Along these same lines, when my great aunt gave birth to a baby boy in 1920, the mid-wife asked what they wanted to name him. My Aunt Allie couldn't think decide right away since this was her sixth child, so my grandmother (Aunt Allie's sister) spoke up and jokingly said, "Oh, just call him Peter Rabbit". Aunt Allie went on to name her son Enoch. When Enoch joined the service during WWII he found out from his first look at his birth certificate that the mid-wife had recorded his name as Peter Robert. Myra ----- Original Message ----- From: Vicki To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 6:52 PM Subject: Re: [Tngibson] UN named babies That's makes sense. Maybe they just called them "baby" until the next one came along. I've never seen it on a first child either. And now, not only do they have a name immediately, but a social security number! I kept thinking maybe a neighbor gave the information, as I know of at least 2 censuses with my Wilsons where none of the family (I hope) gave the information. Or maybe it came from one of the younger children. Vicki ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 6:38 PM Subject: [Tngibson] UN named babies > Hi Vicki: > > I have seen instances where the child is up to one year old, > and still listed as 'baby' or a blank space for given name. > These are nearly all pre-1880. You never know what the > circumstances are, but it occurs enough to make me think > that it was not uncommon to delay naming. Since there was > no official recording of births, there was no pressure to > assign the child a name immediately. One other note, > I have never seen a case where the unnamed child > was the first born, usually it would be at least the 3d child > or later in birth order. > > Dennis West in Knoxville, TN > Gibson co. surnames: PARKER, BLANKINSHIP, SLAYTON > ===== > Vicki wrote: > When the census taker listed a child as "Baby", do you think it was > because the folks weren't home and he got info from next door > neighbors? > > Some of these "babies" are way to old not to have a name! Or was > this a common practice not to name a newborn for a while? > > Ideas? > > Vicki > > > ==== TNGIBSON Mailing List ==== > Gibson Co TN Genealogy Pages http://www.rootsweb.com/~tngibson/ > ==== TNGIBSON Mailing List ==== Gibson Co TN Genealogy Pages http://www.rootsweb.com/~tngibson/