‘Young’ at heart: Remarks on James Young Simpson’s middle name

Abstract

James Simpson’s middle name ‘Young’ does not appear in the parish record of his baptism or in the official records of his studies at the University of Edinburgh. The earliest documentary evidence we have identified of Simpson signing his name as ‘James Y. Simpson’ is correspondence dated November 1832 to Walter Grindlay, his future father-in-law. Correspondence from Simpson in 1835, a directory listing in 1836, and Simpson’s articles in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal in 1836 and 1838, refute suggestions that Simpson assumed the middle name ‘Young’ when he applied for the Chair of Midwifery in Edinburgh in 1839. We are unable to confirm whether Simpson used the middle name ‘Young’ informally or in correspondence while he was studying at Edinburgh University, or whether he formally assumed the name following his graduation in 1832.