Fort Sumter — the sea fort near Charleston, South Carolina — wasn’t fully built yet in the spring of 1861 when the Battle of Fort Sumter kicked off the Civil War. The Second Battle of Fort Sumter, two years later, reduced the never-finished fort to rubble. (It has since been restored and is now a National Park.)
As with the Battle of Gettysburg, the two Fort Sumter battles had a small influence on baby names. I found about a dozen U.S. babies — all male, all born in the South — named “Fort Sumter”:
- Fort Sumter Williamson (North Carolina, c1861)
- Fort Sumter Roebuck (Virginia, c1861)
- Fort Sumter Richards (South Carolina, 1861)
- Fort Sumter Earle (Alabama, 1864)
- Fort Sumter Sparrow (Alabama?, 1867)
- Fort Sumter Liscomb (Texas, 1869) — but buried as a “John“
- Fort Sumter Brooks (Georgia, 1877)
- Fort Sumter Sumter (Louisiana, 1881) — yes, Sumter twice
- Fort Sumter Black (Georgia?, 1881)
- Fort Sumter Cannon (Georgia, 1884)
- Fort Sumter Everett (Virginia, 1900)
- Fort Sumter Falls (North Carolina, 1910)
Notice how only half of them were born in the 1860s. A few — like “Fort Sumter Cannon” and “Fort Sumter Falls” — may have gotten the name simply because of the play on words.
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