Genealogy Chat

I have seen this somewhere before. Does someone know the order in which they used to name children after people. I think it was that the first son was named after the paternal grandfather? I can't remember the rest. Pat

A recent Your Family Tree mag article suggests ; 1st son after fathers father 2nd son after mothers father 1st daughter after mothers mother 2nd daughter after fathers mother This one, it says, is Scottish and it says there were other naming patterns but doesn't specify what. Have you tried googling? I wish my difficult Scottish ancestors had stuck with this......but of course they don't make it easy!! Good Luck, Jenny

Hi Pat 1st son = father's father 2nd son = mother's father 3rd son = father 4th son = father's oldest brother 5th son = father's 2nd oldest brother or mother's oldest brother 1st dau = mother's mother 2nd dau = father's mother 3rd dau = mother 4th dau = mother's oldest sister 5th dau = mother's 2nd oldest sister or father's oldest sister Esta

Jenny and Esta, thanks for that. What are the chances that the family stuck to it though! Pat

No, unfortunately mine havent stuck to this either! But usually you get the names somewhere amongst the kids, which does help somewhat.

I can see that the order was not stuck to with this family. Wishful thinking! Pat

I can't say I've noticed a naming pattern with any of mine but after reading this now will certainly go back through and see whether any of it adds up. Might help me make sense of some of the missing bits if I know which names I'm looking for! Lou

my lot didn't really have a naming patteren but the same names pop up quite a lot good if you're looking for cyril, matilda, cameron bad if if it's william, james or mary

just checking mine now and it seems this is true ...as two sons both went on to name their first daughters sarah aafter the grandma....and lots of sons names are based on others in the tree

This is all well and good, but often the first child is named after his father's father and then he dies and the next child born (maybe no. 4 or 5 in the family) is named after the father's father again. It's much easier if they give them distinctive second names and then use them on all official forms! Nell

Most of mine seem to name their first son and their first daughter after themselves, not the grandparents. The problem with this is you can get three or four generations of men with identical names which gets a bit confusing! Lesley

Copied from this site some time ago Naming Children The continual use of the same given names in families can be annoying and frustrating at times - and at other times quite helpful. It wasnt just a case of lack of imagination or even names available (no footballers or pop stars back then - thank gawd! lol) Up until about the mid 1870's there was a kind of pattern for naming children - the 1st son was named after the husband's father, the 2nd son after the wife's father, the 3rd after the husband, the 4th after the husband's eldest brother. And the same principle was applied to the daughters born - 1st one after wife's mother, 2nd after the husband's mother, 3rd after the wife, etc So it can be a nightmare if trying to research a family in a small village - trying to work out who is who. I have 2 cousins marrying and when i checked the parish records, both their fathers had the same name! Ack! I have at least one family in my tree that has given the same name to 2 of their children - and not because the younger one died.... they have both been found alive on later census years. Imagine - if a William married a Mary (for instance) and they had 4 girls and 4 boys, all named following the pattern and each of those married....... *runs off screaming at the idea* lol

Mine's similar to Christopher's - My grandfather was named after his grandmothers maiden name but not as a middle name - his first name. The rest of the boys seem to be George, John or Charles. Carol

Nudge

My tree has no obvious naming patterns except for only using the same pool of about 12 names in any order, plus naming the last boy and the last girl after themselves! So how did they know these children would be the last boy and girl to be born in the family??? My lot must have been psychic!! Sarah