Four hundred and thirty-three people named Nigel converged at a British pub to “celebrate Nigelness”.
The event took place on Sunday, September 29, at the Fleece Inn in Worcestershire. Some of the Nigels attended with their families.
56-year-old Nigel Smith, the landlord of the Fleece Inn in Bretforton, organised the gathering in a bid to stop the name dying out after he discovered that there had been no babies named Nigel in 2016, according to him.
Mr Smith said: “In the year I was born, 1963, there were over 5,000 Nigels born. “It was peak Nigel.
“I’ve always felt that the name’s much maligned – people would say to me when I was young: ‘Nigel, that’s got to be a joke name hasn’t it?’
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“So it was really just to get a few Nigels together in the same room, to share Nigel stories and celebrate our Nigelness – that was the original intention.”
“We got some 433 Nigels there last night, plus about another thousand non-Nigels who’d just come along for a laugh,” he said.
“We had a singer, a busker – both called Nigel – and a comedian called Nigel. We had Nigel awards for the furthest travelled, the youngest, oldest. We picked a collective noun for Nigels, which is a niggle of Nigels.
“We basically registered all the Nigels into the building so we knew how many were there so we could claim at least an unofficial record if nothing else.”
The event is said to have set a new world record for the largest gathering of Nigels in one place, with attendees presenting photo identification and signing the ‘Book of Nigel’ for Guinness verification purposes.
