You are absolutely right that many of those names are from the more recent era, both in preservation and in private companies, but really that still is a reflection of tradition and a nice reflection at that.
BR early on carried forth with names on the top link stuff, but again its a fair point there wasn't as many as in steam days. I wonder, though, what the proportion was between named and not, for there were far fewer locos, due as much to Beeching as to the inherently higher utilisation per loco over steam.
It would be an interesting maths exercise, but I'm not about to take it on myself. Grin!
Regarding the locos named Fred, I rather enjoyed discovering not only someone did that, but actually hung that most honourable and venerable moniker on an example of my nominee for very favourite class of diesel. GRIN!
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