Baby names in the news: Snow, Gopay, Henderson

Some recent and not-so-recent baby names from the news…

Abhinandan: Multiple babies born in India in March of 2019 were named Abhinandan following the release of mustachioed IAF wing-commander Abhinandan Varthaman from Pakistan. (India Times)

In fact, on March 4th, Pizza Hut India offered free pizza to anyone named Abhinandan:

Audrey Claire: A baby girl born Pennsylvania in April of 2019 was named Audrey Claire after Philadelphia restaurant Audrey Claire. (The Inquirer)

Gopay: A baby boy born in Indonesia in February of 2019 was named Gopay after Go-Pay, an Indonesian e-payment platform. The parents received Go-Pay credit from the parent company, Go-Jek, as a gift. (Coconuts Jakarta)

Henderson: A baby boy born in England in February of 2019 was named Henderson, nickname Hendo, “after Sheffield’s famous Henderson’s Relish!” (The Star)

Miraj: A baby boy born in Rajasthan, India, in February of 2019 — minutes after IAF fighter jets carried out the Balakot airstrike — was named Miraj after the jets: Dassault Mirage 2000s. (Mumbai Mirror)

Baby born aboard steamship Majestic, named Majestica

RMS Majestic
RMS Majestic

On April 13, 1927, the steamship Majestic — the largest ship in the world (at that time) — left Southampton, England, and began heading west toward New York.

Two days later, on the 15th, a baby girl was born to British passengers Matthew and Edith Ellen Ford. The baby was named Marguerite Majestica Ford — middle name in honor of the ship.

The RMS Majestic arrived in the United States on the 19th, and the New York Times recounted the story in print the following day.

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Image: Adapted from RMS Majestic, F. G. O. Stuart

[Latest update: Jan. 2025]

Baby name story: Knowlton

Canadian news anchor Knowlton Nash (1927-2014)
Knowlton Nash

In early 1986, a couple in Windsor, Ontario, named their baby boy Knowlton after his “mother’s favorite television personality,” Knowlton Nash, who anchored the Canadian news show The National.

When Nash learned about the baby, he gave the couple a phone call and sent them an autographed copy of one of his books.

Knowlton Nash’s full name at birth was Cyril Knowlton Nash — “Cyril” after his father. But he disliked being called “Cyril Jr.,” so at the age of five he asked to be known as “Knowlton” instead.

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Baby born to medieval scholars, named Astralabe

Photo of an astrolabe from the 11th-century Spain.
An astrolabe

Here’s the story of an unusual baby name that was bestowed in Paris during the 12th century.

The parents were French philosopher and theologian Peter Abelard and his brilliant student, Héloïse d’Argenteuil. In the year 1115, they started their infamous love affair (“one of the best known love tragedies of history”). In 1118, they welcomed their only child, a son.

Because he was illegitimate, it fell upon Héloïse to do the naming. She chose Astralabe — after the Astrolabe, a sophisticated navigational instrument being used at that time in the Islamic world (which included much of Spain). Astrolabes could “locate and predict the positions and risings of the sun, moon, planets, and stars.”

In Catholic France, where most babies were named after saints, “Astralabe” was a highly unconventional choice. (One science writer, in 2008, compared Héloïse’s choice to “a woman in a sci-tech backwater today naming her son iPod.”)

Abelard and Héloïse soon married and legitimized Astralabe. But that didn’t stop Héloïse’s outraged relatives from attacking and castrating Abelard. Ultimately, both ended up going into religious life (even though, technically, they remained married).

No one is certain what became of Astralabe, but name-based evidence (a person referred to as “Canon Astralabe” at Nantes Cathedral circa 1150, for instance) suggests that he entered religious life as well.

The word “astrolabe” is ultimately derived from the ancient Greek compound noun astrolabos organon, meaning “star-taking instrument.” Astrolabos is made up of the elements astron, meaning “star,” and lambanien, meaning “to take.”

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Image: Adapted from Planispheric Astrolabe by the National Museum of American History under CC0 1.0.