Scottish Naming Conventions

[Lavender13]

Most of my families seem to faithfully follow the naming conventions right up to the early 1900s. I know there are at least two versions.
 
I'm looking at the daughtrs of one of my amcestors.

First daughter is Ann or Annie,
after her paternal grandmother

Second is Margaret, after her maternal grand mother

Third is Isabella, after her mother

Fourth is Barbara.

I've heard that after the third daughter, they were named after dead siblings, I've heard that they were just named after the mothers siblings (they didn't have to be dead), from oldest to youngest, and I've heard that they were named for their great grandmother's too.

Is there a typical naming pattern that was more commonly used or is any one of these a possibility?

 

[GR2]

The traditional naming patterns can be useful, but they were not always adhered to. I have come across many examples, even in the 17th and 18th centuries when they were ignored.

[ColC]

Scottish Naming Pattern.

First son was named after his father's father
Second son was named after his mother's father
Third son was named after his father

First daughter was named for her mother's mother
Second daughter was named for her father's mother
Third daughter was named after her mother
Other daughters were named after other family members

Don't be misled into thinking that any of this is a hard and fast rule.

Colin

[Forfarian]

When followed, the convention is as Col describes it, with fourth and later sons named after other family members.

I've heard so many versions of the 'convention' for naming the fourth and later sons and daughters that I have come to the conclusion that different families may have followed different patterns, and therefore that there is no convention that is widely used after the third child of either sex is named after his/her parent.

[hdw]

In my experience the so-called conventional naming pattern was most slavishly followed in the fishing villages of the East Neuk of Fife. I even know of a man who was christened Martin Martin - Martin Gardner Martin to be exact - because the family surname was Martin, but his mother was the daughter of a Martin Gardner, and this chap was a 2nd son, so he was called after his mother's father.

Having said that, I have found that my agricultural ancestors were more likely to innovate with naming their children, and sometimes a child could be called after the employer or his wife, so you get a labourer's daughter with a fancy name like Amelia or Penelope.

If a 1st child was illegitimate, it would be called after the father or mother rather than a grandparent. Often it would be the same name as the grandparent had, of course, but if the grandfather or grandmother had a different first name, that would be used for the first legitimate child. Also, when Victorian respectability came in, it became fashionable to call a child after the minister or his wife, or even the local GP.

Harry