Names make news. Last week these names made this news:

During its 62nd annual Continental Congress in Washington, the Daughters of the American Revolution announced that they had accepted proof that Private Benjamin Doud, born May 10, 1761 in Middletown, Conn., was a direct ancestor of Mamie Doud Eisenhower. The First Lady was forthwith welcomed into the D.A.R., and some 4,000 of the ladies trooped to the White House to welcome their newest member. It was the biggest White House reception since the inauguration, and marked the end of a 15-year rift between the White House and the D.A.R. The spat started when the late F.D.R. once welcomed the delegates as fellow "immigrants." The rift widened when Eleanor Roosevelt resigned in" 1939 after the D.A.R. refused to allow Marian Anderson to sing in their Constitution Hall.

Queen Elizabeth II, who will be officially 27 on her State Birthday June 11, became 27 by the calendar. The day was spent quietly at Windsor Castle, where she enjoyed a walk with her children and a family luncheon. Later in the week, armed with her camera, the Queen joined Princess Margaret and a group of royal horse fanciers at Badminton, Gloucestershire, where they spent a day in the country watching the Olympic horse trials. A final note to the birthday week was gleaned by the London Daily Express from a French genealogical book and confirmed by a member of the College of Arms: on her mother's side, the Queen is a second cousin, seven times removed, to George Washington; and a fifth cousin, five times removed, to General Robert E. Lee. The common ancestor was a Colonel Augustine Warner, who came to Virginia in 1628.

In Emporia, Kans. to referee a wrestling match, Jack Dempsey, pausing in his steak dinner, joined a curbside crowd and watched a three-man slugfest. Finally, someone called the cops and the scrappers called it a draw. Said Jack: "Best darn fight I've seen in years."

The London County Council revealed a gift from recent Visitor Marshal Tito: $2,800 to be spent on trousseaus for deserving London war orphans.

In Twickenham, England, Poet Walter de la Mare celebrated his 80th birthday with a promise: a new book of verse to be ready soon.

On his way from Canada to England, Japan's Crown Prince Akihito enjoyed a five-hour visit in Manhattan, including a breakfast reunion with his former tutor, Elizabeth Gray Vining (Windows for the Crown Prince). Did the prince like the city? Said he: "[It is] the most wonderful masterpiece ever created by human beings."

The probate court in Coshocton, Ohio appraised the estate left by the late President William Green of the American Federation of Labor at $151,899.

Hollywood lawyers, who thrive on champagne-spiked arguments, had another one: onetime Actress Marion Davies was sued for $11,582, the catering cost of a party at her home last year celebrating the marriage (now defunct) of Marilyn Morrison to Sob-Singer Johnny Ray. The plaintiff: Marion's old friend Charlie

Morrison, father of the bride and manager of the nightclub that did the catering. Heady with surprise and indignation, Miss Davies told her side of the story: Morrison had asked the use of her home for the party, had promised to pick up all tabs. Now that his investment seemed a bad one, he was trying to get his money back, and she was not going to help. Said she: "I will gladly send a check for the amount of Mr. Morrison's claim to any deserving charity . . . but I refuse to recognize Mr. Morrison himself as one."

Manhattan court reporters saw a familiar face: Gambler Frank Costello, returned from Milan, Mich., where he is serving an 18-month stretch for contempt of Congress, to face a federal charge of evading $73,000 in income taxes. From Costello, prison-pale and some 30 Ibs. lighter, the reporters heard a familiar croak: "Not guilty."

British Composer Benjamin Britten announced in London that he had finished his new opera Gloriana, which will have its premiere in Covent Garden six days after the coronation. His next task, said Britten, is to locate a dozen trumpets and trumpeteers "who can look Elizabethan," since the opera is about the life of the first Queen Bess.

In London, Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck opened an exhibition of papers belonging to Panzer General Erwin Rommel, his late World War II opponent in the western desert. Rommel, said Sir Claude, "was a man to be respected because he was a very good soldier, not because he gave us a lot of trouble."

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