Posthumous birth

Not to be confused with Coffin birth.

A posthumous birth is the birth of a child after the death of a biological parent. A person born in these circumstances is called a posthumous child or a posthumously born person. Most instances of posthumous birth involve the birth of a child after the death of its father, but the term is also applied to infants delivered after the death of the mother, usually by caesarean section.

Legal implications

Posthumous birth has special implications in law, potentially affecting the child's citizenship and legal rights, inheritance, and order of succession. Legal systems generally include special provisions regarding inheritance by posthumous children and the legal status of such children. For example, Massachusetts law states that a posthumous child is treated as having been living at the death of the parent, meaning that the child receives the same share of the parent's estate as if the child had been born before the parent's death. Another emerging legal issue in the United States is the control of genetic material after the death of the donor. United States law holds that posthumous children of U.S. citizens who are born outside the United States have the same rights to citizenship that they would have had if the deceased U.S. citizen parent had been alive at the time of their birth. In the field of assisted reproduction, snowflake children, i.e. those "adopted" as frozen embryos by people unrelated to them, can result in the birth of a child after the death of one or both of their genetic parents.

In monarchies

A posthumous birth has special significance in the case of hereditary monarchies following primogeniture. In this system, a monarch's own child precedes that monarch's sibling in the order of succession. In cases where the widow of a childless king is pregnant at the time of his death, the next-in-line is not permitted to assume the throne, but must yield place to the unborn child, or ascends and reigns until the child is born. In monarchies that follow male-preference cognatic primogeniture, the situation is similar where the dead monarch was not childless but left a daughter as the next-in-line, as well as a pregnant widow. A posthumous brother would supplant that daughter in the succession, whereas a posthumous sister, being younger, would not. Similarly, in monarchies that follow agnatic primogeniture, the sex of the unborn child determines the succession; a posthumous male child would himself succeed, whereas the next-in-line would succeed upon the birth of a posthumous female child.

Modern complications

Posthumous conception by artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization, whether done using sperm or ova stored before a parent's death or sperm retrieved from a man's corpse, has created new legal issues. When a woman is inseminated with her deceased husband's sperm, laws that establish that a sperm donor is not the legal father of the child born as a result of artificial insemination have had the effect of excluding the deceased husband from fatherhood and making the child legally fatherless. In the United Kingdom before 2000, birth records of children conceived using a dead man's sperm had to identify the infants as fatherless, but in 2000 the government announced that the law would be changed to allow the deceased father's name to be listed on the birth certificate. In 1986, a New South Wales legal reform commission recommended that the law should recognize the deceased husband as the father of a child born from post-mortem artificial insemination, provided that the woman is his widow and unmarried at the time of birth, but the child should have inheritance rights to the father's estate only if the father left a will that included specific provisions for the child. In 2001, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was asked to consider whether the father's name should appear on the birth record for a child conceived through artificial insemination after her father's death, as well as whether that child was eligible for U.S. Social Security benefits. The court ruled in January 2002 that a child could be the legal heir of a dead parent if there was a genetic relationship and the deceased parent had both agreed to the posthumous conception and committed to support the child. Different U.S. state courts and federal appellate courts have ruled differently in similar cases. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Astrue v. Capato that twins born 18 months after their father's death using the father's frozen sperm were not eligible for Social Security benefits, which set a new precedent.

Naming

In the Middle Ages, it was traditional for posthumous children born in England to be given a matronymic surname instead of a patronymic one. This may in part explain why matronyms are more common in England than in other parts of Europe.

In Ancient Rome, posthumous children of noble birth were often given the cognomen (or third name) 'Postumus.' One example is Agrippa Postumus. However, it is likely that the term simply meant "the last child" or youngest born, and did not always indicate posthumous birth.

In Yoruba culture, posthumous children are given names that referred to the circumstances concerning the birth. Examples of this include Bàbárímisá, meaning that the Father saw (the child) and ran, Yeyérínsá, meaning that the Mother saw (the child) and ran, Ikúdáyísí (or any name with the root dáyísí, which means that death spared the child, and Ẹnúyàmí, meaning that "I was surprised," referring to the fact that the tragic death of the father, mother, or both was sudden and surprising for the family.

Notable people born posthumously

This list also includes people who were posthumous children of notables but did not become notable themselves.

Antiquity

Name	Born	Late parent	Parent died	Gap	Comments
Alexander IV King of Macedon	August 323 BCE	Alexander the Great	11 June 323 BCE	2 months
Bindusara Mauryan Emperor	320 BCE	His mother	320 BCE		Delivered through caesarean section after his mother was poisoned.
Agrippa Postumus Grandson of Augustus Caesar	12 BCE	Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa	12 BCE	A few weeks
Shapur II Sassanid Emperor	309 AD	Hormizd II	309 AD	Forty days	Shapur is believed to be the only monarch in history who was crowned in utero
Flavia Maxima Constantia Wife of Gratian	361–362 AD	Constantius II	3 November 361		Father died of fever.

Middle Ages

Name	Born	Late parent	Parent died	Gap	Comments
Muhammad Prophet of Islam	c. 570	Abdullah ibn Abdul-Muttalib	c. 569	<6 months	Father died of illness while returning from a foreign trade mission.
Robert I King of France	15 August 866	Robert the Strong	2 July 866	6 weeks	Robert the Strong died at the Battle of Brissarthe
Charles III "The Simple" King of France	17 September 879	Louis the Stammerer	10 April 879	5 months
Lothair III Holy Roman Emperor	1075	Gebhard of Supplinburg	9 June 1075	?
Valdemar I the Great King of Denmark	14 January 1131	Canute Lavard	7 January 1131	7 days
Constance I Queen of Sicily	2 November 1154	Roger II of Sicily	26 February 1154	8 months
Baldwin V King of Jerusalem	August 1177	William of Montferrat, Count of Jaffa and Ascalon	June 1177	2 months
Arthur I Duke of Brittany	29 March 1187	Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany	19 August 1186	7 months
Maria of Montferrat Queen of Jerusalem	Summer 1192	Conrad of Montferrat	28 April 1192	A few months	Father assassinated.
Theobald I King of Navarre	30 May 1201	Theobald III, Count of Champagne	24 May 1201	6 days
Raymond Nonnatus Catholic saint	1204	His mother	1204	–	Retrieved through caesarean section after his mother died in childbirth.
Przemysł II King of Poland	14 October 1257	Przemysł I of Greater Poland	4 June 1257	4 months
John I King of France	15 November 1316	Louis X of France	5 June 1316	5 months	He lived for only six days, but was a king for his entire short life.
Isabel de Verdun, Baroness Ferrers of Groby English aristocrat	21 March 1317	Theobald de Verdun, 2nd Lord Verdun, Justiciar of Ireland	27 July 1316	8 months	Theobald died of typhoid
John, 3rd Earl of Kent	7 April 1330	Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent	19 March 1330	19 days	Edmund was executed
William of Bavaria-Munich	1435	William III, Duke of Bavaria	12 September 1435	up to 3 months	He also died in 1435
Ladislaus the Posthumous King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia, Duke of Austria	22 February 1440	King Albert II of Germany	27 October 1439	4 months
Henry VII King of England	28 January 1457	Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond	1 or 3 November 1456	3 months
John Louis Count of Nassau-Saarbrücken	19 October 1472	Johann II of Nassau-Saarbrücken	15 July 1472	3 months
Mencía Pacheco Castilian noblewoman	1474–1475	Juan Pacheco	1 October 1474		Father died of a throat ailment.
Pope Clement VII	26 May 1478	Giuliano de' Medici	26 April 1478	1 month	Giuliano was assassinated in the Pazzi Conspiracy

Modern Age

Name	Born	Late parent	Parent died	Gap	Comments
Catherine of Austria Queen of Portugal	14 January 1507	Philip I of Castile	25 September 1506	3 months	Father died of typhoid or was poisoned.
Alexander Stewart Duke of Ross	30 April 1514	James IV of Scotland	9 September 1513	7 months	James IV died at the Battle of Flodden; Alexander died at the age of only 20 months, but during his short life he was heir presumptive to the throne of the Kingdom of Scotland
Françoise d'Orléans-Longueville Wife of Louis I of Bourbon	5 April 1549	François d'Orléans, Marquis of Rothelin, Prince of Chalet-Aillon, Viscount of Melun	25 October 1548	5 months
Sebastian King of Portugal	20 January 1554	João Manuel, Prince of Portugal	2 January 1554	18 days	Upon his birth, Sebastian immediately became Crown Prince
Ben Jonson Elizabethan playwright	c. 11 June 1572	His father	April 1572	2 months
Henri II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé French aristocrat	1 September 1588	Henri, Prince of Condé	5 Mar 1588	6 months
Sveinn "Skotti" Björnsson Icelandic criminal	1596–1597	Björn Pétursson	1596	?	His father was the only serial killer in the history of Iceland and was executed before his birth.
Thomas Herbert Welsh Royal Navy officer and writer	15 May 1597	Richard Herbert	15 October 1596 (buried)	7 months
Friedrich Wilhelm II Duke of Saxe-Altenburg	12 February 1603	Friedrich Wilhelm I, Duke of Saxe-Weimar	7 July 1602	7 months
Joseph of Cupertino Catholic saint	17 June 1603	Felice Desa	?	?
Elizabeth Gyllenhielm Swedish noble	1622	Charles Philip, Duke of Södermanland	25 January 1622		Charles died in battle at Narva
François-Henri de Montmorency Duke of Luxembourg	8 January 1628	François de Montmorency-Bouteville	22 June 1627	6 months	His father was executed for dueling
Isaac Newton English scientist	4 January 1643	Isaac Newton, Sr.	September–October 1642	3 months
William III King of England and Scotland	14 November 1650	William II, Prince of Orange	6 November 1650	8 days	Father died of smallpox. He was born Prince of Orange.
Adolphus Frederick II Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz	19 October 1658	Adolf Frederick I, Duke of Mecklenburg	27 February 1658	7 months
Jonathan Swift Irish writer (Gulliver's Travels)	30 November 1667	Jonathan Swift, Sr.	c. April 1667	7 months
William August Duke of Saxe-Eisenach	30 November 1668	Adolf William, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach	21 November 1668	9 days
Godscall Paleologue	12 January 1694	Theodorious Paleologus	post-1 August 1693 (date will made)	Up to 5 months	Last recorded living member of the Paleologus dynasty
Edward Ward, 9th Baron Dudley	16 June 1704	Edward Ward, 8th Baron Dudley	28 March 1704	10 weeks
Georg Wilhelm Richmann Livonian physicist	22 July 1711	His father			His father died of plague.
William IV Prince of Orange	1 September 1711	John William Friso, Prince of Orange	14 July 1711	6 weeks	His father drowned in ferryboat sinking.
Robert Petre, 8th Baron Petre British peer and horticulturist	3 June 1713	Robert Petre, 7th Baron Petre	22 March 1713	10 weeks	His father died of smallpox.
John Morton American politician	1725	John Morton, Sr.	1725
Sir Brook Bridges, 3rd Baronet British politician	17 September 1733	Sir Brook Bridges, 2nd Bt	23 May 1733	4 months
Barbara Herbert, Countess of Powis British aristocrat	24 June 1735	Lord Edward Herbert	c. March 1735	3 months
Caroline Matilda Queen of Denmark	11 July 1751	Frederick, Prince of Wales	20 March 1751	4 months
Thomas Chatterton English poet and forger	20 November 1752	Thomas Chatterton Sr.	7 August 1752	15 weeks
Elizabeth Simcoe British artist in colonial Canada	22 September 1762	Thomas Gwillim	?	?
Benedict Joseph Flaget American bishop	7 November 1763				[1]
Andrew Jackson President of the United States	15 March 1767	Andrew Jackson, Sr.	February 1767	3 weeks	His father was killed in a lumber accident
Tenskwatawa Shawnee prophet and leader	1775	Pukeesheno	?	?

19th century

Name	Born	Late parent	Parent died	Gap	Comments
Arthur MacArthur Sr. Governor of Wisconsin	26 January 1815	His father	19 January 1815	7 days	Paternal grandfather of General Douglas MacArthur
Henri, Count of Chambord Pretender to the French throne	29 September 1820	Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry	14 February 1820	7 months	Father, who was assassinated, also had three posthumously born bastard children by different women.
Rutherford B. Hayes President of the United States	4 October 1822	Rutherford Hayes Jr	20 July 1822	10 weeks
Jemima Blackburn Scottish painter	1 May 1823	James Wedderburn	7 November 1822	6 months
Anna Leonowens British teacher, co-subject of The King and I	5 November 1831	Thomas Edwards		3 months
David Hyrum Smith Leader of the RLDS Church	7 November 1844	Joseph Smith	27 June 1844	5 months	His father was murdered.
Princess Kazu Wife of Tokugawa Iemochi	1 August 1846	Emperor Ninkō	21 February 1846	5 months
Horace Tabberer Brown British chemist	1848	His father
Samuel Alexander British philosopher	1859	Samuel Alexander, Sr.
Motilal Nehru Indian political activist	6 May 1861	Gangadhar Nehru	February 1861	3 months
Florence Maybrick US-British accused murderess	3 September 1862	William Chandler	?	?
George Washington Carver American agricultural scientist	c. 1864	His father			Father was murdered.
Breaker Morant Australian soldier and folk hero	9 December 1864	Edwin Murrant	August 1864	4 months
Frank Anstey Australian politician	18 August 1865	Samuel Anstey	?	5 months
Rua Kenana Hepetipa Maori faith healer	1869	Kenana Tumoana	November 1868	3 months	Tumoana was killed at Makaretu while fighting for Te Kooti
George Washington Lambert Australian artist	13 September 1873	George Washington Lambert	25 July 1873	7 weeks
Carl Schuricht German conductor	3 July 1880	Carl Conrad Schuricht	?	3 weeks	His father drowned in the Baltic Sea while trying to save a friend
Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha	19 July 1884	Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany	28 March 1884	4 months	His father, a haemophiliac, died after head injury in a fall.
Chester W. Nimitz American fleet admiral	24 February 1885	Chester Bernard Nimitz	14 August 1884	6 months
Clara Sipprell Canadian photographer	31 October 1885	Francis Sipprell
Alfonso XIII King of Spain	17 May 1886	King Alfonso XII	25 November 1885	6 months	His father died of dysentery from tuberculosis
Li Dazhao Co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party	29 October 1889	His father		A few months
Thomas Iorwerth Ellis Welsh classicist	19 December 1899	Thomas Edward Ellis	5 April 1899	8 months
Mabel Mercer British-American jazz singer	3 February 1900	Her father	?	?

20th century

Name	Born	Late parent	Parent died	Gap	Comments
Stanley Kunitz American poet	29 July 1905	Solomon Z. Kunitz	June 1905	6 weeks	Father committed suicide.
Johan Kjær Hansen Member of the Danish Resistance	7 April 1907	Hans Christian Johan Andreas Hansen	13 December 1906	4 months
Xiao Qian Chinese essayist and translator	27 January 1910	His father
John Jacob Astor VI	14 August 1912	John Jacob Astor IV	15 April 1912	4 months	Father drowned in the sinking of the RMS Titanic, which his mother survived
Red Skelton American comedian	18 July 1913	Joseph Elmer Skelton	May 1913	2 months
Cäzilia Gabriel Hinterkaifeck victim	January 1915	Karl Gabriel	December 1914	1 month	Father killed in action during World War I.
Georg Quistgaard Member of the Danish Resistance	19 February 1915	Georg Brockhoff Quistgaard, Sr.	18 December 1914	2 months
Alfred Shaughnessy English screenwriter and producer	19 May 1916	Alfred Shaughnessy, Sr.		2 months	Father killed in World War I.
Edward Bell, Jr	October 1918	Edward Bell (footballer)	24 March 1918	6 months	Father killed in action during World War I.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Russian novelist	11 December 1918	Isaakiy Semyonovich Solzhenitsyn	15 June 1918	6 months	Father killed in a hunting accident.
John Mitchum American actor	6 September 1919	James Mitchum	February 1919	7 months	Father killed in a railyard accident.
Kong Decheng Duke of Yansheng	23 February 1920	Kong Lingyi	8 November 1919	3 months
Alexandra of Yugoslavia Wife of Peter II of Yugoslavia	25 March 1921	Alexander of Greece	25 October 1920	5 months	Father died from sepsis after being bitten by a captive monkey.
Jules Olitski Ukrainian-American painter, sculptor	27 March 1922	His father		A few months	Father executed by the Soviet government.
Elisabeth of Austria Austrian aristocrat	31 May 1922	Charles I of Austria	1 April 1922	2 months	Father died of pneumonia.
Stephen Wurm Hungarian-Australian linguist	19 August 1922	Adolphe Wurm
Mary Warnock English philosopher	14 April 1924	Archibald Wilson	1923
Anthony Earnshaw English anarchist	9 October 1924	His father
Felipe Rodríguez Puerto Rican singer	8 May 1926	His father
Earl Holliman American actor	11 September 1928	William A. Frost		6 months	Holliman and all his biological siblings were put up for adoption as a result of economic hardships derived from his father's death.
Bertram Wainer Australian doctor and activist	30 December 1928	His father
Itamar Franco President of Brazil	28 June 1930	Augusto César Stiebler Franco	April 1930	2 months	Father died of malaria.
Thomas Sowell American economist	30 June 1930	His father
Brian Sewell British art critic	15 July 1931	Peter Warlock (claimed by Sewell)	17 December 1930	7 months	Warlock died of coal gas poisoning.
Don Durant American actor	20 November 1932	His father		2 months	Father killed in a truck accident.
Margaret O'Brien American actress	15 January 1937	Lawrence O'Brien
Ian Brady British serial killer	2 January 1938	His father (according to his mother)		3 months	Brady's father was never identified, casting doubt on his mother's claims.
Lee Harvey Oswald Assassin of John F. Kennedy	18 October 1939	Robert Edward Lee Oswald	19 August 1939	2 months	Father died of a heart attack.
Marie Heydrich	23 July 1942	Reinhard Heydrich	4 June 1942	7 weeks	Father was assassinated.
Edwin Wilson Australian poet	27 October 1942	His father
Henry Cecil British racehorse trainer	11 January 1943	Henry Kerr Auchmuty Cecil	30 November – 2 December 1942	6 weeks or 2 weeks	Father killed in action in the North African campaign of World War II.
Sylvester McCoy British actor	20 August 1943	Percy Kent-Smith	18 July 1943	1 month	Father killed in action in World War II.
Ranulph Fiennes British explorer and writer	7 March 1944	Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes	24 November 1943	3 months	Father killed in action at the Battle of Monte Cassino.
John Pelham, 9th Earl of Chichester English nobleman	14 April 1944	John Pelham, 8th Earl of Chichester	21 February 1944	2 months	Father killed in road accident while serving in World War II.
Maria João Pires Portuguese-Swiss classical pianist	23 July 1944	João Baptista Pires
Bernard Collaery Australian lawyer and politician	12 October 1944	Edward Collaery		4 months	Father killed in action in World War II.
Frederica von Stade American opera singer	1 June 1945	Charles S. von Stade	10 April 1945	2 months	Father killed in action in World War II.
Bill Clinton President of the United States	19 August 1946	William Jefferson Blythe Jr.	17 May 1946	3 months	Father died in an automobile accident.
Peter Kocan Attempted assassin of Arthur Calwell	4 May 1947	His father		3 months	Father died in an automobile accident.
Pedro López Colombian serial killer	8 October 1948	Midardo Reyes	4 April 1948	7 months	Father shot when his store was attacked during La Violencia.
Jett Williams American singer	6 January 1953	Hank Williams	1 January 1953	5 days	Father died of drug-induced cardiac arrest.
Wally Carr Australian boxer	11 August 1954	His father		2 months	Father shot himself in the head
Janet Lynn Skinner American singer	5 July 1955	Billie Haille	July 1955	A few days	Father died of spinal meningitis.
Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum President of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority	1 December 1958	Saeed bin Maktoum bin Hasher Al Maktoum	9 September 1958	3 months	His father was 80 years old at the time of his death.
Tyrone Power Jr. American actor	22 January 1959	Tyrone Power	15 November 1958	2 months	Father died of angina pectoris while filming an action scene.
Antwone Fisher American author and film director	3 August 1959	Eddie Elkins		2 months	Father shot by a jealous lover.
John Clark Gable American Actor	20 March 1961	Clark Gable	16 November 1960	4 months	Father died of cardiac arrest.
Yves Amu Klein French artist	6 August 1962	Yves Klein	6 June 1962	2 months	Father died of cardiac arrest.
Sławomir Makaruk Polish traveler	4 October 1963	Sławomir Makaruk Polish aviator	20 April 1963	5 months	Father died in an aviation accident.
Tariq Al-Ali Kuwaiti actor	18 January 1966	His father
Rory Kennedy American documentary film maker	12 December 1968	Robert F. Kennedy	6 June 1968	6 months	Father assassinated while campaigning for election.
Brandon Teena Hate crime murder victim	12 December 1972	Patrick Brandon	7 April 1972	8 months	Father died in an automobile accident.
Philippe Cousteau Jr. Environmental advocate	20 January 1980	Philippe Cousteau	28 June 1979	6 months	Father died in an aviation accident.
Diana Yukawa Japanese-British violinist and composer	16 September 1985	Akihisa Yukawa	12 August 1985	1 month	Father died in the Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash.
Natashenka Ignatenko Chernobyl disaster victim	1986	Vasily Ignatenko	13 May 1986	A few months	Father died of acute radiation syndrome contracted while putting out the fire in the fourth reactor. Natashenka lived for four hours before dying of radiation-induced congenital heart disease and cirrhosis.
Gia Coppola American film director and actress	1 January 1987	Gian-Carlo Coppola	26 May 1986	7 months	Father died in a speedboat accident.
Didier Pironi and Gilles Pironi Formula One engineer	1987-1988	Didier Pironi Formula One racing driver	23 August 1987		Father killed in a powerboat racing accident.
Ane Muguruza Basque nationalist politician	1989–1990	Josu Muguruza	20 November 1989		Father assassinated by Bases Autónomas.
Tuki Brando Fashion model	26 June 1990	Dag Drollet	16 May 1990	1 month	Father shot by his uncle, Christian Brando.
Daijah Nakia	26 September 1995	Eazy-E	26 March 1995	6 months	Father died from HIV/AIDS complications.
María Indiano Carrillo	22 October 2000	Manuel Indiano Azaustre	29 August 2000	2 months	Father assassinated by ETA.

21st century

Name	Born	Late parent	Parent died	Gap	Comments
Adam Pearl	2002	Daniel Pearl	1 February 2002	2 months	Father abducted by Al-Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan and beheaded.
Aitor Antonio Puerta	22 October 2007	Antonio Puerta	28 August 2007	2 months	Father died of cardiac arrest during a professional association football match, due to an at the time undiagnosed congenital condition.
Iryana Leila Member of the Pahlavi Dynasty	26 July 2011	Ali-Reza Pahlavi	4 January 2011	6 months	Father committed suicide.
Tiago Alves Vieira	19 July 2017	Tiago da Rocha Vieira	28 November 2016	8 months	Father died in the LaMia Flight 2933 crash.
Gekyume Onfroy	26 January 2019	XXXTentacion	18 June 2018	7 months	Shot in a robbery.

Mythological characters born posthumously

The Bible's Old Testament mentions two named cases of posthumous children:

• Ashhur, youngest son of Hezron, born when his father had died when aged past 60 years. (1 Chronicles 2;21,24)
• Ichabod, who was born when his mother, who subsequently died, heard news that his father Phinehas had been killed at the Battle of Aphek and paternal grandfather Eli accidentally killed afterwards. (1 Samuel 4:19-22)

• Parikshit, the sole survivor of the Kuru dynasty in Mahabharata, was born after his father Abhimanyu was killed in the Kurukshetra war.
• The Greek god Asclepius is said to have been delivered by caesarean section after his mother was killed on Mount Olympus.

Fictional characters born posthumously

• Macduff, a character in Shakespeare's Macbeth, revealed that he was not literally born, but removed from his [dead] mother, completing a plot twist.
• The Irish Republican song "The Broad Black Brimmer" was about a boy whose father died before he was born.
• The Charles Dickens character David Copperfield was a posthumous child, whose father had died six months before he was born. Another Dickens character, Oliver Twist, was posthumous as his mother died while giving birth.
• On A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, baby Jacob was born after his father Dan was killed by Freddy.
• In The Hunger Games series, Gale Hawthorne's sister Posy is born shortly after their father dies in a mine explosion, and Finnick Odair's son is born months after his death in battle.
• John Connor, a principal character in the Terminator franchise, and son of Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese (a time traveler from the future), was conceived shortly before his father was killed. As an adult, John was in fact responsible for selecting Reese (who was unaware of their relation) to go back in time.
• The Noughts and Crosses series character Callie-Rose Hadley is born after the execution of her father, Callum McGregor.
• In the British television soap opera Coronation Street, Liam Connor Jr. was born in July 2009; his father and namesake Liam Connor, was ordered murdered by Tony Gordon just a short time after Liam Jr.'s conception in October 2008.
• The Stephen King novel Carrie tells briefly of the parents of the titular character, Margaret and Ralph White. Ralph, a construction worker, had impregnated Margaret, only to be killed in a construction accident shortly before the birth of their daughter.
• In Berserk, main character Guts is found after having been birthed by a hanging corpse.
• Grey's Anatomy: Derek Shepherd dies in a car accident in Season 11, nine months before the birth of his daughter.
• Bahubali series: Mahendra Bahubali is born shortly after his father Amarendra Bahubali is killed.
• Star Wars Rebels: Kanan Jarrus dies sacrificing himself while rescuing his lover Hera Syndulla who is pregnant with their son, Jacen Syndulla.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire, Princess Daenerys Targaryen is born months after the death of her father, King Aerys II Targaryen.

See also

• Coffin birth
• Maternal death
• Posthumous sperm retrieval

External links

• Posthumous Child (i.e., Born After Father's Death), Adoption.com