In 1938, The Montreal Gazette noted that fascist baby names were all the rage.
There has been a regular epidemic of “Adriens” and the feminine form, “Adreinnes,” among Monteal’s new born babies during the past few months, all the children being named in honor of Adrien Arcand, Supreme Chief of the Quebec Fascists.
Adrien Arcand (1899-1967), a journalist by profession, was also high-profile fascist and anti-Semite of the 1930s. He liked to refer to himself as the Canadian Führer.
Other Montreal babies were named Gabriel and Gabrielle after local fascist leader Gabriel Lambert. One was named Adolph Benito Adrien “in honor of Hitler, Mussolini and Arcand.”
I also know of at least one Toronto baby with a fascist name — Benito Mussolini Graziano, born in 1936. (He was one of the babies in Toronto’s Great Stork Derby.)
Sources:
- “French-Canadian Baby Named for 3 ‘Duces’.” Montreal Gazette 17 Mar. 1938: 13.
- “Ninth Baby Born to Toronto Mother in $500,000 Stork Derby.” Chicago Tribune 18 Aug. 1936: 4.
