Baby born in England, named after entire soccer team (1965)

soccer game

In mid-1965, Peter and Pat O’Sullivan of Staffordshire, England, welcomed a baby girl.

Peter, a bricklayer who called himself a “fanatical Liverpool fan” — inspired by the team’s recent victory in the FA Cup — took it upon himself to give his daughter the following name: Paula St John Lawrence Lawler Byrne Strong Yeats Stevenson Callaghan Hunt Milne Smith Thompson Shankly Bennett Paisley O’Sullivan.

Those 15 middle names honored 15 members of the Liverpool Football Club: 12 players, the team manager, and two assistants:

NamePlayer/Manager
St John
Lawrence
Lawler
Byrne
Strong
Yeats
Stevenson
Callaghan
Hunt
Milne
Smith
Thompson
Shankly
Bennett
Paisley
Ian St John
Tommy Lawrence
Chris Lawler
Gerry Byrne
Geoff Strong
Ron Yeats
Willie Stevenson
Ian Callaghan
Roger Hunt
Gordon Milne
Tommy Smith
Peter Thompson
Bill Shankly (manager)
Reuben Bennett (asst.)
Bob Paisley (asst.)

All 15 middle names appear on her birth certificate, but her name had to be shortened to “Paula St J L L B S Y S C H M S T S B P O’Sullivan” on the birth register.

Unfortunately, Paula’s mother Pat was not very enthusiastic about the situation: “The first I knew about it was when I saw the birth certificate, and I don’t mind saying I was furious. It’s a real shock to learn your baby’s been named after a whole football team.”

Here a photo of baby Paula with the Liverpool team taken in April of 1966.

And here are two earlier posts about English babies named after entire soccer teams: the 1992 Leeds United team, and the 2011 Burnley team.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Portugal 2-3 Denmark, Football by José Goulão under CC BY-SA 2.0.

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