In January of 1880, Anglican vicar W. R. Tate “baptized a boy, in the parish church of Stone, near Dartford [in Kent], by the name of Sou’Wester.”
His parents were hawkers, passing through the parish in a “house on wheels,” and he was named after an uncle, who had received a similar name from having been born at sea during a sou’westerly gale.
I wish Tate had mentioned the family surname in his account, so that I could track down these Sou’Westers in the records…
P.S. A baby born at sea during rough weather several centuries earlier was named Storm Vanderzee.
Source: Tate, W. R. “Curious Christian Names.” Notes and Queries 7 Feb. 1880: 125.
Image: Adapted from Ship in Rough Seas (public domain) by Andreas Riis Carstensen
