A genealogist at the UK's leading probate firm has revealed a 1980s birth record containing the forenames Buzz, Fly, Pineapple, Pedigree, Abbot, Whoopsie and Bun, saying the combination 'takes some beating'.
Neil Fraser, who runs Fraser and Fraser, has spent years working with documents that connect families across generations, including wills, birth certificates and marriage certificates. He said unusual names are not a modern invention.
Historic oddities
Among the older records examined by Neil and his colleagues was one involving a girl born in 1875 who had been given the name Zebra. Another record, dating back to 1842, listed a child as Mineral Girl, while a child born in 1907 was given the first name Enough.
Elsewhere, the team found a birth record where the child's name was simply recorded as Baby Girl. They also encountered a girl who appeared to have been given 26 names, following the alphabet from one name to the next, and an 1885 marriage involving Frankenstein Pitt and a woman who was already a Frankenstein herself.
1980s record stands out
Despite these bizarre examples, one of Neil's favourites came from the 1980s. He said: "One of our favourites is much more recent, where we came across a birth record containing the forenames Buzz, Fly, Pineapple, Pedigree, Abbot, Whoopsie and Bun. Even after seeing thousands of records, that one takes some beating."
He added: "It's very difficult to beat a name like Buzz Fly Pineapple." Neil said the record is particularly memorable because it is not a Victorian curiosity, noting: "The record is from the 1980s. This person is likely still alive."
The discovery has had an impact inside the firm, with two names becoming particular favourites among staff. Neil said: "We've seen thousands of names over the years, but Whoopsie and Pineapple have definitely become office favourites."
Name changes and international rules
The firm's experiences also show that unusual names are not necessarily something people leave behind once they reach adulthood. Neil said the genealogists had encountered a number of people who had changed their names by Deed Poll, with the most memorable example being someone who had changed their given name to Sausage.
While Britain has its own rules around names and official records, some countries take a much stricter approach. In Norway, a mother attempted to register her son under the name Gesher, which means bridge in Hebrew. According to Erin McCarthy, speaking on the YouTube channel Mental Floss: "Norway is yet another country that regulates what parents can name their child. One Norwegian mother was fined about $210 for using the unapproved name 'Gesher,' and sent to jail when she didn't pay. She protested, saying that she had been instructed to name her son Gesher, the Hebrew word for bridge, in a dream she had."
The woman, Kirsti Larsen, had 14 children and said the dream came shortly before the birth of her 13th child in April 1995. She claimed a voice had instructed her in English to call the baby "Bridge", leading her to choose the Hebrew translation, Gesher. Norwegian officials rejected the name, arguing that it was too foreign, was not sufficiently recognisable as a boy's name and was too close to the surname Geser.
Norway's naming laws date back to the 19th century and give authorities the power to reject names considered inappropriate or likely to cause difficulties for a child. For genealogists, cases like these provide an unusual insight into the way parents have made naming decisions across different periods – and show that unusual baby names are certainly not a purely modern trend.
