On 15 Nov 2009 at 4:40, [email protected] wrote: > Hi Edward > > A fairly random search of a couple of West iding batch numbers for the > late eighteenth century revealed 10 Squires in C007495 (Halifax) and > 16 Squires > in P018302 (Wakefield). I have a number of Squires among my BEDFORDs, > > BERESFORDs and WEBSTERs in Midgley and Skircoat. > > A couple more 'titles' not previously mentioned occur in my distant > BRADLEY > relatives in the mid nineteenth century in Almondbury parish, where > there > are Doctor BRADLEY, and his brother Colonel BRADLEY, (living not too > far away from Cicero BRADLEY and his brother Demosthenes!) > FreeBMD has scores of births for people with the forename of DOCTOR, also an equally large number with Doctor as a surname. Thus, it is obvious, as I pointed out in a previous message, that it is again one of those surnames that came to be used as a christian name in some families in order to perpetuate it - nothing to do with titles or pretensions of grandeur at all. There are also many entries at FreeBMD for COLONEL as a forename. A particularly interesting example is the name COLONEL BARRACLOUGH, for which there are a total of 14 entries, all at Bradford or North Bierley (a Bradford registration district) between 1843 and 1937. Presumably these were all members of the same family and an example of a name being perpetuated down the generations. Actually, I want to thank whoever first introduced this thread, since it has given me a jolly good idea for a future item in my bi-monthly column "Roy's Ramblings" in Practical Family History, in which I write about genealogical oddities and unusual discoveries. I can see titles as christian names making an appearance at some stage! -- Roy Stockdill Professional genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE