The clerk of Finchley Church could not understand this conjunction—not to add that his education seems to have been slightly neglected:
“1715, Feb. 26. Baptized Anammeriah, d. of Thomas and Eliz. Biby.
“1716, Mch. 17. Baptized Anameriah, d. of Richard and Sarah Bell.”
These are the first double names to be found in this register.
The Latin form represents the then prevailing fashion. There was not a girl’s name in use that was not Latinized. Goldsmith took off the custom in his “Vicar of Wakefield,” in the names of Sophia, Olivia, and Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs. The latter hit at the new rage for double and treble baptismal names also; for the day came when two names were not enough. In 1738 George III. was christened George William Frederic. Gilly Williams, writing to George Selwyn, December 12, 1764, says—
“Lord Downe’s child is to be christened this evening. The sponsors I know not, but his three names made me laugh not a little—John Christopher Burton. I wish to God, when he arrives at the years of puberty, he may marry Mary Josephina Antonietta Bentley.”—“Memoirs of George Selwyn,” by Jesse, quoted by Mr. Waters in “Parish Registers,” p. 31.
I need scarcely add that three do not nearly satisfy the craving of many people in the nineteenth century, nor did they everybody in the eighteenth:
“1781, April 29. Bapt. Charles Caractacus Ostorius Maximilian Gustavus Adolphus, son of Charles Stone, tailor.”—Burbage, Wilts.
In Beccles Church occurs the following:
“1804, Oct. 14. Bapt. Zaphnaphpaaneah Isaiah Obededom Nicodemus Francis Edward, son of Henry and Sarah Clarke.”