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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: nutkin on Sunday 07 November 04 16:24 GMT (UK)
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My husband and I are having a discussion..What do you name a baby? I would love to use some of the names in my tree.. Thomas Tyson, William Parkison, Alexander Dugald, Robert John, etc...I think they are good solid names that respect our ancestry.
He says no, we are not naming a child after your dead ancestors. I think it is a nice thing. A nice way to recognize your family's past. He thinks it is morbid and try to come up with a new name so as not to drive descendents crazy when researching our tree in one hundred years from now.
What do you think? Kristin ;D
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My eldest daughter has my Paternal Grandmother's middle name "May" as my Grandmother had recently passed away when my eldest was born and that was the reasoning behind the middle name being passed on & my youngest has my middle name. If one of my girls was a boy then he would have had my husbands 1st name (as he doesn't like his middle name).
We discussed these naming patterns but chose to stick to middle names and not 1st names and also we did not want to name our children after members of the family as we would have caused offence if we named after one side of the family and not the other etc etc. ::)
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I think it is important to make sure that the forenames go with the surname and to think carefully about what they might be shortened to by schoolmates in the future because those names tend to stick.
I recall a friend telling me she went school with a girl who always wrote her name as Mary R. Pigg. It took years for them to discover that the R was for Rhoda! (Hope she isn't a rootschatter!!!!)
Jill
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Mary R. Pigg. It took years for them to discover that the R was for Rhoda! (Hope she isn't a rootschatter!!!!)
I think that name should be in the funny names thread! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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My granddaughter has 3 given names. Two her mother loved, and the 3rd because my mother asked to have the baby named after a sister who died in childhood.
My daughter agreed to the sister's 2nd name, because not for anything would she name a baby 'Florence'! So the 3rd name is 'Rose'.
Anna
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Hi
I used to hate my middle name. Until I discovered it in the family for at least 200 years so know I'm well proud of it!!!!
Phil..........oh and Thomas
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You are right when I do not want to offend anyone on either side of the family.
I figure I took the husband's last name so why cannot I have a few of my family names in the mix. My hubby's family surname is Campbell. Luckily that goes with many first names. (my maiden name is of Ukrainian origin and does not go with many forenames).
I would never want to give a child a horrible name but sometimes we go too far in trying to find a name that won't rhyme with anything. My sister-in-law will only name children that have uni-s e x names.
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My Grandfathers name was Angus Hughes Cook but i dont think i would have the nerve to name one of my kids Angus when they were born they would have been.
Angus Hughes Cook Brass :-\doesnt ring does it so we named them Aaran and Ethan :)
Fifer :)
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I named my daughter after a book and her grandmother and her great -grandmothers surname... Lorna Ann Aston... she is delighted with her name she says she is keeping the tradition when (and if) she ever has children...
Best wishes
Mo
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Nutkin -I think using family names is a lovely idea - both my girls have their Grandmothers first names as second names..if we'd had boys they would have had their Grandpa's names.
How about suggesting a name from your hubbies family or one from each as a compromise !
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I,m named after my Grandmother and her Grandmother and a few aunts. My daughter is named after me and her daughter is named after her.
Fitty is very poplular in our family you know! <chortle>
seriously tho.. my middle Name is Helena with a funnywotsit on the 2nd E..so is pronounced Helaina. Which i was ok with till my dad told me it's a very old fashioned Dutch name and a bit like being called Gertrude or Ethel in England :-\
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slightly off topic! both mine and my husbands family only have one forename, ( my grandad was even reg as Tom not Thomas). We carried on this tradition believing that our son and daughter would never have anyone giggling at their middle name. All was well until yesterday , my son informed me he had difficulty filling in an online form, it had a space for middle name! he left it blank,not accepted!! he tried using space bar,not accepted! he tried "none" o.k! he didn't continue because he wasn't sure he wanted future correspondance addressed to J**** none A******. Any suggestions what he should put? my idea was * or perhaps he could award himself more than 1!!
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I,m named after my Grandmother and her Grandmother and a few aunts. My daughter is named after me and her daughter is named after her.
Fitty is very poplular in our family you know! <chortle>
seriously tho.. my middle Name is Helena with a funnywotsit on the 2nd E..so is pronounced Helaina. Which i was ok with till my dad told me it's a very old fashioned Dutch name and a bit like being called Gertrude or Ethel in England :-\
I'm glad I wasn't named after my grandmothers: they both had very "period" names. But my Dutch Ggrandmother was Engelina, which I like. Her mother was Johanna Catherina, like the previous 3 generations!
Anna
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When i named my sons, i named them after relatives. One living and a dead grandad. This was years before starting my family tree.
In due course i have now found several generations with the same name. It's not like calling them John or Paul. I thought Benjamin wasn't that common. But now have a 1901 census with Benjamin's on it!!
Pauline
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I wish I had been named after an ancestor because they had nice names. Mine was "Wanda" which my mother picked 'cause it sounded like my brother's which was Juan (pronounced "Wan") Get it? Wan and Wanda. He ended up Always being called Sonny but I was stuck w/Wanda. It would be nice if I was Polish as it is a Polish name but no Poles in me!.. I go by my middle name, have since I was 20, it is now my legel name even on passport. "Wanda" has died! My mother had a first name and three middle names!,( but none family ones). Plus she (m) 4 times to 3 men, trying to keep up w/Liz Taylor, another good Eng. woman there.
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I think more people should give their children middle names. In fact it should be compulsory for people with names like Brown, Smith, King, Jones etc. to provide a middle name on registering the birth of the child - if they refuse, then the baby should automatically have it's mother's maiden name as a middle name. That'll sort 'em out!
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Molar and I share something - we both had grandfathers christened plain Tom [not Thomas]. This is not ideal as Tom gave his son 3 christian names.
I have the christian names of my maternal grandfather but reversed.
My granddaughter has my wife's first name as her second and my middle son has an uncle's name as his second. So - I am dead neutral in this so I don't know why I chipped in.
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Yes. And there should be tight quotas on names. Let's say that you go to register the birth of your child and you want to call it John Smith. Well, the registrar should look at his database and say 'sorry, John Smith was taken in AD 76. How about John5463453378 Smith?'. A bit like choosing a username really. Alternatively you could be given a suitable alternative like John Percival Arthur William Smith or choose a different Christian name altogether. Just think how easy it would be to identify one of your ancestors if they had a unique name.
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That would be like AOL or Hotmail choosing children's names.
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I think its a nice tradition to carry on names it gives you a connection to your past ours are all carried on as middle names
My father had Samuel - named after his uncle and great uncle
my mother had Anne - named after her mother and grandmother
1 brother has William - named after our father and grandfather
2 brothers have Joseph - named after our great uncle and great great uncle
1 brother has George - named after our grandfather
my sister has Marlene - named after our aunt
my nephew has Samuel - named after his grandad, great uncle and great great uncle
and I have Georgina named after my grandmother
I can usually look at a list of names when searching on my surname and tell if they are related just from the names to a certain extent
My great grandmother is more awkward - Annie Jones. I could definuitely use an identification number as the middle name in that one
Willow x
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My son is named James Stephen. Basically (admitting this shamefacedly :-\) his first name is after....Captain James Tiberius Kirk! Ok, so I'm a Trekkie... He was named Stephen after two very good friends of mine, one of whom became his godfather.
But then I realized that James is the English variation of Jacobus, my very beloved and departed grandfather, so that was very good.
And when I starting looking into my biological (British) father's family, I discovered to my amazement that not only did my father grow up 2 streets away from where I did, in The Netherlands, but he had a brother James who was born on Dec. 7th in The Hague, while my James was born on dec. 9th in The Hague! And Stephen is the name of my greatgrandfather from Kent.
My daughter is named Samantha Heather Josephine, or Sammy-Jo for short. She was named for the character from Bewitched (knew I was going to name a daughter after her when I was in my teens ;o). Heather is the English variation for my mother's name Erica, and Josephine is English for my X mother-in-law Jozefina.
Again, when later researching my family in England, I not only found a Samantha who was the granddaughter of my grandmother's brother (it's getting confusing here...) but was born Aug. 4 1997, while Sammy-Jo was born on Aug. 8 1997.
So you see, even when not consciously following naming traditions, you still might end up doing just that!
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I wasn't named for an ancestor, and I didn't have a middle name. That wasn't a problem until I went to live in the USA for a few years. All the paperwork that had to be filled in at 'Naturalisation & Immigration' had spaces for middle names, and when I couldn't produce one, the clerk would put "doe" in that space. It annoyed me intensely as I was neither missing nor dead. So I adopted my maiden name as a middle name, it goes well with my married name, and turned around -(surname/maiden name run together as one word) it also made a good housename! And after 20 + years it is now legal as well.
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Naming our kids was quite a challenge, as I'm married to a Swiss guy and live in France, so lots of favourite/traditional names were unsuitable: I'm named after my grandmother, and like my name, but DON'T like the way the French pronounce it, for instance. And once we go back a few generations in my husband's family, all the boys are called Ullrich or Christian! Rock bottom for the girls was twins called Stini and Trini! (Christina and Katharina in local dialect.) So we came up with a compromise between tradition and reason: my husband is Jean-Marc, son of Jean-Paul, so our eldest son is Yves (a form of Jean), while our second is Jacques - the French equivalent of my maiden name James. The girls are Joëlle Elisabeth (both grandmothers have Elisabeth in their name) and Laurianne Hélène (Ellen and Helen both come up in my father's family). Pretty and reasonably uncommon!
Sarah
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hi
When I had my kids I just picked names I liked...Well guess what...... I have only recently started this tree thing and YES ...my kids are called after the old unknown relatives........must be in the genes
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So you see, even when not consciously following naming traditions, you still might end up doing just that!
Yep,
My youngest son is Isaac, despite being a complete heathen my four children all have bibical names; Joel, Nathan, Ruth and Isaac. I started researching family history and it turns out that Isaac has a g g g grandfather and a g g g g g grandfather called Isaac. My daughter Ruth has the middle name Ellen and there have been a couple of those in her ancestry. So I am working it backwards and am hoping for a Joel or a Nathan to turn up one day.
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Hi
I would have liked to name my children after my ancestors, but at the time didn't know any of their names.
My eldest daughter was named after my nana and given a family name from her dad's side.
But.....having got the family tree bug I discovered that I have an Charlotte Emily in my tree - my daughter is Emily Charlotte! So sometimes it works out anyway!
Sue :)
Sue
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My brother is Harry, as is our father's name, and grandfather. I couldnt resist calling my son Harrison! It does get confusing though, one is big H and the other is little H! I should say that my partner thinks Harrison is named after Harrison Ford and George Harrison. I thought it was a nice gesture to my family. :)
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I like the idea of naming children after ancestors. Tell your hubby it's not morbid Nutkin! LOL.
There's already a lot of this in my family which I didn't realise till I started with the tree.
My g grandma was Letitia Ralph (after her g gran - there are 7 Letitias in the tree). She had brothers James (named after one grandad) and Matthew (after the other).
Her 3 sons were named,
Joseph James Thomas K
James Matthew K
Thomas Ralph K (my grandad)
her daughter was called Letitia ::)
Joseph was her husbands name and Thomas her fathers.
My dad is Ralph William K.
My brother is Mark Ralph K, and he has a son called Thomas.
So what will I name my boys if I have any? You've guessed it... Joseph & James. NO MORE LETITIA'S THOUGH! Sorry I don't like it. :-[
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The naming practice on Lancashire in days gone by
was 1st son named after Father Father
1st daughter named after Father Mother
2nd son named after Mothers Father
2nd daughter named after Mothers Mother
3rd son named after Father
Occasionally 1st daughter was named after Mothers Mother.
Jinks
If you are talking morbid what about naming a child
after one that as just died, plenty of this went on
in my family.
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You'd think this re-naming would help, but obviously I'm just daft.
Been looking for my gx2 grandad Thomas Kendrick's family with no luck. Someone kindly found him for me on the 1851 census.
He was there with his family including 2 older brothers, Joseph and James. ::)
D'oh.
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If you are talking morbid what about naming a child
after one that as just died, plenty of this went on
in my family.
I was amazed at how often this was done in my family - my one GG Grandfather had 22 (at last count) children by two wives - 2 Johns, 2 Harrietts, 2 Janes, 3 Thomas and 5 Henrys! My other GG Grandmother had 3 Williams, 2 Evans and 3 Hannahs - only 1 Hannah and William surviving to adulthood - very sad :(
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Hi,
This is very interesting! I have four children my husbands family are Spanish, mine English. So we decided we would pick first names that are basically the same in both languages. Their second names are family names and because we had four we managed to include all four main branches. They are: Tomas Emilio (husbands & his fathers name), Ines May ( my maternal grandmothers name), Olivia Estefania (husband's maternal grandmother's name) and Isabel Esther ( my paternal grandmother's name) All but one were still alive when the first child was born. Thomas was also my grandad's name, but my husband picked it.
Good Luck
Wendy
PS If you don't want family interferrence or adverse opinions on your chosen name don't tell anyone what it is until after the child is born. Before hand everyone has an opinion and/or suggestions, after they seems to think it is a 'fate-a-complee' and so keep their opinions to themselves.
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I think its a great idea and I hope I can suggest it to my three daughters if they have children.
some of my family have used mothers maiden names as middle names and if they are used for boys it seems to work. (eg Carrick, Russell, Couch and Dash).
I wished I had known some of my family names when I named my three.
Mary
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I don't think there is anything morbid about it all, it's very traditional. It's paying respect to your ancestors. Carrying on their names.
I am named after my Great Grandmother ( my middle name). The reason my mum told me ; because she loved her granny, and wanted to name her daughter after her. she died before I was born.
My mum has two middle names, one after her uncle and the other is her mum's maiden name - to keep the maiden name in the family.
My brother and father have the same names. Their names go back for generations, his father and his father and so on. It's a pain when tracing that side of the family though, I always get mixed up at who I am looking at when they all have the same names, junior senior, older senior lol etc
Coming from a traditional naming family, I found it a bit odd that hubby's lot are not named after anyone at all. They all have middle names, but for no reason what so ever. I asked my mum in law once why name so and so this , it was just she liked the names at the time.
Plenty of families do name children after their "dead" rellies , it's just traditional.
Hubby and I already have names planned out for any children we have , and yes they will be named after our dead rellies, my grandmother for one who I loved but is no longer living. others will be named after my Hubby's grandparents, besides our own parents of course :)
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Quote from Cell.........I found it a bit odd that hubby's lot are not named after anyone at all............
I know someone whose mother admitted quite casually, that she found her daughter's name in a knitting pattern book.
meg :)
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Interesting what was said about using maiden names as part of a child's given names - my grandmother was christened Florence Eliza Garland (surname:Gay). In my research I have discovered that her grandmother's maiden name was Garland! Wasn't that a nice tie-in?!
Talking of using old family names - what's wrong with 'Theophilus' anyway?!!
Best
Sami
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Interesting what was said about using maiden names as part of a child's given names - my grandmother was christened Florence Eliza Garland (surname:Gay). In my research I have discovered that her grandmother's maiden name was Garland! Wasn't that a nice tie-in?!
Talking of using old family names - what's wrong with 'Theophilus' anyway?!!
Best
Sami
I think it happens quite a lot in the older days, with this maiden name thing, more so than today.
I have quite a few in parts of one of my lines further back( this line is from Gloucestershire) One of the Girls had a middle name Long - her mothers maiden name turned out to be long, another one, a brother married a woman with the middle name of Waters - you guessed it ,Her mother maiden name turns out to be Waters. These were around the 1700's.
My mum who has her mother maiden name for one of her middle names is Irish, so I don't know if it's more prevalent in certain areas (?). Funny thing though my mum didn't do the same thing to me and pass that name, or her own maiden name on to me, so it hasn't been kept in the family, she is the last female with it. She Just named me after my G grandmother - The Christian name for a middle name.
I haven't any like this on my Welsh lines of the tree so far ( The maiden names being used as middle names) , except for the usual Christian naming pattern after their fathers/mothers/grandparents , and middle names that were Christian names of their grandparents etc.
edit- I'm wrong about "my" welsh tree- I have some on this tree like this for the Welsh lines. I was thinking of my own Welsh lines, and not my hubby's.
My husband's tree; he has one of the son's with the mother's maiden name in the 1800's , and he'll kick me for this; his own brother has his grandmothers maiden name for a middle name, I forgot about that oops! ( hubby's dad named him , it was when hubby's grandmother died and hubby's father put it in my husband's one year younger brother name ,when he was born ) - All the rest of his siblings, hubby included my mum-in -law named because they were just "pretty" names she liked.
I would like to name a child after my husband's father, he's like a father to me. Doesn't matter boy or girl the kid is going to get it lol - poor kid. It's one of those really old fashioned names that the kid would get teased with these days. So I'll have to stick it in as a middle name - and hope the kid doesn't hate me for it lol . Mind you my Mum has a boys name for one of her other middle names , she has two middle names( after her uncle. Her mother was close to her big brother)
Just don't name your kids like Bob Geldof did - what on earth were they thinking lol names such as peaches and cream ???
:)
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i'm named after my mother - my first name is Yola which was her only 'christian' name. I use my first name at work and my second at home - so both get full use!
my mum died 4 years before my eldest daughter was born and we chose names we liked - Ruth and Elizabeth. Then my husband asked if I wanted to include my mum's name - so it carries on!
my sisters have called their girls after our grandmothers - Amelia and Daisy and also Emily as a variant on Amelia.
I have a Zacheus in my tree - can't honestly say i would have used that tho!
Sue
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...- what's wrong with 'Theophilus' anyway?!!
One of my more obscure branches is a Theophilus Jones. His elder brother was Jeremiah, so I was kind of hoping that the other, younger brother would have an equally obscure name. And what did it turn out to be? John. Great. I now have 16 "John Jones" in my tree.
On the other hand, it does have its lighter moments. If I get a mail asking if I can provide any more information about "John Jones, from Wales", I just send the whole list and ask which one they mean. Most take it the right way. Some don't.
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Personally I am all for it. My middle name is Middleton. For years I never could understand why. I mean, who would give a child a name like that?
After an uncle started looking into the family tree in the 1970s I discovered that it was my ggg grandmothers maiden surname and had been used as a christian name in every generation since.
Too late for my son and he is most upset by it, he was even talking about changing his name by deedpoll.
Tom
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I think naming children after ancestors is a nice thing to do.
I was named Michelle Abby, which was later switched around to Abby Michelle.
Abby - after a (foster)greatgrandmother, Abbie, who in turn was named for her grandmother, Abigail.
Michelle - after my father, Michael.
My mother was also named after her father, Glenn, she is Glenda Teresa, but goes by Teresa (tree-sa). Apparently her mom just liked it.
My cousin/fostergrandmother was also named after her father, Melva, she is Melva Jeanne, but goes by Jean.
Everyone kept saying Jeanne as Jeannie or Janine. ???
I don't have any kids, nor will I in the near future. If I ever do have kids, I'd like for their middle names to be off of the family tree.
I do have a list of names to avoid though.
Example? My maternal greatgrandparents from Georgia, USA
James Parker - nothing wrong with James. Parker on the other hand... I'm American, and as one, I do not wish to contribue to the invasion of Madisons, McKenzies, Aidans... :-X (Although I could easily have been named after him, as Jamie Parker. He was born 8-8-1884. I was born 8-8-1983. My mother didn't know until much later)
his wife...
Lity May - not Littie, oh nooo....Lightie :-[ My ancestor's high point in hickdom/redneckness. She was named by her mother Ida Cornelia. Lity, because she was born outside in the daylight, and May because.. gues what month she was born in?
That's one of those names where I look at it, and slap myself in the face...
though, after some digging I found that Ida Cornelia had a sister (not twin) named Catherine Cordelia. I think that sounds quite lovely.
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Interesting thread. I love all this forename stuff, it's great!!
There's quite a bit o' tradition on my Dad's side: Thomas John > Cecil Leonard > Kenneth Cecil > Kenneth John > Ryan Jon. I also have cousins on my Dad's side name Thomas & John.
My Mum has a forename typical of the 50s - Lynda. She also has her Father's Mother's first name as a middle name - Margaret. Both my Mum's brother Martin and his son have my Grandad's first name - David as a middle name, although everybody called him 'Tony', because of his middle name being Anthony.
I'm confident that I will have children some day ;D I am very pasionate about naming my first daughter (should I ever have one!!) after my maternal Grandmother- Lily. As you can see I like old fashioned names, including Olivia and Adalina. For a boy, my favorites are Evan & Theo. I'm also quite keen on Rhys, George, Ellis and Luke. Ryan, John or Jon would do as middle names!! No Kenneths or Cecils I'm afraid :P Hill is quite a neutral surname, so I don't see any restrictions created by it at all.
Ryan.
:)
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Hi
I started reseaching my paternal side and found that Daniel was carried through from Gt Grandad to Gt Uncle and now my brother has called his son Daniel to carry this on. James also runs through our family and my daughter is about to have her first baby and if it is a boy she is going to call him James, if a girl it will be Milly May and May was my nans middle name,.
I have also found whilst looking for my husbands family that both his brothers have names that come from ancestors and even his sisters daughter has a name that was used back in Gt Gt Grandparents time.
My name is the only one that does not seem to feature in the family but at least I have my Nans first name as my middle name so I guess I still count.
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I think it is amazing how these names come up even without trying to name after an ancestor. Rosanne is my middle name and only recently my mother discovered that her grandmother - whom everyone including her though was names Rose Hannah (first and middle name) - was named on her birth certificate Rosanna. I also found back in the 1700's a family in my tree that have two children with names I have named my own children, Esther and Susannah. My cousin also named a daugter Esther. Where I come from this is a very uncommon name and had not occured in the family tree since the late 1700's. How incredible is that!
Sometimes in my research I have found the reuse of names a confirmation that I am on the right track. I think it is a great thing to have a history attached to your name.
Rosanne
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When I discovered that my great grandfather was named Richard Smirk(e) RUSSELL (born 1814 London), I just knew that SMIRKE had to be his mother's maiden name. Wrong! mother was Sophia ROSSER.
Well, then SMIRKE must be grandmother's maiden name. Wrong! grandmothers were GODDARD and LLOYD or SANDERFORD.
So much for that theory ...........
Now, on the other hand there was a man named Richard SMIRK(E) who was an artist in London, a brother to the architects, who died in London in 1815. The mother of the SMIRKE brothers was named Elizabeth RUSSELL. Because this Elizabeth RUSSELL had married as a minor with consent of her mother Judith FARRANT, formerly RUSSELL, I have traced this RUSSELL family back to the parishes of St. Mary White Chapel and St. Botolph without Aldgate. There was a John RUSSELL in this family of the right age to be my ancestor ..... but WAS HE??
Susan41
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Newest twig born to our family today, Garandson number 5 Lucas Frederick. The middle name after my father.
A nice touch I think
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It seems that my husband and I are going to have to put this to teh test as we are going to have a baby in 6 months. We might want to start picking out names soon. Might take the whole time to agree.
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Enoch seemed to be a favorite name in my family fortunately the tradition seemed to die out before I was born!!
However I did inherit my middle name Ernest from my Grandfather.
My daughters middle name is Grace after her Greatgranmother and Grandmother and one of my grandsons has my name as a middle name.
Smokey
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Congratulations Rovert and Nutkin!
More twigs for the ever expanding trees
Willow x
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Molar
The easiest way filling out forms if the person has only 1 forename it to enter N.M.I. which means no middle initial. Then again the name could be misconstrued as Nmi, pronounced 'my', being of Asian origin. You do what feels right & hope all goes well.
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My grand parents names were Lily & Hedley Roy. He was always called Roy. Neither of them were named after any relatives that I can find.
My father is John Norman - named after Roys brother. But he has always been called Norman
My brother was also called John Norman - but is always called John.
My sisters and I have first names that are not related to any family. My middle name is Frances - which I detest. Its after my mothers Father Francis - he was always called Frank. He died before my 10th birthday.
My husband is French. Our son is Jean-Philippe NMI. And he has always been called J.P. Thats his nick name. JP is named after both our Dads. Jean from my Dad (changed the John to Jean) and Philippe from my FIL (changed the middle name Philip to Philippe).
IF one was to look at my Burrow ancestors - those family names were William, Isaac, John, James, Sarah, Amy, Emma, and Jane. The last Burrow with any of those names was my gt grandfather William - Lily's dad.
Since William emigrated from England to NZ, a new country calls for new names, right? :)
BD
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It looks like my ancestors were big fans of Florence Nightingale, every generation had a Florence.
and then there was Horatio....
If I have the chance I would love to use some of these great names as a middle name, I think it would be nice to continue on some of the names :D
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I plan to name my first two daughters after my grandmothers (Eibhlín and Treasa). I don't like either of my grandfathers' names though so won't inflict them on my sons...
My parents were both named in a traditional way (eldest son gets paternal grandfather's name, eldest daughter gets paternal grandmother's name, second son gets maternal grandfather's name, etc). I'm named after a great-aunt and my middle name is that of an aunt who died in infancy.
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I have got a tree!
Three given names and three surnames, in total four names:
My second name Henning is a common christian name and the surname of my father's mother.
My third name Jacob is the surname of my mother.
[A fourth name could be Barthold, my mother's mother had the surname Bartels (= Barthold's son)].
There is one Rudolf on the paternal side and there are several on the maternal side:
- Rudolph Kummerer had been the inventor of the Australian wool business,
living in London & Sydney.
- Rudolf Goldschmidt, businessman in Manchester.
- Arthur Rudolph Goldsmith, 1918 AIF, Australian Light horses, mill director in Mt. Eliza VIC.
his cousin (2nd grade):
- Rudolf Jacob, student, Bavarian Infantery, KIA 1916 like two other cousins (1st grade):
a Middlesex lieutenant and a Bavarian Leutnant.
My brother has got Carl as second name. The name is now present in the 8th generation starting with J. Carl Alexander Holtzmann (1699-1784), his godparent had been the grandfather of his elder halfbrother. [Holtzmann's law / Закон_Хольцмана had been invented by Carl Alexander's grandson.]
Regards
Rudolf H. Boettcher
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Ooooh this is an old thread! Lovely to see it revived though, and, nutkin, I do hope you are still on RootsChat and can tell us what you named your baby, who obviously is no longer a baby but coming up to nine years old?
Getting back to the subject in hand, although most of my grandfathers had a first name John, some of them had a middle name of Oliver, and some of their brothers also had the middle name Oliver, and one of my uncles was a John Oliver. I eventually found out that the Oliver came from my 3x great grandma's maiden name, and now apparently it is the most popular boy's name, so what goes round comes round as they say? This also really helped me in making connections to the wider family who had also continued the tradition of using Oliver as a middle name.
The post regarding 'needing' a middle name in the USA is also interesting, as the mother's maiden name is usually kept after marriage, as I believe they also do in Spain. This was fantastic for me in tracing a half sister who I didn't know existed until a couple of years ago, because, although she's married, and also already has a middle 'christian' name, she kept her maiden name, which is the same as mine, as her 'middle' name. Without this tradition, I don't think I would ever have found her! ;D
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Oops... didn't mean to resurrect a zombie thread. Must learn to read dates.
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It might be an old thread, doesn't mean it can't be resuscitated :D
My sister-in-law did not want to name their children after relatives as she believes its bad luck. As I do more family history research, the possibility I uncover someone with the same name as their children is increasingly likely :o . Already have found one, but not said anything, lest it cause a rift ::)
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Sarah is a frequently occurring name on both sides of my family. My paternal gt-grandmother, my maternal grandmother, her cousin, my mother, my cousin, my daughter and others - though not all as main first name. My daughter recently had a baby girl. I didn't want to interfere, but of course was hoping for another Sarah. I was thrilled when she was named Sadie - my mother Sarah Ann's pet name all her life - a great compromise and a pretty name,too.
Gillg
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Thomas has been a recurring name in my paternal family since their arrival in Australia. So when my wife was pregnant, we made an agreement that I would name the son, she the daughter. However, that all changed on the birth of our son. I proposed Thomas, with the middle name of Dowdeswell, which would make him TD the fourth. My wife put her foot down, and we compromised with Thomas Oliver, my grandfather's and father's names.
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Hi,
We used the children's second name to carry on some of the family names. My husband's name for our first son; our daughter's from my mother; 2nd son's after my grandfather and the 3rd son after my husband's father. That way we had what we wanted and also carried on some of the family names.
BevL
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I have a triple barrel surname. Came with the marriage certificate ..... Lol. My husband is from overseas and that alone is enough to have contend with as no-one seems to be able to pronounce it correctly, never mind spell it.
His ancestry has been enormously difficult to trace (records not easily accessible) and we got fed up with naming conventions. The first son named after the father etc. This occurred in my own family in the Uk several generations ago.
So as with the last generation in both our families we have opted to keep it simple and go for a name we like, and in our case no middle names.
;D