Genealogy Chat

Hi,
Just a quick question, I've noticed that in my tree the first son is named after its grandfather i.e. the fathers father. Was this common during the 1800's or just a tradition in my family.

Many Thanks

Brian

Brian

It's very common in Irish families but can also be a family thing anyway!!

Makes for hours of fun researching the same names!!

Happy hunting

Naming Patterns in England, 1700-1875
•1st son -- father's father
•2nd son -- mother's father
•3rd son -- father
•4th son -- father's eldest brother
•1st daughter -- mother's mother
•2nd daughter -- father's mother
•3rd daughter -- mother
•4th daughter -- mother's eldest sister
Younger children would be named after earlier ancestors, but the pattern in their case was more varied.

One variation from the above was for the eldest son to be named after the mother's father and the eldest daughter after the father's mother. In this case the second son would be named after the father's father and the second daughter after the mother's mother. Occasionally the second son and daughter would be named after the father and mother instead of the third son and daughter. Another variation was to name the third daughter after one of the great-grandmothers instead of after the mother. In such a case, the fourth daughter would usually be named after the mother.

From experience with researching our tree we found examples of the naming convention in several areas of the country. One place that was unexpected, though, was Southport, formerly known as North Meols.

However in our cases, it generally only tended to apply to the first few children i.e.those named after grandparents and parents. After that other un-related names started to creep in.

Hello it was very common in Scotland and I also found out that children used to have their mothers maiden name as their middle name.
Good luck.

Thanks for the help.

Scottish naming patterns were often subtley different.

See here for some examples:-

http://www.brownlee.com.au/Pages/ScottishNamingPatterns.html

As far as 'odd' middle names these were more common than you think - we have several. Most that we have found are the maiden name of a female ancestor. They can sometimes disappear for a couple of generations then suddenly come back unexpectedly.

yes very common in scotland. It actually really helped me trace some of my lines.

I have also found that for my scottish ancestors (like InspectorGreenPen), the maiden name of the mother or mother of the father was often used as a middle name.