That thought crossed my mind (the ubiquity of child death in the past) but becoming a widow has always been quite common and orphans have always been common.

If the commonality for something were a factor in whether it were named or not, we wouldn't have words like "breathing" or "dying."

I suspect that there is no word in the English language for "person whose child has died" but it puzzles me all the same. There *should* be such a word *because* it is such a common occurence.

Another thought that crossed my mind was that perhaps there is no word for it because people avoid discussing the topic. But I don't think Western society was always so tight-lipped about child death as it is now. Perhaps there is no word for it because childhood death was so much more expected than other deaths. The death of a spouse or one's parents are common but were less expected than the death of a child. (Today those expectations are reversed.)

There are other things that are highly expected that don't have names. We have the word "virgin" but there is no single word (that I know of) for a non-virgin because it's expected that we will all become one some day.

Now that childhood death is less expected, perhaps someone should coin a word for a bereaved parent. It seems too important a life experience to not be named.