The Secret Registrar

More infant deaths linked to cousin marriage than substance abuse — The Telegraph Data analysis reveals 73 fatalities linked to close relative union, with only 27 related to substance misuse in pregnancy

Registering stillbirths and infant deaths is the hardest part of my job.
Anything that makes this less frequent just needs to happen…

apple.news/AGDt-ZAOQTD-...

I’ll give you a great name for a simple glass of nice Malbec 🍷

Twins with the same first name… I can’t say no, but it’s really tough to say anything positive about it 😆
It’s going to cause those children a world of problems.

Some baby names may be trendy one day, but you need to take a step back and ask are people going to know the backstory to Arya, Kylie, Shakira etc

Other names may not be so “cool” now but they have a timeless quality that will never age, as I tried to explain to my son Rumpelstiltskin.

a man in a tuxedo stands next to a bride in a white dress ALT: a man in a tuxedo stands next to a bride in a white dress

It’s been a day of weddings! Seven to be precise.
One after the other….
But each one special and had my complete focus to make it perfect.
To conduct marriages is such a pleasure and a privilege.
And I’m smiling knowing that there’s all these weddings parties just getting going this evening 😆

The youngest person I registered the death of today was heartbreakingly just two hours old. The oldest person I registered the death of today was gloriously 105.

And it's a fundamental misunderstanding of how statistics work.
2 Muslim parents name their baby Muhammed. 1000 "non Muslim" parents give their baby 1000 different names. Most popular name is Muhammed. What does that prove?

Sylvia/Sylvie. It’s not as unique as the parents think. I registered three in a row yesterday 🤦🏻‍♀️
#babynames

"Names" by Wendy Cope She was Eliza for a few weeks When she was a baby – Eliza Lilly. Soon it changed to Lil. ` Later she was Miss Steward in the baker’s shop And then ‘my love’, ‘my darling’, Mother. Widowed at thirty, she went back to work As Mrs Hand. Her daughter grew up, Married and gave birth. Now she was Nanna. ‘Everybody Calls me Nanna,’ she would say to visitors. And so they did – friends, tradesmen, the doctor. In the geriatric ward They used the patients’ Christian names. ‘Lil’,’ we said, ‘or Nanna.’ But it wasn’t in her file And for those last bewildered weeks She was Eliza once again.

Who we are on the inside is not always how we are viewed on the outside.

#poetry #Alzheimers #dementia

It is tough when your day registering deaths has someone who has lived (well) over 100 years, and someone who has lived only one hour.
A day of extremes. A day to ponder the meaning of life. A day to be both professional and kind.

two cartoon characters standing next to each other with the words " we twins " on the bottom ALT: two cartoon characters standing next to each other with the words " we twins " on the bottom

For the second time recently, I registered twins with the exact same first name.
I advised against it and it probably will cause issues… but the parent was insistent 🤦🏻‍♀️

Entry in the parish register of Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire (1714): Jane D[aughte]r of John Jennings a Dissenting teacher Born Octob: 1 & so named by her Father

A reminder that, under the terms of the 1696 'Act for the enforcing the Laws which restrain Marriages without Licence or Banns, and for the better registring Marriages, Births, and Burials', the births of all children were supposed to be registered, whether the child was baptised or not...

This is the stuff I live for 😁
I’ve only had one bigamist myself, but it’s good to spot them!

“We want to be unique.”
However there are now more baby Issacs I have registered than baby Isaacs.
Why won’t the parents believe me when I gently mention it’s not the usual spelling and may be mispronounced? 😂

Cousin marriage: The new evidence about children's ill health A major study has found first cousin-parentage may have wider consequences than previously thought.

The last sentence is particularly heartbreaking as it means the message is just not getting through. Some still births and baby deaths are utterly preventable:

www.bbc.com/news/article...

If you’re going to call your baby Bambi….

Well, just go for it I guess 😆

#babynames

I think it’s the mark of democracy that we can name our children what we wish (unless it would cause universal disgust! In which case we can refuse).
Some choices may be daft… but what would registrars lives be like if we didn’t have daft baby names to laugh over?