Individual babies with names that have fascinating stories.
In October of 1912, as the steamship Northland was traveling northward along the west coast of the U.S. from California to Oregon, an 8-pound baby was born to passenger Mrs. Daniel Boone Conover.
The baby boy was named Orford Northland Conover: “The second cognomen given him indicates that he was born on the Northland while the first means that his birth took place off Orford reef.”
Source: “Babe One Day Old as Steamer Docks.” San Fransisco Chronicle 19 Oct. 1912: 1.
In November of 1878, a baby boy was born aboard the New Zealand ship Waipa, which was under the command of Capt. John Gorn at the time.
The baby, “born in a cyclone at four bells off Cape Dove,” ended up with the name Cyclone Cape Dove Four Bells Gorn Bendall.
The 1924 book I’m using as a source claims that the ship’s name was also part of the list, but the baby’s baptism record doesn’t include the word “Waipa.”
(The Waipa, by the way, was owned and operated by the New Zealand Shipping Company, which had a policy requiring ships crossing the Pacific to make a stop at the Pitcairn Islands — which is where Thursday October Christian was born.)
Source: Brett, Henry. White Wings: Fifty Years of Sail in the New Zealand Trade, 1850 to 1900. Vol. 1. Auckland, NZ: The Brett Printing Company Limited, 1924, p. 263.
Image: View of the crew in the bow of the sailing ship Waipa at Port Chalmers
In September of 1960, the American hospital ship SS Hope traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia, on its maiden voyage.
In mid-December, the first baby was born aboard the ship. The baby girl was named Mada Jordan Hope — “Hope” for the ship, and “Jordan” for the midwife who delivered her.
Source: “Hope Baby.” Nashua Telegraph 21 Dec. 1960: 3.
On the morning of August 27, 2008, a woman aboard a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Adelaide went into labor. Paramjit Kaur gave birth to a baby boy over Northwest Territory, and the plane made an emergency landing at Darwin airport.
A day later, Paramjit and her husband, Jagtar Jaswal, announced that they’d decided to name the baby Pawan-deep Jaswal
His parents said Pawan-deep meant “ocean and air”, in reference to his unusual place of birth.
The name Pawan comes from Sanskrit and does indeed mean “wind.” But Deep (also spelled Dip) typically refers to a “lamp” or a “light,” as in the names Amandeep and Jagdeep, so I’m not sure where the definition “ocean” is coming from. (Maybe the parents spelled it d-e-e-p to coincide with the English word, making it a sort of poetic reference to the ocean?)
Source: Cunningham, Matt. “Miracle baby named after ocean and air.” NT News 29 Aug. 2008.
P.S. Want more airplane babies?
From a recent CNN article about how to pronounce Sen. Kamala Harris’s name:
Harris wrote in the preface of her 2019 memoir, “The Truths We Hold,” “First, my name is pronounced ‘comma-la,’ like the punctuation mark. It means ‘lotus flower,’ which is a symbol of significance in Indian culture. A lotus grows underwater, its flower rising above the surface while its roots are planted firmly in the river bottom.
From a 1982 Washington Post article about actors Lucie Arnaz and Laurence Luckinbill:
Lucie Arnaz, whose illustrious pedigree is evident in her name, and actor Laurence Luckinbill were Simonized several years ago.
He was on Broadway doing Neil Simon’s “Chapter Two.” She was on Broadway doing Neil Simon’s “They’re Playing Our Song.” They met at Joe Allan’s, the famous Broadway restaurant, and started seeing each other entr’acte.
[…]
Twenty months ago, they had a son, whom they named…Simon.
From a 2015 Indian Express article in which Rebel Wilson talks about her name:
A little girl named Rebel sang at my parents’ wedding. My mum is really big on theme names like that – my sisters are called Liberty and Annachi, and my brother is Ryot. I did pretty well in comparison. I love it.
You can’t be a shrinking violet if you have a name like Rebel. It gives me an edge and helps me not give in to my fears. I try to live that way.
From a 1998 BBC article about All Saint singer Melanie Blatt:
Melanie and her boyfriend, musician Stuart Zender [of Jamiroquai], revealed in a magazine interview that they intend to name their daughter Lily Ella [sic]: Lily after the first flowers he bought her during their courtship and Ella after the music legend Ella Fitzgerald.
(Technically, her name is Lilyella.)
From a case study (pdf) of Amtrak’s automated customer service representative, “Julie,” launched in 2001:
Julie became popular with callers and even garnered national acclaim through blogs, YouTube videos, and as an answer on the TV quiz game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Her persona was even featured on Saturday Night Live. “I’ve been surprised about how attached people have gotten to Amtrak Julie,” says the woman who provides the voice of Julie, Julie Stinneford. “I find it funny. Because they’re not really talking to me. They’re talking to a computer.”
From a 2019 NPR interview with musical duo (and identical twins) Tegan and Sara, who originally called themselves “Sara and Tegan”:
We changed the name only because we had a manager [who] gave us one good piece of advice during that time. He said, “When people say ‘Sara and Tegan,’ it all blends together into one word and they don’t know what you’re saying. But if you say ‘Tegan and Sara,’ you have to enunciate. So I think you should switch your names around.” So we did.
From a recent Crunchyroll article about parents who named their son Asta after the anime character (Black Clover):
We came up with that name early on but had other names we considered like Natsu, Sora, Roxas, and Yuki.
From a 2007 Times Colonist [Victoria, British Columbia] article about unusual baby names:
The time was when naming a baby Conan or Calamity could doom a kid to years of schoolyard drubbings, but if Genghis Charm Usher’s experience is any indication, the times are changing.
Genghis, 13, can’t recall any friction caused by his unusual name, pointing out “that you don’t have to have a weird name to get teased.”
[…]
“I love my name. Once they get my name, they don’t forget it,” he says.