My Catholic families in 18thC. Lancashire seemed to use traditional naming pattern - eldest children after grandparents, 3rd son and daughter after parents, subsequent offspring after uncles & aunts. John, Richard, Thomas, William, Ellen, Elizabeth, Jane (Jinny), Mary, and Ann (Nancy) were top names among my ancestors. Agnes, Grace, Isabella and Margaret also occurred several times in my families and in families in their Catholic circles, some of whom may have been relatives. As small, sometimes disadvantaged communities, living in a small town or rural areas, and consequently with a limited pool of marriage partners, there was evidence of endogamy (marrying within the tribe). This further reduced variety of forenames (and surnames). One set of parents, who were cousins to some degree, produced so many sons that they ran out of family names and called son number 8 Frederick after a member of the family of the lord of the manor, who were also R.C.
Theresa was used by a Catholic family in one community. That's a name which seems to have come from outside. (St. Theresa of Avilla? Empress Maria Theresa? Name of an ancestor or benefactor?)
One of my Lancs. R.C. families had a relative named Ferdinando. His mother was from Co. Durham and belonged to a family which contained a Ferdinando in most generations. I hoped to find a marriage between a Ferdinando and an Isabella but no happy pairing existed.
1767 Return of Papists is the best source for 18th C., as Clayton Bradley has said. My Agnes was on it aged 2, as was her future husband, aged 8. An earlier Agnes was on a Return from 1680s, with Isabella and Dorothy.
Some registers of R.C. missions in Lancashire survive from 2nd half of 18th century. Very few kept before then.
Catholics appeared in C. of E. registers. Marriage of course; every couple had to marry in a C. of E. ceremony after 1754. Also burials, as most people were buried in the parish churchyard. There may be a note in the burial register indicating or giving a clue that the person was Catholic or there might not. (Burial of a 5x GGM 1783 was noted "Papist" but that of a 5x GGF 1780 in same churchyard was not. Both were on 1767 Return of Papists.) Catholic babies may be in Anglican baptism registers when there was a tax on births or at other times when Anglican clergy were keeping records of R.C. families in their parish. Some curates kept a separate list of babies born to Catholic families, some included them in the baptism register. It's not clear in some registers which were R.C. and were actually records of birth rather than baptisms.
My Catholic ancestors in Lancashire, increased by Irish in last third of 19th century, retained traditional naming traditions for most of the century. The first identifiable "Catholic" name was Aloysius as a middle name in 1890s. Saints' names didn't catch on in my family until 20th century.
