Biblical names

[Trees]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the use of biblical names for Christian children in the late 18th and early 19th century indicated the denomindtion of the parents. Can anyone confirm this and remind me of the significence. I have a family with children baptised with these names between 1789 and 1811.
Manoah,Julia,  Tabitha, Amil, Johannah, Delilah, Ephraim, Maacah,Timna, and Stacey all but three being Biblical
  Trees

[ThrelfallYorky]

Never heard that it indicated the actual denomination of the family. Saints' names would imply R.C., possibly, and "Virtue" names (Patience, Chastity, Endeavour, etc) possibly Quaker, but I'd assumed that use of Old Testament names merely indicated Jewish or, more likely, Christian, (possibly non-Conformist?) rather than any particular sect or chapel, etc. It's an interesting thought - It'd be nice to know if there is any logic behind it.?

[LizzieL]

I have a couple in my tree who had three consecutive daughters who they called Jemima, Keziah and Keren- Happuch (in that order), after the three daughters of Job. In all, the couple had nine children and names of all except the first (George) could be found in the bible. But most were quite common christian names e.g. John, Mary and James.
The couples own christian names were Joseph and Mary!
The first five (George, John, Joshua, Jemima and Keziah) were baptised in C of E churches and the last four (K-H, Rebecca, James, Mary) were baptised in a Unitarian Church.

[KGarrad]

In my family there are 5 generations of Abraham.
But the family were all good C of E stock, and included some priests.

[cemetery friends]

I have followed several Huguenot families mainly in Devon. Before the influx of Huguenots sons were normally baptised using "Norman French" names of kings e.g. William, Richard, John, Richard and Henry but whilst those names continued in use, Huguenot families seem to favour "strong" biblical names such as Sampson/Samson, Nathaniel the alternative name of Bartholomew, Francis Frances, Argules/Argulus the alternative name for Hercules, Job and Keziah, James and Joseph.

[Roobarb]

I've read that biblical names were often used by Non Conformist families. This is a subject close to my heart as I have a biblical name.  My father was brought up as a Methodist, his grandfather was a local preacher. However, I don't think that had any influence on their choice of my name. One of my 3 x great grandmothers had the same name but I don't know if this was at all relevant or whether her family was non conformist.

Don't you wish you'd asked all the questions when you had the chance to get some answers? 

[roopat]

Having traced several generations of Ag Labs living in very small villages who could not read (as far as I know), I had always assumed they heard these lovely names when the vicar read from the Bible in church every Sunday. I imagined the choice of name was either a common family name (& we've all got plenty of those!), a name used maybe by the wealthy 'Lord of the Manor's' family, or from the Bible. After all they are beautiful names   

It would be interesting to know if belonging to a particular sect did influence names.

[conahy calling]

http://www.babynames.org.uk/biblical-baby-names.htm

This link may be of interest as it mentions different denominations and their preference for names.

[Trees]

Many thanks for your interest. These names did not persist in later generations or appear before this one family chose them. However Maachah did marry a man who was Parish Clerk for many years and one of his sons eventually became an Evangelic preacher at 63 still within the Cof Eand in turn his daughter married a Church of England priest. Most interesting discussion