11 FEBRUARY 1928, Page 16

" WHAT'S IN A NAME ? "

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I should like to record a rather amusing incident which took place in a country village in Suffolk, at a christening on a Christmas Day some years ago.

A man named White, a well-known village poacher, came and presented his son for baptism. Upon the clergyman asking the question, " Name this child," the father said " Call him Twink " (Twink was the poacher's nickname). The clergyman refused to accept this name. The father then said, "Call him Christmas." And thus he was named ; and as the child's surname was " White," he naturally became recog- nized in the village as " White Christmas."—I am, Sir, &c.; CECIL DOWNTON. The New Rectory, Flempton-cum-Hengrave, Bury St. Edmunds.