Unusual real name: Leicester Railway

train engine

Sometime during the summer of 1863, Ann and Joseph Cope of Derbyshire, England, welcomed their second child, a baby boy.

He was born in the adjacent county of Leicestershire, and when he was baptized in late August, he was given the name Leicester Railway.

Now, Ann and Joseph weren’t partial to inventive names. Their eldest child was named Ann Lucy, and their later children were named Eliza, John William, and Lucy. So they must have had a good reason to choose something as unusual as Leicester Railway.

I wasn’t able to find Leicester Railway’s birth record, or any mention of him in contemporary newspapers, but I do think it’s safe to assume that he was born at the Leicester railway station while his family (or perhaps just his mother) was traveling.

About a decade ago, an article about odd 19th-century baby names that ran in various British newspapers (e.g., Metro, Mirror, Daily Mail) claimed Leicester Railway Cope was born inside a train car specifically. While this could be the case, we have no way of knowing for certain.

P.S. Leicester is pronounced just like the name Lester.

Sources: FamilySearch.org, Family of Joseph Cope and Ann Wain – Glynn Roe’s Ancestors and Family

Image: Adapted from O&W Engine #143 (public domain)

Unusual baby name: Treb

"Balloon guy" Treb Heining (in late 2024)
Treb Heining

Since the early 1990s, the annual New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square has featured a confetti drop at midnight. The man behind the confetti? Treb Heining.

A self-described “balloon guy,” Treb has also designed balloon décor for major events such as the Super Bowl, the Academy Awards, and the Olympics.

Treb was born in 1954 to Bert and Joan Heining of California. His first name is simply his father’s name, spelled backwards.

The curious name Treb has never popped up in the U.S. baby name data, likely because most of the people called “Treb” are actually named Trebor, the reverse of Robert. More than 500 baby boys named Trebor are accounted for in the data.

Many of these Trebors were no doubt named after various Roberts. Dozens of the Trebors I found in the records, for instance, had fathers named Robert. Two examples…

Similarly, dozens of the females I found named Treba had fathers with -bert names (like Robert, Albert, Elbert, and Herbert). Two more examples…

What are your thoughts on the names Treb, Trebor, and Treba?

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of a 2025 NBC New York news video

How did Daryle Lamonica influence baby names?

Football player Daryle Lamonica (1941-2022)
Daryle Lamonica

California-born quarterback Daryle Lamonica played professional football for twelve seasons (1963-1975).

He spent seven of those seasons with the Oakland Raiders, leading the team to four consecutive division titles (from 1967 to 1970) and its first Super Bowl appearance (in January of 1968). He was also named the AFL’s Most Valuable Player twice, in 1967 and 1969. (The winner in 1968 was Joe Namath, incidentally.)

Lamonica ended up influencing both boy names and girl names during the late ’60s and early ’70s.

Usage of boy name Daryle (one of the various spellings of the top-100 name Darrell) increased in both 1968 and 1970, while usage of the girl name Lamonica more than tripled in 1968 and nearly doubled in 1971 (the year that Monica reached the girls’ top 50 for the first time).

Boys named DaryleGirls named Lamonica
197271 [rank: 960th]78
1971119 [rank: 749th]103†
1970142† [rank: 697th]56
196988 [rank: 824th]55
196895 [rank: 762nd]40
196762 [rank: 919th]12
196672 [rank: 854th]16
†Peak usage

The Italian surname Lamonica may have sounded particularly appealing to African-American parents, as adding prefixes like “La-” to traditional names was becoming fashionable among African-Americans during the latter years of the civil rights movement. (Perhaps L’Tanya Griffin helped kick off the trend in the late 1940s…?)

Speaking of Lamonica, one of the few baby boys to get the name was actor LaMonica Garrett, who was born in San Francisco in 1975. (He went on to name his own son Montana after San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana.)

What are your thoughts on the names Daryle and Lamonica? Which one would you be more likely to use?

Sources:

Image: Daryle Lamonica trading card

Baby name story: Daehlie

Bjørn Dæhlie greeting Philip Boit at the 1998 Winter Olympics
Bjørn Dæhlie greeting Philip Boit

Norwegian cross-country skier Bjørn Dæhlie (pronounced DAHL-ee) placed first in the men’s 10km classic at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

He held off going to the medal ceremony, though, until Kenyan skier Philip Boit — a former middle-distance runner who, after switching sports, became the very first Kenyan to compete at the Winter Games — crossed the finish line in last place, twenty minutes later.

Philip Boit welcomed his first child, a baby boy, just weeks after the Olympics. The baby’s name? Daehlie, after Bjørn Dæhlie. As Boit explained,

All my friends and family said he had to be a very good-hearted man because he waited for me in Nagano, and that I should keep his name in my family.

Philip Boit went on to have three more children: Olympia, Faith, and Alex.

P.S. Philip Boit’s uncle, middle-distance runner Mike Boit, competed alongside Kipchoge Keino at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of the 1998 Winter Olympics