My great-grandmother Mary Lee was given the middle name Inkerman, after the eponymous battle in the Crimea War which was fought in the year of her birth, 1854. This battle was more usually commemorated with the naming of streets - isn't there an Inkerman Street close to Coronation Street? I don't watch that particular TV soap, (or any actually) so I stand corrected. I can find no relative of my great-grandmother who fought in that battle, so there is no obvious reason, other than it being in the news. It would be like someone being called Falklands or Basra today. Very odd. Even more so that she passed this name on to one of her children, born some 40 years later. Brian Binns

Brian Binns wrote: > I can find no relative of my great-grandmother who fought in that battle, so > there is no obvious reason, other than it being in the news. It would be > like someone being called Falklands or Basra today. The uses of such names was because of the battle/s and yes it would be like someone being called Falkland now. Not Basra though I don't think. > Very odd. Not really, not for then. It would be odd now but then there are some names chosen for children these days that in a generation or two will be considered "very odd" but they'll be doing the same thing as you are: applying 20th/21st century thinking to the 19th century/20th century or in the future: 21st/22nd century thinking to the 20th/21st. > Even more so > that she passed this name on to one of her children, born some 40 years > later. There was more national pride then than there is now. It was recognition of an achievement that was considered worthy of passing on.