The 16 Children of William of Orange

William of Orange

Sixteenth-century Dutch nobleman William of Orange (also known as William the Silent) was the primary leader of the Dutch Revolt (1566-1648).

William had a total of 16 children with five different women (four wives, one mistress). All 16 received traditional first names, but four of his daughters were given location-inspired middle names — symbols of the political alliances between William and “the lands for which he fought.”

Here are the names of all 16:

  1. Maria (born in 1553)
  2. Philip William, (b. 1554)
  3. Maria (b. 1556)
  4. Justinus (b. 1559)
  5. Anna (b. 1562)
  6. Anna (b. 1563)
  7. Maurice August Philip (b. 1564)
  8. Maurice (b. 1567)
  9. Emilia (b. 1569)
  10. Louise Juliana (b. 1576)
  11. Elisabeth (b. 1577)
  12. Catharina Belgica (b. 1578)
  13. Charlotte Flandrina (b. 1579)
  14. Charlotte Brabantina (b. 1580)
  15. Emilia Antwerpiana (b. 1581)
  16. Frederick Henry (b. 1584)

Each of the regions/locations honored with a name responded by “bestow[ing] pensions upon the children”:

This inspired other parents with connections to the House of Orange-Nassau to adopt similar naming practices. For instance, Ernst Casimir I — the Stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe — named his daughter Elisabeth Friso (b. 1620). And Henri Charles de Le Trémoille — a direct descendant of William of Orange via Charlotte Brabantina — named his son Charles Belgique Hollande (b. 1655).

Sources:

  • Broomhall, Susan and Jacqueline Van Gent. Gender, Power and Identity in the Early Modern House of Orange-Nassau. London: Routledge, 2016.
  • Steen, Jasper van der. Memory Wars in the Low Countries, 1566-1700. Leiden: Brill, 2015.
  • William the Silent – Wikipedia

The 10 Children of Arthur Guinness

In 1759, Arthur Guinness founded Ireland’s now-famous Guinness Brewery.

A couple of years later, in 1761, he married his wife Olivia. She had 21 pregnancies — 10 live births and 11 miscarriages. (“It is a testament to her solid constitution that she survived 21 pregnancies in an era when so many women died in childbirth.”)

Here are the names of their ten children (4 girls, 6 boys):

  1. Elizabeth (born in 1763)
  2. Hosea (1765)
  3. Arthur II (1768)
  4. Edward (1772)
  5. Olivia (1775)
  6. Benjamin (1777)
  7. William Lunell (1779)
  8. Louisa (1781)
  9. John Grattan (1783)
  10. Mary Anne (1787)

Three of Arthur’s sons — Arthur II, Benjamin, and William Lunell — ended up working in the family business.

I don’t know where the middle name “Lunell” came from, but “Grattan” was a surname on Olivia’s side of the family. It was her mother’s maiden name, and it was also the surname of distant cousin/politician Henry Grattan, “through whose lobbying major changes in the fiscal status of beer were eventually secured, most dramatically with the abolition of the excise duty on beer in 1795.”

Sources:

Baby Name Story: Anne

Queen Anne (reigned 1702-1714)
Queen Anne

British nobleman John Poulett, 1st Earl Poulett, and his wife Bridget had eight children in the early 1700s:

  1. Bridget (born in 1702)
  2. Catherine (b. 1706)
  3. John (b. 1708)
  4. Peregrine (b. 1708)
  5. Vere (b. 1710)
  6. Anne (b. 1711)
  7. Susannah (b. 1714)
  8. Rebecca (b. 1716)

Looks like five girls and three boys, right?

Except…Anne was a boy. (In fact, he was a member of the all-male House of Commons during the last sixteen years of his life.)

So, why did Anne have a feminine first name?

Because Queen Anne, who reigned from 1702 to 1714, just happened to be his baptismal sponsor.

(In contrast, American author Anne Rice was born with the name Howard…)

Sources: Anne Poulett – Wikipedia, John Poulett, 1st Earl Poulett – Wikipedia, John Poulett – Find A Grave

Triplets Named for Dodgers Pitchers

On October 6, 1963, the Los Angeles Dodgers won the fourth and final game of the 1963 World Series against the New York Yankees. They swept the series with the help of their pitchers — Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Johnny Podres, and reliever Ron Perranoski — who collectively gave up only four runs in all four games combined.

The same day, Mr. and Mrs. Eddie A. Turner of Compton, California, welcomed triplets — two boys and one girl. Several days later, they announced that they’d named the babies after Dodgers pitchers:

  • Donald Scott – for Donald Scott “Don” Drysdale
  • Ronald Peter – for Ronald Peter “Ron” Perranoski
  • Sandy (the girl) – for Sanford “Sandy” Koufax

Sources:

Maine Family with 22 Children

children

Charles and Effie Dickey of Maine married in 1881 and went on to welcome 22 children — 14 girls, 8 boys — from the 1880s until the 1910s.

Here are the names of all the kids:

  1. Emma Mae (b. 1882)
  2. Ada Alice (b. 1883)
  3. Arthur Earness (b. 1884)
  4. Everlena Maude (b. 1885)
  5. Fannie Blossom (b. 1886)
  6. George Elwin (b. 1888)
  7. Fay Edna (b. 1889)
  8. Everett Onward (b. 1890)
  9. Merritt Carnot (b. 1891)
  10. Lema Inez (b. 1894)
  11. Margaret Ellen (b. 1896)
  12. Nina Eudora (b. 1897)
  13. Charles Loring (b. 1897)
  14. Effie Etta (b. 1898)
  15. Mildred Hortense (b. 1900)
  16. Ivan Thomas Nye (b. 1901)
  17. Floyd Merton (b. 1903)
  18. Arline Beatrice (b. 1904)
  19. Theodore Rayden (b. 1906)
  20. Jessie Alberta (b. 1908)
  21. Ila Pearl (b. 1909)
  22. Hilda Bernice (b. 1911)

I think it’s funny that they decided to name two of the children after themselves only after already having a dozen. Maybe they were running out of ideas at that point. :)

Which of the above is your favorite? (I’d have to go with #8’s middle, “Onward.” What an interesting choice.)

Sources: Descendants of 22 siblings plan Maine reunion, Effie Etta Estes Dickey (1866-1950) – Find a Grave