30 strange - and real - names from the past
WHAT’S in a name?
Apparently Forest, Hawk, Hunter, Fox, Storm, Hallie, Aurora, Skye, River, Rowan and Raven were just some of the unusual monikers given to babies born in the UK this year.
The Chronicle revealed the findings of the website Babycentre earlier this week.
It’s not only modern parents who gave their offspring left-of-centre names, however.
A trawl through the census returns and birth, marriage and death records of the late 19th and early 20th centuries reveals some truly odd names (some of which are unprintable in a family publication).
The following are all genuine names of people who lived in the North East.
The come from the book Potty, Fartwell and Knob, by Russell Ash, Headline Publishing:
(Key: b=born; m=married; d=died)
■■William Conqueror, b Sunderland, 1862
■■Charles Bigfoot, m Aycliffe, Durham, 1767
■■U Watt, m Northumberland, 1900
■■Batman Wanless, m Tynemouth, 1871
■■I Sickle, b Newcastle, b 1857
■■Annie Argument, b Durham, 1887
■■Margerine Fryer, b Durham, 1831
■■Norah Balls, b North Shields, 1887
■■Joseph Twaddle Mustard, b Tynenmouth, b1897
■■Maude Stale Bun, b Sunderland, 1851
■■Isabella Bum, n Newcastle, 1824
■■Herbert Abcdef Atkinson, b Tynemouth, 1904
■■Old Bill, d Newcastle, 1906
■■Jelling Cluck, b Bedlington, 1871
■■Curvy Cleary, b Newcastle, 1846
■■William Quack Dawson, b Tynemouth, 1872
■■Sally Anne Flapper, b Gateshead, 1976
■■Angus Skid Henderson, Earsdon, census 1881
■■Jane Jiffy, South Shields, 1857
■■Hannah Mattress, d Bishop Auckland, 1859
■■Mad Price, b Bishop Auckland, 1865
■■Lezetta Stacker, b Tynemouth, 1861
■■Mary Quato Swindle, b Newcastle, 1902
■■Tamper Tharth, b Durham, 1838 ■■Volantine Unthank, b Gateshead, 1717
■■Crucifix Valente, d Sunderland, 1900
■■S Trumpet, b Tynemouth, 1862
■■Sarah Pooer, b Durham, 1893
■■Lethal Margaret Stothert, b Northumberland, 1857
■■George Raspberry Hogarth, b Tynemouth, 1898