Few people were familiar with the name Isambard when I was growing up in the 1970s. I remember this because it was my brother's name. It almost always needed to be explained to anyone who asked, and they often did.
It was also a family name, as Isambard Kingdom Brunel was my great-greatgreatgrandfather (our mother's mother's mother's mother was IKB's only daughter, Florence).
It was because of this connection that I found, among my late uncle's papers, a personal letter from IKB to his son Isambard.
These days, we rarely have to explain the name. Brunel is far more famous now than he was.
This may reflect the changing way history is taught in schools. Most history used to
