Babies called Santa, Elf and Christmas found in Scotland’s archives

A baby called Santa, a man called Henry Christmas and Advent Allan are just some of the festive names found in Scotland’s history books in a new list published today.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) has released archives from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

It shows Christmas-themed baby names for boys and girls born mostly in December – but at other times of the year too.

Henry Christmas Clarke was born, unsurprisingly, on 25 December 1876 in Inverness and went on to become a priest. Presumably he spent many birthdays at work.

Other festive babies were Santa Bianchi, a girl born in Glasgow in 1901 to her mother Lucia and father Pasqualo, who was an ice-cream dealer.

Born in the same city, four years earlier, was Advent Allan of Bridgeton who came into the world on 7 December.

Another who made Christmas Day extra special was William Snow, a soldier who got hitched in Edinburgh on 25 December 1805.

Not born in December but possibly with parents who loved yuletide, was Agnes Elf O’Brien from Peterhead, who came into the world in 1899 and Julia Tinsel who arrived at Logie in Perthshire in 1882.

In Port Glasgow in 1873, which at the time was in the county of Renfrew, Angel Maria Lopez was born, named after his father.

And the aptly-named George Turkey lived in Rose Street in Edinburgh, according to the 1841 census.

NRS said the list gave a glimpse into the treasures that lie in its archives, which hold more than 100 million records.

Its chief executive Alison Byrne said: “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.”