Would you name your child after a princess…or a railway station?

From Apple Martin to Leicester Railway Cope, The Sunday Post finds out just what’s in a name…

The name Charlotte is surely going to increase in popularity over the coming months with the arrival of the Princess of Cambridge, Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. Unlike many couples, her parents have been very traditional with the choice of names.

Peter McClure, names consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary, says the way children are named has changed over the years. Here, he helps us uncover what’s in a name…

A sprinkle of stardust

The addition of Princess Charlotte to the Royal ranks will doubtless mean many babies born this year will be given the same name.

“The Royal Family has always named children after family members”, explains Peter. “Charlotte goes back to Queen Charlotte. As the Royal Family they are all about continuity and inherited position.

“Most ordinary parents choose names that won’t cause embarrassment at school. They want them to be reasonably familiar but not so familiar that they’re a bit too common. They are hedging their bets all the time.”

When Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin revealed their daughter was called Apple, the reaction from most parents was bemusement, but it looks rather ordinary alongside the names that other celebrity offspring have been landed with.

There’s Coco, daughter of Courteney Cox and David Arquette; Kyd named by David Duchovny and Tea Leoni; and the regal-sounding Jermajesty, child of Jermaine Jackson.

And it’s not just celebrities opting for the unusual. Recently registered in Scotland are girls names Diamond-Ligh, Shontay, Blossom Hill and Merida and boys Dino, Jaxx, Cambil and Korbyn.

Would you believe it!

Bizarre names aren’t necessarily a product of today’s celebrity-driven culture nor is it a new phenomenon. Back in 1863, a Mr and Mrs Cope celebrated the fact that their daughter was born at a railway station by calling her Leicester Railway Cope. Windsor Castle was born to a Nottingham bricklayer and his wife in 1876, while Mineral Waters appeared on the register of births in Essex in 1892.

Robert Gouldstone may have been making an observation when he registered One Too Many Gouldstone in London in 1870, Friendless Baxter (Leeds, 1871) probably regretted her parents choice when she got to school. That’s It Who’d Have Thought It Restell was born to a labourer in Kent in 1886.

If the name fits

The term “nominative determinism” is often used to describe people whose name fits what they do. When they’re choosing a name for a baby that’s just a few hours or days old, parents are unlikely to be thinking of the new arrival’s future career prospects.

Although it’s not something that has been studied widely, some researchers have suggested your name can influence what you do in life. Researchers writing in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people called Dennis and Denise, are more likely to become dentists. MPs called Polly Titian or scientists called Tess Tube may only crop up in comics or Christmas crackers, but there are plenty of real-life examples of people whose name fits what they do.

With a surname like his, what else could Usain Bolt have become but a lightning-quick sprinter?

The parents of a pharmacist in Cornwall, Mr A Pothecary, surely had an inkling of what he would become when they called him Andrew, while Bruno Fromage was literally the big cheese during his time as managing director of the British arm of dairy products firm Danone.

During President Reagan’s tenure at the White House, his press spokesman was Larry Speakes. Similar examples include Belgian footballer Mark De Man, lawmaker Lord Judge and gardener Bob Flowerdew.

Explorer Bear Grylls is a particularly fine example. It’s hard to believe he’d have become quite so synonymous with surviving in the great outdoors if he’d been called Terry. Although perhaps he has a relative somewhere called Electric…

Why baby name books are getting thicker

Up until the mid-18th Century, 70% of the male population had one of five names (John, Thomas, Robert, Richard and William) because people were named after family members and godparents. In the late 14th Century there were around 2,000 names in use. By 2009 more than 60,000 names were in use in the UK. As recently as 1950, the top 10 names accounted for 53% of boys and 36% of girls. Today that is 13% of boys and 15% of girls, showing that a wider variety of names are being used.

“It started in the late 18th Century, with changes in society that saw people being treated more as individuals,” says Peter. There was felt to be a need to emphasise the individuality of the child, rather than its place within the family network. Children were still named after someone in the family, but there was a big increase in the popularity of naming a child in some other way, especially the girls.”

How we choose is changing

“If you ask people why they have chosen a name, most of them will say they just like the name”, says Peter. “If you look back to 1750 or earlier it was almost always because a name memorialised someone in the family.

“It suggested family connectedness and that the child had obligations and that the person after whom they were named often had obligations too. That weakened during the 19th Century. Biblical influence was important for many centuries, with some of the saints names very popular in the medieval period. At the Reformation the puritans favoured choosing names from the Old Testament rather than the New because they saw themselves as a New Israel, a new people chosen by God to restore the world to its pristine state. Today, people may name a daughter Rachel or a son Isaac, but that’s less to do with biblical influences than fashion.”

Middle names. Why do we have them?

Having a middle name allows parents to choose a first name that they like for some reason, but to have a middle name that belongs to the family. That can be a first name or perhaps a surname chosen from the mother’s side of the family.

“It’s become so individualistic because some people have become so particular about choosing names that are unusual or have a personal association,” says Peter. “Children for example called Brooklyn as that’s where the child was conceived. That didn’t used to happen.”

Choose from a government list

In some countries there are rules governing what names you can choose, but in the UK you can name your baby whatever you choose, although when officially registering and legally naming the baby, mums have overall choice. Whether or not they are married to their partner, dads are unable to insist on any part of the name at all. A birth must be registered within 21 days in Scotland or 42 days in England.

In Iceland parents must choose from a list of 1,853 female names and 1,712 male ones, or get permission from a special committee. In Germany, a Turkish couple were not allowed to call their baby Osama Bin Laden while the name 4Real wasn’t allowed in New Zealand, because names can’t start with a number.

Most parents still prefer something more traditional

Figures from National Records of Scotland show that Jack and Emily were the most popular first forenames for babies registered in 014.

It was the seventh year in a row that Jack topped the boys list while Emily rose from third to replace Sophie as the most popular girls’ name.