I heard that, back in the Viking days, one erstwhile conqueror acquired the name “__ the Baby-Lover”, because he refused to spear the babies of conquered towns. I found one reference to “Eric the Baby-Lover” through Google, but it’s an old blog that has since been taken down. Hardly authoritative. Can anybody expand on this? Is it just another urban legend?
Also, what does “erstwhile” mean?
Maybe you’re thinking of the name Barnikel? AFAIK there’s a hypothesis claiming that the origin of the name is the saxon or old English (?) expression ‘bairn-ne-kil’ that translates into ‘child-not-kill’. I.e. it could be a nickname for someone who did not want to kill children.
I’ve never read about any specific person with the name " _ the baby-lover" though.
Then his given name would probably be “Bill”. Especially since he’d be a sailor.