Traditional naming

[snooki]

1st female born named after mothers mother.
2nd F - fathers mother.
3rd F -  mother.

1st male named after fathers father.
2nd M - mothers father.
3rd M - father.

some generations may even  have used this pattern for the first 2 or 3 chr. then went on to name the next 2 or 3 completely different names but has anyone got a generation were this wasn't the pattern and that actually NONE of the children were named after ANY of the parents or grandparents ?   

just curious !

[nanny jan]

Hi,

None of my lines (all England) follow any pattern for naming.   


Nanny Jan

[aghadowey]

A lot of your posts seem to be with Irish and Scottish connections so perhaps you mean naming patterns from either of both country?

Some families followed a naming pattern but others didn't and even in those that did there could be variations due to a number of factors such as-
1) child died in infancy and same name used for next child
2) father (or mother) and/or one or both grandparents had same first name
3) child named for recently deceased relative
4) child named for friend, clergyman, teacher, landlord, etc.

In my greatgrandmother's Irish family-
1) eldest son named for maternal grandfather
2) next son for mother's brother in America
3) 3rd son of mother's mother in America
4) 4th son for mother's brother in America
5) 5th son for paternal gradfather/father
1) eldest daughter named for mother's mother and stepmother
2) next daughter for father's mother
3) next daughter for mother's sister & brother
4) 4th daughter unknown
5) 5th daughter unknown
6) last daughter got mother's middle and maiden name

In same period (mid-1800s) my husband great-grandparents named
1) eldest son after mother's father (they were living in & inherited her family farm)
2) 2nd son after father & father's brother
3) third son after paternal grandfather & uncle
4) last son after father's brothers
first 2 daughters named Sarah (not a family name)
3) 3rd daughter after father's mother
4) next daughter after mother's mother
5) 5th daughter unknown

[KGarrad]

My English lines tended to name eldest son after the father.
Hence 6 generations of John followed by 5 generations of Abraham!

[aelfric]

I've not seen the pattern followed in any English lines, but it was quites common on the Scottish side of my wife's family - always allowing for the possibility that the family might very occasionally take a dislike to the next name on the list (or the next relative)
On a holiday on Lesbos in the 90's we got to know the owners of the place we were staying and found they were following the same pattern as a matter of course.

[mshrmh]

My own family (almost entirely English) followed no discernable pattern in any of the branches I've followed back (most to late 1700s).

One lot of OH's were consistent for three generations with the same names for the eldest two sons, but later generations seem to have gone off those names.

[BeccaH]

This is a Scottish tradition...

I've got branches all over England and Scotland - the English branches don't follow any particular pattern - there are often names passed down, but there is no pattern.  In fact, the most common thing I've found is eldest son named after father.  The eldest daughter is often named after her mother, but it's just as common for a younger daughter to take the mother's name, and it's also perfectly common for a younger son to take his father's name.  As I said, no pattern at all really.

In Scotland, however, it is quite easy to see this pattern.  It's a guideline not a rule, but most of my families used it, particularly the first two stages mentioned in each case - third son being named for the father and third daughter for the mother is less predictable.  It's more or less died out now - of course, you'll still find children named after older relatives, but it's not in the strict pattern any more.  I'm not sure when it died out - in my family, it is still there in my Granny's generation (she was born in 1909), but she and my Grandpa didn't use it when naming their own children...

I was first told about this pattern by the archivist in my home town, some years ago.  My home town is almost on the border between England and Scotland, so the records held there are a mixture of English and Scottish, and the people who come to do their research there often have ancestry on both sides of the border (as most people who live there do), so this archivist is something of an expert in English/Scottish differences, and she told me about it as something specific to Scotland.  I had never noticed it before, but after she pointed it out, I realised that I had it in virtually every Scottish family on my tree!

[rancegal]

   The rural Northamptonshire PRs I am currently transcribing almost all have 1st boy named after father, 1st girl named after mother. So it's William, Ann, John, Sarah, all down the line. The fun starts when eldest boy starts a family, then his brother(s). Sometimes the parents are still having children too!