve SHfhton is mentioned in & will of the 16th century, and Grace Hardwin was an old landowner in, America. As to male names usurped by the ladies, instances occur of feminine Philips and Georges, and in one case a daughter was duly baptised Noah. A goddaughter of the Duke of Wellington was named Arthur m his honor, and in Effingham. Church there is a monument to Timothy, wife of Richard Mabanke. The longest name ever inflicted on an English child must surely be that of an unfortunate born at Derby in 1882, upon whom her parents bestowed a name for every letter of the ajphabet: Anna Bertha Cecilia Diana Emily Fanny Gertrude Hypatia Inez Jane Kate Louise Maude Nora; I will cease the infliction till it comes to Zeus! The Rev. Ralph Lyonel Tollemache was another uith a craze for long names, and baptised his eldest son: Lyulon Yderallo Odin Nestor Egbert Lyonel Toedrca'g Hugh Erehenwyse Saxon Esa Orme Cromwell Nevil Dysart Plantagenet. Are any of these burdened infants still alive and lucking? Some Americans must wish that the eccentricities of their parents had been restrained by a law similar to that promulgated in France, insisting that children must be named either after a saint or an historical personage. This would prevent such poor j; N as that perpetrated by a Westerner-Bulled Death", who named one of his sons Jolly and the other Sudden, or by Victoria Woodhull's father, who named one of her sisters Tennie C. and the other Uti K. In one of the reports of the United States Census Commissioners mention is made of a woman named Preserved Bullock, and of a man called Preserved Fish; and also oi five children christened respectively Imprimis, Finis, Appendix, Addendum, and Erratum. The old English canonical proscription of baptismal names, "indecent or pagan," prevailed also in Italy, but has had to he sadly relaxed. A compromise is made, and the clergy will consent to christen little Themistocles, little Vitellus, and little Heliogabalus on condition that a thoroughly Christie na ™ e j<3 adrlorj.—"Office Window" of the London Chroiflcle.