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