Thanks for the responses, folks. As I mentioned, my duo-partner has vetoed "Barnardo Boy's Lament" so this is no longer a live issue, but it's interesting to see the various opinions.

However, I could imagine changing the title back when we tour the UK, so I'm curious as to why Ian said, "To change a title on account of possible negative associations could set a dangerous precedent especially in our global community. Imagine if your song had been written in Britain & played here for a while - would the title then be changed if the song was taken over to Canada/US?" What's wrong with that?

Cluin, where are you from? Besides my basic question in this thread, I was also curious to get an international perspective on who's heard of Barnardo and who's heard of Bernardo.

Marion

PS I know of one musician, a friend of a friend, who felt that he needed to change his name from Bernardo to Bernard when all this was in the news.