I read an article on line that interested me – it was about babies in the UK during WW1 who were named after battles and other names associated with the war.
It led me to type some of the common UK names into the Tasmanian names database…
I started with the names discussed in the UK study to see if the war influenced children’s names here as well, and to draw some comparisons.
There are some key difference between the UK study and the Tasmanian names database. One is, that I can see both first and middle names, whereas often middle names weren’t visible to the original researcher, so, where as the UK study found 901 babies named Verdun from a population of 43 million (1911 census), and I found 67 instances of the name from a population of 200,000, this isn’t to say the concept of “Battle Babies” was more popular in Tasmanian than the UK as my numbers include middle names. Because the original Tasmanian documents aren’t available on line for the war years, I’m also at the mercy of the skills and whims of the transcriber. For instance, there seems to be a lot of babies named Lourain during the war, and I think that these were meant to be written Louvain (a battle), but the transcriber hasn’t been familiar with the name and instead transcribed it as something more recognisable to them as a name. The UK study didn’t look at gender, but that information is also available in Tasmania.
The sorts of names used are very similar between the UK and Tasmania. In both places, the name Verdun was most popular. Verdun was the longest battle of the war, and, at the time, one of the best known. I first came across the name Verdun in an episode of the UK Who Do You Think You Are with Jodie Whittaker. Jodie’s grandmother was named Verdun and the family story was that it was because her brother had been killed there. However, it turns out that the battle was one fought by the French not the English or allies, and that in fact Verdun was just “a trendy name.” https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/tutorials/tv-series/jodie-whittaker-who-do-you-think-you-are/
However, some names that were common in the UK study barely raised a mention here – there were just one baby named Ypres in Tasmania.
Other names were far and wide more popular in Tasmania. There were 11 babies named Haig in the UK, while Tasmania had 15 babies named Douglas Haig! And the name Belgium was used 12 times, plus variations (ie Belgiana), whereas as the UK study recorded none (although there’s no way of knowing which names they searched for).
There were also names that were uniquely Australian, the most obvious being Anzac. 33 Tasmanian babies were named Anzac between 1915 and 1920. However, battles that were major Australian battles don’t feature any more prominently than in the UK study. I found only 2 babies named Gallipoli. And Mena, the camp where the Australians trained in Egypt, inspired just two sets of parents (Mena Vicary, a sister of Betty Ypres Vicary whose grave is shown above, wasn’t christened Mena, it was just a nickname that stuck), although there were another two Menas born well before the war, so the name may have been chosen independently of its wartime connotations.
The use of war names, seem to have been more widely used for male babies than girls, however it may be that for girls the names are ‘feminised’ and therefore not showing up in my searching, ie I found babies named Dardenella, Belgiana and Anza. Many girls called Frances may have been in order to honour the site of many battle fields. Of the seven babies named Victory, only 1 was a girl, however there may have been many baby Victorias, named for the same reason but who are not as obvious in the records. Similarly, babies called Irene may have been named after the Goddess of Peace. Of course, patriotic names for boys, such as George for the King, are also hidden. Most war names were used for both girls and boys. In other cases names choices are clearly gendered, girls were named after female war heroes (6 girls were named Cavell, presumably after the British nurse, Edith Cavell, including 3 who received the first name Edith), whereas only one boy got Cavell, and there are no girls with any variation on Haig.
Where did people get the idea? There were rarely more than one “battle baby” name in each nuclear family, but often seemed to run in families, ie cousins, or in communities, for instance it seems (I don’t have the data to prove it) that Campbell Town was a hotspot for war names.
The original article claims, “mothers might name their child for the battle which had claimed their father.” It’s time consuming to chase up what fathers were up to, and there are certainly examples where fathers were away at war, or older brothers. However, due to the times and distances, even in these cases it’s almost impossible for a Tasmanian born child to be named after a battle that took their father.
If babies were named to honour particular serviceman, it’s more likely an older brother or uncle. From my research, it seems that very few of these babies with war names had fathers who served at all. I think it’s much more likely that these sorts of names were chosen by families who did not have a serving member, in order to demonstrate patriotism and commitment. In one Queensland example (I know, not Tasmanian!) two parents with vary German names themselves, named their baby daughter Anzac Isobel (Wagner), perhaps as an overtly patriotic gesture to show without doubt where their sympathies lay in the conflict.
Also, was a war name honouring a fallen family member a memory a family would really want? A reminder of death rather than of life? In the Aherne family in Launceston in 1918, a baby was named after the battle of Mouquet. After the war, when her younger sister was born, the completely opposite style name was chosen, and she was named Joy.
War names appeared in Tasmania right through into the 1920s (when records are no longer available), and likely longer – my own grandfather was born in 1925 and his middle name is possible an homage to his uncle lost in 1916. In Tasmania, the use of war inspired names peaked in 1916, the same as the UK. War names did drop off in popularity markedly after the war, and the types of names changed to ones that were more generally patriotic, rather than as closely linked to individual events, for instance only one Verdun was born in the 1920s, and no Belgiums, whereas there were four Anzacs and variations. In Tasmanian, just two babies were named Armistice, and neither of these was born within a month of 11 November 1919! Seven babies were named Victory, and all of them were born prior to the armistice.
One thing that was clear between the UK and Tasmania, was that the infant death rate was markedly better in Tasmania. The UK study found a death rate of 14% amongst “battle babies.” Looking just at the 67 Tasmanian babies named Verdun, only 4 died during the period 1914-1920, giving a death rate of closer to 6%.
Of course my exploration, soon led to me looking at names within my own family. I didn’t find any in my direct family, however going a bit sideways, here some examples:
Emmaline ANZAC Kerrison
Emmaline Anzac was born in Beaconsfield on 15 December 1915. Her father was William Ernest Kerrison and her mother Emmeline nee Best.
With the baby and her mother sharing the same first name, Emmeline Anzac was known as Anzac, throughout her childhood and youth. A fair number of ‘battle babies’ dropped their more outlandish names during their lifetime, and indeed while Anzac Kerrison held onto Anzac as a middle name, she may have either everted to using Emmaline or to shorting Anzac to Annie, once she was an adult.
Anzac was the youngest of eleven children. None of her siblings have any names that are obviously political or patriotic. Her father didn’t serve in the war, and Anzac herself was already two years old when her eldest brothers, Gordon and Ernest, enlisted.
Gordon Kerrison, left, and Ernest Kerrison, right, who left behind a bay sister called Anzac when they enlisted in 1918
Interestingly, Gordon’s military records show that he followed up with the Department to find out about the death of another soldier, Thomas Page who had been killed. Thomas had been born and raised in Beaconsfield and was likely a friend of Gordon’s. His mother had died prior the war and his father died while he was overseas, which didn’t mean that there was no one left to be effected by his death and to mourn him.
Anzac spent her life in Beaconsfield. As a child in the interwar years, she was heavily involved in the community, and often put forward to hand over bouquets and take part in weddings. I wonder if this was to do with her personal qualities, or if a community in mourning saw a child called Anzac as a symbol of something about war and peace and hope that they wanted to project.
Working out how Anzac is related to be is an interesting exercise! The Kerrisons and my Stonehouses, came together when two sisters of my GGG Grandfather Alfred Stonehouse married into the Kerrison family.
However! Anzac’s husband was John ‘Jack’ Bilson. Jack’s GGG grand parents were Joseph and Mary Bilson, who happened to be my GGGG grandparents, making Jack and I cousins of a sort.
Alfred PEACE Kerrison
Alfred Peace Kerrison was one of three brothers born in Beaconsfield in the early 20th century. He was a first cousin of Anzac Kerrison (their fathers were brothers).
His eldest brother’s name was Horace, which may also have been to signal some sort of meaning about patriotism.
After the war two sisters were born, but neither had war related names.
Alfred was born prior to peace being declared, so his name was likely about hope and desire. He had several uncles and cousins old enough to serve – including his cousins Gordon and Ernest, brothers to Anzac – so would have had family links to the war and likely deep desire for the war to end.
When Alfred Peace was 21 there was another world war, and he enlisted. Is there any more tragic than a baby named Peace during a ‘War to End All Wars,” having to go and fight in yet another war?
In the 1990s, when Alfred was in his seventies, he seems to have spent a lot of time thinking about his war service, and contacting the Department to get clarification on where he served and to follow up on memorabilia and medals.
Like his cousin, Alfred held onto his war middle name, using it throughout his life. One Ancestry tree suggests that to those he was close to, he was known by another name suggestive of a broader identity and meaning, Tas.
Una ANZAC Vinen
Una Anzac Vinen, and I share William Annear and Sarah Dinah nee Bilson as direct ancestors.
Una was born in October 1918, in Sidmouth, to Claude Vinon and Emmeline nee Davis.
Ancestry trees suggested that she had an younger brother called Neon. Neon? Why yes, that really was his name – it appears on electoral and his obituary. Neon’s middle names was the family name, Bilson, so Una was born into a family where names were carefully chosen to have deeper meaning.
As an adult Una was known as Ann however, I can’t find much else about her.
Barbara BELGIUM PEACE Triffett
Belgium was another name not mentioned in the UK study, but which I found 14 occurrences of – including Belgian and Belgiana and some uses of it as a first name.
Barbara Belgium Peace Triffett was born in November 1918 in Queenstown (or Gormanston). According to Ancestry trees she was the youngest of 10 children born to Barbara nee Krivan and Hugh Derwent Triffett. While other children in the family have “Family” names, and Barbara herself kept the name Barabra in the family when she chose a middle name for one of her own daughters, no one else seems to have been given a name relating to the political times.
Barbara doesn’t seem to have held onto or used her war names during her life: on all official documents I can find, she’s known simply as Barbara.
As an adult, Barbara entered my family, when she married Norman Wilfred Fisher, whose mother was a Bilson.
The First Ball I Took Your Mother To 