Reading the Regency

What's in a Name?

"Mr. W. is about five or six-and-twenty, not ill-looking, and not agreeable. He is certainly no addition. A sort of cool, gentlemanlike manner, but very silent. They say his name is Henry, a proof how unequally the gifts of fortune are bestowed. I have seen many a John and Thomas much more agreeable."
[Letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra, 14th October 1813]

For the benefit of any readers whose country uses a different system, in Regency England a person's name was made up of one or more First Names and a Surname.

The first name was also known as a given name or Christian name - it being the name given to a child during a Christian baptism. Everyone in a family would have their own first name.

The surname was the family name.

For example: in the case of John Smith, John is his first name and Smith his surname.

If his parents had given him a second christian name, then it might be John Henry Smith, or John George Smith.

If he had a brother, he might be called Thomas Smith or Henry Smith.

First Names

During the Regency period, the majority of people in the country had one first name and one surname, like Jane Austen. In the first United Kingdom Parliament of 1801, of the 702 sitting MPs, five hundred and fourteen of them (73%) had only one given name and one surname. Among the general population that percentage would have been even higher.

It didn't become common to give a child two or more given names until much later in the Victorian era.

During the first two decades of the 19th century, a person with two first names was uncommon, and to have three names was rare, even in the higher levels of society. Out of King George III's fifteen children, five had one name, (like Prince Octavius) and eight had two names. (like Princess Sophia Matilda) Only the Prince Regent, George Augustus Frederick, and the Princess Royal, Charlotte Augusta Matilda has three given names.

The fifth Duke of Devonshire was simply called William Cavendish, as his father and grandfather had been named before him. However, when his son was born in 1790 he was baptised as William George Spencer Cavendish. Spencer was his third given name, taken from his mother's maiden name.

From the sample of MPs in the 1801 UK Parliament - a good representation of males from the gentry and nobility - one hundred and twelve of them, or almost 16%, had two or more given names, but out of that number only three men had three names.

Parents sometimes chose their mother's or grandmother's maiden surname as a second christian name. In 1801, nearly 9% of MPs in the United Kingdom Parliament had a surname for a middle name.

Maria Edgeworth's father was Richard Lovell Edgeworth; Lovell was his mother's maiden name. Alternatively, the surname of another wealthy relative could be chosen as a middle name, in the hopes that they may look favourably on the child.

John Willett Adye was given the surname of his mother's first cousin - Ralph Willett - as his middle name. Later Ralph Willett adopted John, who in time inherited Ralph's estates. (worth £10,000 a year) John then changed his surname by Royal Licence to become John Willett Willett.

Illegitimate children, particularly in the middle and lower classes, were occasionally given their biological father's surname as a second christian name. The reason for this was so that if the mother eventually married the father, the child would quietly drop their mother's surname and use his middle name as a surname. It wouldn't make their birth legitimate, but would give an appearance of legitimacy.