Genealogy Chat

My husband's maternal line has four generations of Walter Hooks. Walter 1st married four times. Descendants of the first three wives have used Walter Hooks as names for their children .Makes it easy to spot the family. His paternal line ran 'John,Archibald,John Archibald,John' - I refused to name my eldest son 'Archibald'. When I finally traced back past the first John, I discovered HIS dad was a Peter. John called his first born Peter after grand dad and next son Archibald after his father in law, in the Scottish naming pattern. Unluckily, the first born child died, so we were stuck with Archibald from then on.

Hi Rachel. My ancestors used the same names all the time, and I ALSO have a William (Bill) Williams. Daft name if ever I heard one. There are so far 8 Letitia's in my tree, which started with my 3x g grandma. Also my dad wanted to name me Elizabeth after his mum, but my mum chose Rachel. She had to pick at random coz she didn't know any of her ancestors names! Only one other Rachel in my tree who is my cousin's daughter. I admit the re-use of names can be extremely annoying when you get identical families, but when names are used in diff orders, or they picked diff ancestors names in each family, it does sometimes make your rellies easier to spot. I'm going to be particularly annoying and use the names James and Joe after some ancestors, but these days with middle names etc, future generations should find them easier to trace! :P Lastly, was listening to Johnny Vaughn on radio yesterday and his colleague presenter (Welshy) joked that he went to school with a Morgan Morgan Morgan.

We have the same problem with:William,Michael,Margaret,Christina,John,George,Arthur and Shirley. My aunt is Christina,I am Christine and my cousin is Christina .Fortunately my aunt is in UK and my cousin is in USA and I am in Australia!

I thought that having an unusual name in the family would make it easier - how wrong can one person be? So far I have found 7 generations of Caleb Stedman's. and to add insult to injury....7 x John Stedman, 7 x Anne Stedman. Tho' thankfully only 6 Mary Stedman's (so far) Happy Hunting MICHAELA (dare to be different!)

I know exactly what you mean Rachel, try living with it. My name is Christine, my mother is Christina, her aunt was Christina, who had an aunt Christina, who also had an aunt.......yeah you've guessed. My brother is Thomas, my father is Thomas, My Grandfather is Thomas, who's uncle was Thomas ......and so on and so on. It was confusing as a child. When my father called Christine we both answered. When my Mother called Tom she got two answers. When my daughter was born i decided no more. I sent her father to register her birth and what did he come back with on the Birth Cert.......Lorna CHRISTINE. I did try! Christine (One of a VERY long line)

i know what you mean i have 5 gen's of thomas blumire and then on another branch i have a whole host of james's my grandad was james james his dad was william james and so are many others i am also to blame i named my son the same name as my husbands father so i am just as bad lol chris x

I now have a dreadful admission. My first son was called William Thomas. William after my dad/husband's English grandpa. Thomas - we knew no-one called Thomas apart from a cousin of mine in Germany I haven't seen for years. We chose that name because it was my husband's Welsh grandma's maiden name and he liked it. If I knew then what I know now I would give him the obscurer names in our family - Jeuel Gerrance Emmets. I told him this and he was appalled. He prefers William Thomas! Sorry to all my future family, I wasn't trying to be common, honest. nell

Colette thats as bad as all my Elizabeth Osbornes. In 2 generations I had 3 or 4 Elizabeths floting around but I do agree you win hands down. My biggest prblem is hunting down an Irish John Graham..

I think you're the winner Colette! LOL Debby

My 3 x Grt Grandad was William Ralston my 2 x Grt Grandad William Ralston my Grt Grandad William Ralston & My Grandad William Ralston its easy for me to remember their names haaaaaaaaaaaaa, but trying to talk about them well you can imagine which William they say oh that one thourght you meant Grandad William its a bit crazy. Colette xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Just found Lilly Rose and Rose Lilly in my newly found family -they were twins!!! There's also an Alice Flower - what a lovely name! On another note I've just found yet another loss in WW1 (my 4th so far) aged 27 on HMS Dartmouth but I've got his serial number so I can order his medal card and find his grave (do they get a grave if they were at sea?!). Debby

In Spain people have two surnames - their father's first surname followed by their mother's first surname (the term 'maiden name' has no translation). When I was teaching English in Catalonia 15 years or so ago, one of the pupils in the language school was named Monserrat Monserrat Monserrat. (she was usually called Montse).

I have so many James's that they drive me mad. I have a father Thomas with sons Thomas William and William Thomas. Of course, I do have a few different names, Cordelia and Elphege are the only ones that prevent me being tipped over the edge into insanity!

I was explaining to my six year old son that if you don't like your name you can change it by deed poll when you are grown up. He's already chosen his new name. There might be several Alex Smiths in our family tree but I've not come across another Thierry Henry Smith.

The will confuse your grandchildren and their decendents when they start tracing you. I Hope you leave them plenty of helpful information. lol

Now theres an idea Helen ! My son totally embarrasssed me at his wedding .... I signed the register - noticed he had mis-spelled my name and the vicar was most unhelpful- 'doubt we can change it on your say so, and the LRO will want to copy it verbatim' ...... Excuse me, its ME, its my name - why not ? 'Cant be done ....' So future generations will wonder why a Gavin had 2 fathers - LOL

Anne, I hope you had a better experiance ewith you name then my mothers cousins as the were always known as their mothers daughters because they were both Elizabeth, my mum just couldent bare the thought of me never being my own person in the families eyes. The only trouble was she wanted Rachal or Rebecca and everyone in our area must have named at least one of their daughters Rachel or Rebecca in the 5 years after I was born, as in one of my classes at school there was 3 Rachel's and 3 Rebecca's then add on the rest of my year group and the common names became Rachel, Rebecca, Sain, Gemma, Jenny, Claire, Sarah, Katherine. Thank goodness there's more choice of names now.

Anne And now you use your middle name just to confuse the future generations who might try and trace you???

CHRISTINA, how I love that name, my late mummsy was Christina Lucy. Guess what? I now have 3 nieces with variations of the name, Kristeena, Christeena & Christina - so my still family guilty of name clutter. cheers Laurie

I suppose in the olden days when people couldn't read and there was no telly or other media, they didn't get any other ideas for names but the ones already in the family, and maybe a few others they heard the vicar reading from the bible in church.