Conservative journalist Matt Lewis welcomed his second son on November 12.
The baby’s name? Becket Wilberforce Lewis, in honor of St. Thomas Becket (1118-1170) and British politician William Wilberforce (1759-1833).
“[M]y wife and I agreed on interesting names that were also significant. Since I’m a writer, a lot of people think Samuel Beckett, but the first name is after Thomas Becket.”
Lewis considers William Wilberforce is among his heroes. “He led the movement to abolish the slave trade in Great Britain, and is a prime example of a statesman who used the political process to bring about positive change in the world,” he said.
Becket’s older bother, Burke, was named for British politician Edmund Burke (1729-1797).
Lewis suggests in “3 political heroes as admirable as Lincoln” that, if he and his wife have a third son, he might be named Bonhoeffer after German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945).
P.S. The surname Wilberforce can be traced back to the place name Wilberfoss, which is a village eight miles east of York. Wilberfoss is made up of the elements Wilberg, an Old English feminine name, and foss, Old English for “ditch.”
Sources:
- Hanks, Patrick, Kate Hardcastle and Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of First Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
- Journo Picks World’s Most Unusual Baby Name