Baby born at Toosey Hospital, named Toosey

In June of 1954, a new maternity ward opened at Toosey Memorial Hospital in the town of Longford, Tasmania (which is part of Australia).

Early the following month, the new ward welcomed its first baby.

It was a girl — the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Maher.

Her name? Sonia Anne Marian Toosey Maher — fourth given name in honor of the hospital.

The Toosey Memorial Hospital was established in the 1920s with money donated by the son of a successful local farmer, James Denton Toosey. Today, the facility is a nursing home.

[Here’s another baby named for the hospital he was born in.]

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Baby name story: Ozana

Ozana Halik, son of Polish filmmaker Tony Halik (1921-1998)
Ozana Halik

Polish filmmaker Mieczyslaw “Tony” Halik is best remembered for his travel show Pieprz i Wanilia (translation Pepper and Vanilla), which aired on Polish television in the 1980s and ’90s.

In Poland under the communist regime, when obtaining a passport was no easy feat, the series was especially important, as it offered a much needed window on the world to many Poles who would otherwise have few occasions to see what life was like beyond the Iron Curtain.

Footage for the show was collected over the many years that Tony spent exploring remote parts of the world.

One of these trips, for instance, began in 1957. He and his first wife Pierrette drove a Jeep from the southern tip of South America to the northern tip of North America, and then back again. The journey took four-and-a-half years and covered over 180,000 kilometers. They visited 21 countries, crossed 140 rivers and swamps, built 14 bridges, and went through 8 sets of tires.

Pierrette became pregnant during the journey. She gave birth to a baby boy in January of 1959 in Bristol, Connecticut.

The couple decided to name their son Ozana, “after the Indian who saved Halik’s life” in Mato Grosso, Brazil. (According to one account, he was saved amidst a skirmish between two feuding tribes.)

Baby Ozana spent his first years in the wilderness with his parents as they continued their journey, which lasted until 1961.

P.S. Mieczyslaw is pronounced myeh-chih-swaf.

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Image: Screenshot of the trailer for the documentary Tony Halik (2020)

Baby born to shipwreck survivors, named after ship

A depiction of the wreck of the Netherby (1866).
The wreck of the Netherby

On July 14, 1866, a ship called the Netherby — carrying emigrants from London to Brisbane — ran aground off the coast of King Island, located in the waters between Australia and Tasmania.

All 413 passengers and 49 crew made it to shore alive. Some of the food was saved, and a source of fresh water was located…but hundreds of people were still stranded on a largely uninhabited island in the middle of winter, “with only so much covering as could be provided by the use of sails and spars.”

Two days later, on July 16, a baby girl was born on the beach to passengers William and Ellen Cubbin.

Around the same time, second officer John Parry and a handful of others trekked roughly 35 miles to the Cape Wickham lighthouse. There, they borrowed a whaleboat and, despite rough seas and high winds, managed to reach mainland Australia (about 70 nautical miles away). Parry himself then traveled an extra 26 miles on horseback to Geelong, in order to telegram authorities in Melbourne.

About a week after the wreck, two rescue ships — the Victoria, followed by the Pharos — finally arrived.

All passengers and crew ended up surviving, remarkably.

And the baby’s name?

Netherby Victoria Louisa Cubbin — first name in honor of the the wrecked ship, second name in honor of the first rescue ship, and third name in honor of Louisa Hickmott, “the lighthouse keeper’s wife who gave Mr. Parry gin in a small bottle to sustain him whilst rowing and sailing a bulky whaleboat for help in heavy seas.”

Netherby “Nettie” Cubbin was the fourth of eight children. (Her siblings were named William, Alfred, Elizabeth, John, Walter, Eleanor, and Emily.) She eventually married and welcomed three children of her own — including a daughter to whom she passed down all three of her given names.

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P.S. The Netherby‘s captain, originally from Wales, was named Owen Owens.

Baby name story: Norvell Shapleigh

Illustration of the Norvell-Shapleigh Hardware Co. building in St. Louis, Missouri
Norvell-Shapleigh Hardware Co.

Cybill Shepherd‘s maternal grandfather, Norvell Shapleigh “Cy” Shobe, was born in Missouri in 1906. His father was a poultry farmer.

Where did he get those unusual first and middle names? Here’s how Cybill explained it:

My grandfather was named for the hardware store where his father earned the money for the chicken farm.

Indeed, the Norvell-Shapleigh Hardware Company operated out of St. Louis from 1901 to 1918. (The company actually existed from the 1840s to the 1960s, but it underwent a number of name-changes over the years.) “Shapleigh” referred to Augustus F. Shapleigh, founder of the company, and “Norvell” to Saunders Norvell, who served as president in the early 1900s.

(In case you’re wondering, Norvell inherited the nickname “Cy” from his father, Cyrus.)

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