I'd like to ask my great-great-grandmother why she changed her mind about the name of her fifth child, who was born after her first husband's death. He was registered as Samuel in the New Zealand birth register, after which she returned to the Cape via London. He was christened Charles at the age of 17 months.
I have many guesses, most of them based on what might have happened in London, where all her in-laws were living.
The name Samuel, complete with middle name, belonged to her husband's brother-in-law, whom she may well never have met before. Did she find him unlikeable or for some other reason not good godfather material? Did her mother-in-law quietly tell her that it was not done to name a child after someone who is not a blood relation?
The name Charles, complete with another three middle names, belonged to her husband's younger brother, aged about 17 when she met him, probably also for the first time. Did she discover only then that Charles had the same birthday as her husband (who had died less than two months before the baby's birth)? Did she like the glorious ring of the four-barreled name, repeating only one of the seven names of her elder three sons? Was it because that one repeated name belonged to a baronet alleged to be the biological father of her husband's grandmother?
Or have I not come close with any of my guesses?