WHAT'S IN A NAME? THE MANY SIR HENRYS

 WHAT'S IN A NAME? THE MANY SIR HENRYS  

Like trends in fashion for clothes, there seem to be trends in names too! In the old days, many Hindu men and women in India were given the names of Gods and Goddesses. Virtually, every family had a Saraswathi or a Lakshmi, a Ram or a Lakshman!   These days a name is not considered au courant unless it starts with the alphabet A. Names like Aryaan, Ayushmaan, Aadhish, and Aadanya abound from Amritsar to Alappuzha! One parent smugly told me that a child gets more attention in class with a name starting with A. Much more, she pointed out, than one whose name starts with Y who probably languishes in the last row. 

Be that as it may, for every person his or her name is important. William Shakespeare, The Bard of Avon, summed it up with his " What's in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet” in Romeo and Juliet.

At one time. Henry was an immensely popular name in England. Its roots can be traced back to meaning "the ruler of the home" in old Frankish and Common Germanic. Indeed, there were as many as eight Kings of Britain by that name, the last of whom King Henry VIII ruled in the 16th century.

More relevant to us Old Lawrencians is that our school was named in the memory of a Henry : Major General Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence, KCB (1806-1857). 

 Picture Courtesy: OL Farrokh Chothia

Squeezing in a bit of  history, it is interesting to note that from 1857 till date,  4 out 7 Barons Lawrence of Lucknow were named Henry-  obviously  after him. 

To honour Sir Henry, a Baronetcy was created after his death in 1857. Please note that there are seven Baronetcies created after persons called Lawrence! Our interest is in the Lawrence of Lucknow baronetcy. The last word on the British aristocracy is Debrett's as readers of P G Wodehouse would know so well.

Sir Henry's eldest son, Sir Alexander Hutchinson Lawrence (1838-1864) was created 1^st Baron Lawrence of Lucknow.

In 1864, he was succeeded by his son, Sir Henry Hayes Lawrence who became the 2nd Baron. He lived till 1898 but as he did not have any male heir, on his demise, the Baronetcy passed on to his uncle Sir Henry Waldemar Lawrence (1845-1908) who became the 3^rd Baron Lawrence.

 

With the demise of Sir Henry Waldemar Lawrence in 1908, the title passed on to his son, Sir Alexander Waldemar Lawrence (1874 to 1939) who became the 4^th Baron Lawrence.

 

Sir Alexander, in turn, was succeeded by his eldest son Sir Henry Eustace Waldemar  Lawrence (1905-1967) as the 5^th Baron Lawrence. This Sir Henry was not married so on his demise in 1967, his younger brother, Sir John Waldemar Lawrence (1907-1999) became the 6^th Baron Lawrence.

 

The 6^th Baron did not have any son while his younger brother George Alexander Lawrence (1910-1999) did. The title therefore passed to- the current Sir Henry-  his nephew Sir Henry Peter Lawrence (b. 1952) who became the 7^th Baron Lawrence of Lucknow! 

Coming back to names, in the United States, naming the son after the father is fairly common as exemplified by John F Kennedy Jr. When the child has the same name as his father and grandfather he becomes XYZ III as in John D Rockefeller III. I read that in the United States there is no law against naming any number of children with the same name- it causes confusion but is not illegal.

The famous boxer, George Edward "Big George" Foreman  named all five of his sons George Edward Foreman.  Not satisfied with this, one of his daughters was named Georgetta!  In apparently another variation of the naming convention, his eldest son became George Jr, and the next few- George Edward Foreman III, IV, V, and VI respectively!!!

In his case, George is his given name or Christian name and Foreman is his surname or family name. Amongst the Christians in Kerala, I have come across boys having the same Christian name and surname! My friend, "Geech" Koshy Koshy, NIL, Class of 1965 springs to mind.  In my life time, I have also come across  Mammen C Mammen, George K George. and Ittiyera G Ittiyera -names in the Jerome K Jerome mode. There must be some explanation for this phenomenon. This blog post by Rocksea says names are repeated due to a convention where the eldest son/daughter is named after the paternal grandfather/grandmother, the second child is named after the maternal grandfather/grandmother and so on. The authors of this blog post say that only around 25 names for males and 10 for girls are in common use.

As the English writer Charles Caleb Colton wrote long ago, "The inheritance of a distinguished and noble name is a proud inheritance to him who lives worthy of it." 

Here's wishing all of you and your families a Happy and Healthy New Year!