One of the thrills of Colonial gaming is to send your Bright Lads into battle with their own individual names. With rules such as THE SWORD AND THE FLAME and SCIENCE vs PLUCK, identifying your figures with a good Victorian handle is almost a necessity. However, coming up with hundreds of names is not easy. Many games find the table terrain crowded with only Joneses, Bakers and Smythes. This is a shame considering the number of smashing names unique to the period. If a shortage of names has been your plight, chin up! This article represents a relief column of monikers, all authentically British and loaded with humorous possibilities to boot... Nineteenth Century England had some very particular tastes in names, both Surnames and Christian. Like the Jennifers and Brads of the 1970s, Victorian England created their own approach to first names... and last names. In the following, I have listed first and last names which not only were common, but were also seen in the news dispatches from the Sudan to China that graced London breakfast tables from 1840 to 1900. Included are many, many names that we in 1988 find odd and a touch funny. For instance, one of the heros of Rorke's Drift had the name Gonville Bromhead. It is hard to believe that his parents would name a child "Gonville". It is not surprising that more than one British officer chose to have their names recorded as initials, as did G. Bromhead, in both letters and official reports. English parents in the 1800s, like the parents of the last 20 years, enjoyed creating unique labels for their offspring. They would change the spelling, force together unlikely syllables and take the last names of current public heros, givingthem to their children as first names. More than one son had the name "Kipling" in honor of the poet Rudyard (and who was Rudyard named after...?). It was also quite common for families to take an ancestor's last name and give it to a son, so he would go through life being called "Worthington" or "Ragland". Below is the list of first names, many unbelievable. One of them is a fake, created by me. See if you can guess which one. The answer is at the end of the article. Remember: this list, while not exhaustive, is of names for the Victorian Male: Now that you have some respectable first names foryour khaki cavaliers, there is a need for a fine family herald to complete the proper martial impression. The English developed their surnames over several centuries, known as the Dark Ages. The period's reputation is well deserved and the surnames? Well, there might be some connection. It seems at this time people were known by and named after such things as their job, where they lived or by some family characteristic, usually physical. In fact the general belief was that you were what you did for a living. Now it is "you are what you eat". Times change. This belief led Medieval man to conclude that the personality of any two Farmers, Bakers or Cleavers were identical. That is one reason that Chaucer's Tales are filled with characters who remain nameless save for their occupation. One can see why England was so happy to get out of the Middle Ages... The origin of English names coupled with the British custom of employing a hyphen to join the names of two great houses creates some marvelous surnames. I have picked several dozen that I am fond of using. The names, and the men who bore them, saw action in the Colonial Wars of the Empire. I am sure there are thousands of real corkers out there waiting to be discovered. That is the challenge waiting for those with large number of figures, or a propensity for creating a constant need for replacements. As with the list of first names, I have created one fake and tucked it in with the others. Can you find it?  If last names were given for the work done, it makes you wonder what work was done... Rakestraw is obvious, but what about Rattray? If the lists have spurred you on to create or find new handles for your miniature empire-builders, then they have been a success. The combinations are endless, just within the names given, not counting the thousands of others still to be found. Remember, any two last names can be put together by a hyphen and be quite authentic. You can have a Lymon Orange-Primrose or a Reginald Rattray-Uppington. Also keep in mind that any last name was an acceptable first name to Victorian parents. Thomeycroft could be someone's first name (perhaps the SargeantMajor...?). Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. VIII No. 5 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1989 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles covering military history and related topics are available at http://www.magweb.com