Names you just don't see anymore

[patrish]

What a dreadful name for a hamster  , almost as bad as Bumface my friends in Switzerland cat.    Yes 3 is a good age for a hammy, we had two one pure white called Snowy, yes I know very original  :  and another called Copper after the Disney film the Fox and Hound, he lived a long time in the end we had to have him put to sleep. 

[RedFox]

I was really bothered when I ran into the first incidence of having a child named for a deceased sibling.  The first time I ran into it was on my mother's side with her maternal great-grandfather.

But I began to see it often in hers and other family lines, although mostly in the 1600 - 1900 time span; probably before also but haven't got there yet.  I've learned through genealogical chat rooms it was done because the family wanted to honor the person whose name was used originally - like naming a child after his paternal grandfather. 

However, I agree with patrish and KathMc, I would be uncomfortable with it because each child is, or should be IMHO, an individual.    RedFox   

[Clare Fowler]

Hi there,

I have seen the reuse of names in various branches of my tree, which I am still not sure how I feel about.  I guess we have to remember that deaths of children was much more common pre-1900, than it is today.  I am not suggesting that it was any less devastating than it is today, but society dealt with things in a very different way. While it seems utterly incomprehensible to most of us today that a child's name be reused, it seemed to be a matter of course for some families.  In Scotland, there was a common naming pattern, where children were named after grandparents, then parents in a specific order.  The cases in which I have seen names being reused have been in the families where this pattern was used most rigorously - I would guess that the reasons for these are linked somehow - along the lines of what RedFox was saying.

Clare

[chinakay]

The author of Ancestral Trails tells a story of a family in his own tree that was so determined to have a son named James that they named all five of their boys James. In an age when there was up to about 40 infant mortality it seems like a good insurance policy, but the strange thing is that all five lived to marriage age. And then their author descendant had to try to sort them all out.

How confusing can that be?

Merry Christmas everybody!

Cheers,
China

[RedFox]

Sounds like the family with five boys named James was badly in need of middle names.  Also sounds like they knew my maternal grandfather's ancetors.  They seemed to have a thing about all using the same names.

For four successive generations, they alternated James and John -- boy was that confusing!  That didn't stop them from using both names in each family either.   There were at least three brothers (James, William, & Robert) who used the same names: since their father's name was Robert, they threw that in as well.  Fortunately, my grandfather's father stopped doing that and had three girls; he named his sons Clarence and Frank!!  Do  you think he was rebelling (he was a John himself)?   RedFox       

[Silverhawk]

A friend of mine has a great-grandfather named Heman.  I'm sure it's meant to be Hernan and been misspelled, but on both index entries (birth and marriage) it's definitely typed "m" rather than "rn", so as far as official records go, Heman it is.  My friend's a big comic/cartoon fan though, so thinks it's cool

Haven't come across a Shera yet

[rancegal]

Here's a quote from a thread on the BBC board:

    " Saw this marriage FHS mag yesterday
Canterbury marriage licence issued 29th August 1896
Mabel Helmingham Ethel Huntingtower Beatrice Blazonberrie Evaneline Vise de Lou De Orellana Plantagenet Toedmag Tollemache of South Witham Lincoln sp to William BRYANT bach of Folkestone to marry at Folkestone"


   They don't make names like that any more! The mother had about 4 names
and there were 4 children with about 10 each then Annie, who had to make do with a measley 5 names

[mshrmh]

Someone has already mentioned Mary as a name that has died out for girls. When I was at school Mary & Ann(e) were the most common middle names for girls - Ann also seems to have disappeared for both middle & first names now.

Some of the older names in my tree now rarely seen -
Elsie, Lilian, Fanny, Ethel, Doris, Joan, Jean, Doris,  Dorothy, Hilda, Phyllis, Minnie
Frank, Albert, Ernest, Robert, John, Leonard, Percy

[DS]

Has anyone mentioned Amorias yet ? 

We have one who was the brother of Elisha and Luke Wolstencroft

DS