A problem: Bridget & Margaret interchangable?

[eadaoin]

Judith and Julia are separate names.

I agree, Aghadowey ... but

according to Patrick Woulfe (1923), Sheila/Síle (Cecilia) and Siobhán(Joan) were at various times anglicised as Julia, Judy, (and all possible variations of Joanna/Joan .... ... )
we reckon our Julia born 1870s (called herself Sheila in 1920s and then reverted) is probably called after her grandmother Judith.

regards eadaoin

[Sinann]

 Oh eadaoin the Julia in my family did the same, her children still call her Sheila, but my gran and therefore all of my family called her Julia.

[Sandymc47]

Just had a read about Catholic "law".
When the children were being Christened, if the Priest thought that the name of the child
was not very Christian they had to put a Saints name as the middle name. This was
written in the Church book but didn't have to be put on the birth certificate if the parents
didn't want it.
It says they would suggest a Saints name.
If say a Catholic woman married a Protestant man but were married in a Catholic church.
This also applied to their children having a Saints name.
This strict law changed after 1904 and could be adhered to or not after that time.
Hence the Bridget from Margaret.  It is not a derivative its added to.

regards Sandymc   

[aghadowey]

The Irish Catholic custom of having a child baptised with the name of a saint was used even in the 1950s and possibly later. However, Margaret is a saint's name as is Bridget so no reason why one could not be used on its own.

[Diggie]

With regard to Judith and Julia, is it possible that Judith is the formal name for  Julia ?  I have someone in my family who was always known as Julia but on her childrens baptism records she is down as Judith - on most of the records bar two, where Julia was recorded.  As the lady in question had quite  a lot of children,  I have to search for records under Julia and Judith, and I am also finding a lot of mis - spellings of surnames too!

I came to the conclusion, that the priest put down the mothers formal birth name,  for his parish records despite what she might have been known in everyday life.

[Sandymc47]

Just to put another twist to changing names.
I always hated my first name and when I got to working at 15 years old I
told everyone I was taking my middle name as I didn't like my first one.
I have done that for over 50 years.
Apart from my close family and people who went to school with me no one
knows what my first name was and my real middle name is what everyone knows
me as.   

regards Sandymc

[aghadowey]

With regard to Judith and Julia, is it possible that Judith is the formal name for  Julia ?  I have someone in my family who was always known as Julia but on her childrens baptism records she is down as Judith - on most of the records bar two, where Julia was recorded.  As the lady in question had quite  a lot of children,  I have to search for records under Julia and Judith, and I am also finding a lot of mis - spellings of surnames too!

I came to the conclusion, that the priest put down the mothers formal birth name,  for his parish records despite what she might have been known in everyday life.

Yes, it's quite likely a clergyman or official would have used a person's proper name. However, Judith and Julia are completely separate names although it possible they were used interchangeably (like Edward/Edmund amongst Irish families and even Patrick/Peter)

[atmartinas]

My family were very rigid in using the naming tradition of first son and daughter after paternal grandparents and second after maternal grandparents. However all 4 of the first children in my family are known by their 2nd/other names.  My fathers mother was Ellen and all my dads 10 brother and sisters christened their first/second daughter Ellen, but I have cousins known as Helen, Helena, Eileen and Mary. Only the Mary appears as a second name on offical forms. The others are not recorded anywhere on offical records e.g. birth or marriage certs, but their children know them as nothing else and I was recently at a family wedding and Eileens (Ellen) daughter gave her mothers name as Eileen when she married. I know these names are not too different but we have lots of others e.g. Margaret known as Edel, Margaret was the Grandmother, Edel was a popular saint at the time in our area because of a local woman called Edel who was beatified around that time. There are indeed a lot of Edels around our area the same age as our Edel, I wonder how many of them were actually babtised Edel

[heywood]

Yes, it's quite likely a clergyman or official would have used a person's proper name. However, Judith and Julia are completely separate names although it possible they were used interchangeably (like Edward/Edmund amongst Irish families and even Patrick/Peter)

I thought it a strange name when I saw Judy as a name around 1880s in Mayo- it just didn't seem to fit somehow.
We have just found that my husband's grandmother Julia was registered and baptised as Joanna - several descendants are named Julia after her!