How popular is the baby name Leonatus in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Leonatus.

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Popularity of the baby name Leonatus


Posts that mention the name Leonatus

The baby name Posthumus

cemetery

In the middle of the 16th century, English babies whose fathers had died before they were born started getting names like “Postumus,” “Posthumous” and “Posthuma.”

The idea of styling a child by this name, thus connected its birth with the father’s antecedent death, seems to have touched a sympathetic chord, and the practice began to widely prevail.

Here are the earliest examples I’ve found:

  • In 1566, Thomas Posthumus Hoby was born.
  • On February 10, 1572, Posthumus, son of Robert Pownoll, was christened at Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, England.
  • On April 9, 1581, Posthumus, daughter of John Strowde, was christened in Eastwell, Kent, England.
  • On January 1, 1583, Posthumus, son of Rawlf Coulton, was christened in York, England.
  • On March 5, 1597, Posthuma, daughter of John Grubbs, was christened in Little Plumstead, Norfolk, England.

Shakespeare even featured a character named Posthumus Leonatus in his play Cymbeline (circa 1611).

For centuries, names like these were used as firsts and middles, for both boys and girls, in England and elsewhere (U.S. included).

The practice started winding down in the late 1800s; I’ve only found handful of babies named Posthumus born post-1900.

Update, 11/2013: Looks like the original version of the word, Postumus, was used as a given name in ancient times as well. During the years that ancient Rome was a Republic, “the praenomen was a real personal name” (not so later on) and some of the praenomina used during this period reflected birth circumstances. One example is Postumus, “a child born after his father’s death.” Another is Vopiscus, “the sole survivor of twins.”

Update, 3/2022: I recently came across a 15th-century king called Ladislaus the Posthumous.

Sources:

  • Bardsley, Charles Wareing Endell. Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature. London: Chatto & Windus, 1897.
  • Wilson, Stephen. The Means Of Naming: A Social History. London: UCL Press, 1998.

Image: Adapted from 1661 Cemetery Manchester-by-the-Sea MA by M2545 under CC BY-SA 4.0.