Two months ago, Lisa Barnaby of Hertfordshire, England, gave birth to a baby girl outside of a pub.
She and her husband Gavin had been trying to reach to the hospital, but got stuck in traffic. So they pulled off the road, parked at a pub called The Bell, and called an ambulance instead.
The baby didn’t want to wait for a ride to the hospital, though — she ended up being delivered by paramedics in the back seat of Lisa and Gavin’s Vauxhall Zafira, still parked outside the pub.
What did the couple name their new baby girl? Bella, after The Bell.
Mr Barnaby said naming their new baby after the pub was a good way of capturing Bella’s birth.
He said: “It will always be a reminder of that magical night.”
I wonder if the name Zafira was ever a contender…
Source: “Parents name baby girl after The Bell pub in Benington.” BBC News 30 Nov. 2012
Image: Adapted from The Old Nags Head, Grindsbrook Booth, Edale by Barrie Price under CC BY-SA 4.0.
[Latest update: Apr. 2025]
I would have preferred Zafira Bell.
I also can’t help thinking that they only “named her after the pub” because it could be turned into Bella, which they liked anyway – they wouldn’t have bothered if she’d been born at The King’s Head, The Royal Oak or The White Lion.
Good point. This pub name just happened to be a letter away from a nice-sounding girl name, but would they have bothered to pay tribute to a pub with a less attractive name? Hm.