Unusual Christian Names

[MickG]

Some mothers also gave the fathers surname as a child's middle name where the alleged father denied being the child's parent. It was a way for the mother to get both a little revenge as well as leaving a future foot in the door for the child to establish their parentage. It also helped the child being labeled a Bastard. As much as a swear words that it may seem, I have seen in parish registers where the vicar gave a yearly summary of the number of marriages, burials, baptisms and bastards baptised that he had conducted during the year. He would also place the word Bastard against the child's name in the baptismal register.

If the alleged father of a child objected to his surname being used as a child's middle name there was really nothing they could do about it. By claiming they were not the child's father they had no right to determine its name. To gain that right they had to admit to being the parent.

Some parish registers refer to a child being base born if they were illegitimate. In one particular case, (not my tree), a unmarried mother claimed she had never slept with anyone to which the vicar added the entry "How wondrous are the works of the Lord" against the child's name.

[EX CUSTOM HOUSE]

MickG
re the Christian Name posts:-
To-day my eldest Son paid a visit and we talked of my Step-Fathers (Dad went in the War) family.
His Mother had 16 children and my Son has traced 10.

Each Child, Male or Female had 3 christian names, the second one always being "KINGDOM" and we have
puzzled over this strange name given to all the sexes.

Any ideas ? has it been around before, we wonder if they were in any ways religious?

Louise.

[MBrennan]

Maybe they heard the name of the great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and thought it was a good idea?  

Mark

[MickG]

Louise,

I have been looking at the birth indexes where people were given the middle name Kingdom by their parents. Most of these are in West Country counties where Isambard Kingdom Brunel did much of his work including, the Great Western Railway and steamship, the two mile long box tunnel and the Clifton suspension bridge as well as the Tamar Bridge.

I tried to find your stepfathers family by the second name Kingdom to see if I could find any connections but unfortunately births and marriages recorded after 1911 dropped showing the full second name and replaced by the initial letter only.

Unless their is some family connection to the name which only genealogical research will reveal, I suspect it is more likely to be the influence of Brunel's life.

Has you son been able to trace your stepfathers family line back further to see if anyone named Kingdom married into the family line?

[MBrennan]

It says here that Brunel's middle name was his mother's maiden name http://www.applet-magic.com/brunel.htm

Which maybe started a fashion?

Mark