Daily AncestorSleeping child
A carved sleeping child on a gravestone shows death as peaceful sleep and marks the grave of a young child.
Victorians thought of the dead as sleeping and liked to surround them with familiar things. A figure of a child asleep in a cradle or bed was often used for a young child's grave.
Sleep is the link between life and death in this imagery, and the child stands for purity and innocence. Children's stones often give the age in years, months and days, which lets you work out the birth date.
As seen in a recordTown or garden cemetery, 1860 to 1920
Infant asleep on a pillow, carved in marble: Our Little Freddie, aged 2 yrs. 5 mos. 11 ds.
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Sleeping child." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/gravestone-symbols/sleeping-child. Last checked 2026-10-15.