Researchers at National Records of Scotland have been making their own nice lists - of Christmassy names found in the official records.
Digging into the millions of birth, death, marriage and census records on research website Scotland’s People uncovers a host of merry monikers. Topping the list is Santa Bianchi, a baby girl born in Glasgow in 1901 to her mother Lucia and her father Pasqualo who was an ice cream dealer.
Advent Allan of Bridgeton was born on 7 December 1897. Henry Christmas Clarke was born on Christmas Day in Inverness in 1876 and went on to become a priest. Another who made Christmas Day extra special was William Snow – a soldier who married on 25 December in Edinburgh in 1805.
While some are named in honour of the occasion others have accidental Christmas connections. Angel Maria Lopez was born in Port Glasgow in April 1873 and named after his father. Julia Tinsel was born in 1882 at Logie in Perthshire. George Turkey was living in Rose Street in Edinburgh according to the 1841 census. Meanwhile Agnes Elf O’Brien was born in Peterhead in 1899. It’s not known if she had any connection to Robert Sleigh, a shoemaker found in the 1878 valuation rolls. A Frederick Trimming married Elizabeth Hurly in 1868 in Edinburgh.
NRS also found a historical namesake for classic Christmas movie character George Bailey. This George Bailey was a stage carpenter and was recorded living with his wife and two daughters in the Ferryhill area of Aberdeen in 1901.
Alison Byrne, Chief Executive of National Records of Scotland, said: "This list of Christmas names gives a glimpse into the treasures which lie in our archives. We can’t promise everyone has an ancestor called Santa or Elf but if your relatives owned or rented property or were born, married or died in Scotland it’s likely that they’re in our records."
It's easy for people to start discovering their own ancestors. Creating an account on ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk allows people to search the indexes free of charge. Credits can be bought to view images of original records. Among the records available on the website are births, marriages, deaths, census records, church records going back to 1553, valuation rolls and more.
