The news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and following news coverage over the last few weeks, has led to one of our researchers wondering about 'Queen' as a forename. The forename Queenie was certainly widespread in the 19th and earlier years of the 20th century, popularised during the reign of Queen Victoria. But what about Queen as a forename?
The birth indexes of General Registration are a good place to start. For the period 1837-1915 there were 331 children registered with Queen as a first or middle name. The first in this period was Queen Wakelin, born in the September quarter of 1837 in the Edmonton registration district. Many of the children were formally registered as Queen Victoria, Queen Alexandra, Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth, clearly in honour of the present or historic queens who bore these names.
In the first two decades of General Registration, from 1837 to 1857, just one child was formally registered with the forename Queenie - being Isabella Queenie Wright in 1844 in Windsor - compared to 14 'Queens' in the same period. However, the forename Queenie quickly took over Queen in popularity, and in total for the period until 1915 over 10,000 children were registered with Queenie as a forename.
Looking at an earlier period, the forename Queen does appear prior to the 19th century. Queen Fisher was baptised in Bedfordshire in 1760 for example, whilst Queen Jener was baptised in 1718 in Sussex. Ann Queen Betts was baptised in Holborn in November 1714, not long after Queen Anne herself had died in August that year.
Of particular interest whilst undertaking this investigation was to find the commemoration in parish registers of Royal burials. Here is the register of St Mary, Swansea, recording the burial of Queen Mary which took place at Westminster Abbey on 5th March 1694/5:-
If you have any Queens or Queenies in your family and would like to take research further, contact us today to find out more.
