Churchill Babington lived a fine life.
He was born at Rothley Temple in Leicestershire, England in 1821. In the following sixty-eight years of his life, he became an authority on botany, received a doctorate from Cambridge University, wrote several books on classical Greeks, and later in life worked in the clergy. When he died, he was vicar of Cockfield in Suffolk. (tee-hee-hee).
His life was so accomplished, any biography listing his accomplishments becomes difficult to read. For instance, I am told he was a renowned authority on Conchology. Wikipedia tells me this is the “scientific study of mollusc shells”. If that sounds very specific, it is. That’s just the way Babington liked it.
He was a known scholar of the classics, editing and publishing a number of volumes highly respected to this day, such as Bishop Peacock’s (tee-hee-hee) “Represser of Overmuch Blaming of the Clergy”, and a great work on the Greek classical period called On Behalf of Lycophron and Euxenippus. If only these were the kinds of titles favored today.
That is the longest book title I have ever seen.
He was also a bird lover, much like our dear friend Sir Stamford Raffles, and wrote great works such as Catalogue of the Birds of Suffolk, with Remarks on Their Distribution.
As a noted botanist, he of course wrote about plants as well, at great length, such as this book, which has a title far too long for me to reproduce here, but which would probably translate well to a hip-hop song of some sort.
All in all, the world is a greater place because Churchill Babington lived in it. For those of you who are ardent fans of botany, birds, classical Greek, theology, or just names of places with “cock” in them, Babington is a great name to recall.
The Blog of Funny Names 
What a fun blog. This post from last year might amuse you.
http://chittlechattle.wordpress.com/2011/07/23/10-names-im-glad-i-didnt-give-to-my-children/
Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog
Haha, that is an excellent list. I think “Scoop” is the only one of those 10 names that we have on our huge list (over 1000 names) of future Funny Names Blog material. If you ever find a famous “Zasparilla,” let me know, and either Arto or I will add it on the spot. That name is too good to ignore!
I don’t know a Zasparilla, but here’s a link to a Zephyr, which I’ll admit I don’t like!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Bradbury
(scroll down to personal life) Thanks again for popping over
Just one of those things that make me go hmmm. First of all still enjoying the blog greatly. When I checked out both books from the links to Amazon I was amused to see the used editions of both books were considerably more expensive than the new books. Hmmmm…
That is interesting. Perhaps the older editions are rare collectibles. I know that’s the case with some works.
Thanks for your ongoing support. We (or at least I) definitely notice and appreciate it. At this point, I think you’re quite possibly our favorite fan on this blog, although we’ve been picking up quite a few new followers recently, which is nice. It’s fun to write about funny names, but it’s even more fun with an audience who appreciates these things as much as we do 🙂
Very funny…another blog to share with LM, (big fans of nerd humor in this house)…oops, hope ya don’t mind the term nerd humor…is intellectual sarcasosity better?
Haha, both are great! Thanks for the comment. In celebration of our 100th post, I’m going through some old ones to remember some of the great moments in our blog, and just came across this comment. Look out for a possible shout-out in our 100th post (Tuesday, June 19th).
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