Naming Procedure

[Thistle-01]

This is really useful information which I hadn't come across before. I knew our ancestors had some structure when naming their children but I wasn't really sure how it was organised
Thank you ksouthall

Family Naming Traditions (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~genepool/naming.htm)

Our ancestors often used the following naming procedure when picking out a name for a new child. This explains why certain names are VERY common in a given family line. Watching for these patterns can help in your genealogy research.

1st son = father's father
2nd son = mother's father
3rd son = father
4th son = father's oldest brother
5th son = father's 2nd oldest brother or mother's oldest brother
1st dau = mother's mother
2nd dau = father's mother
3rd dau = mother
4th dau = mother's oldest sister
5th dau = mother's 2nd oldest sister or father's oldest sister
ksouthall

[ksouthall]

This is really useful information which I hadn't come across before. I knew our ancestors had some structure when naming their children but I wasn't really sure how it was organised
Thank you ksouthall

No worries, although I am sure it is not fool proof as I cannot see much evidence of following the tradition in some branches of my family. Here is the convention for one of my great-great-grandmothers and her siblings, who were named as follows:-

Parents: Henry Glanvill(e) and Ann(e) Creber.
Paternal grandparents: John Glanville and Joan Knight
Maternal grandparents: Henry Creber and Honour Crymes

1st Daughter - Ann Creber Glanville - Named after her mother;
2nd Daughter - Emlin (Emmeline) Glanville - Named after her father's paternal grandmother;
3rd Daughter - Honour Crymes Glanville - Named after maternal grandmother;
1st Son - Henry Crymes Glanville - Given maternal grandfather's first name and maternal grandmother's surname as a middle name;
2nd Son - John Glanville - Named after paternal grandfather.

There may have been other siblings who did not survive so I should really check the baptism and burial records further, just to make sure.

It is a useful guideline though. I can't think why I didn't find it before either. That's one of the good things about this forum - other people's ideas and questions help to give us all new ideas and insights into family history.

[Guy]

I don't hold much faith in such procedures.
I have just checked my village database over 11 thousand names and the naming procedure only appears to work on a small proportion of families. Even then it only works for an occassional generation rather than a number of generations.
Cheers
Guy

[ksouthall]

I don't hold much faith in such procedures.
I have just checked my village database over 11 thousand names and the naming procedure only appears to work on a small proportion of families. Even then it only works for an occassional generation rather than a number of generations.
Cheers
Guy

I will have a look at my other branches and see what naming conventions, if any, appear in them. It may be interesting to see whether the pattern is more typical in particular areas of the country or in particular jobs or levels of society.

I have found that surnames as middle names is more common in some branches of my family whilst does not occur at all in some others, more usually in the better off branches where a particular surname carried status. This is another form of naming convention so I guess there are several different forms.

Even though the class system has changed over the years, Britain was a feudal society so it may be that particular class levels used different naming conventions. This may not be a politically correct thing to say however political correctness is a modern invention.

Katherine

[lilym]

I know this as the 'Scottish Naming Pattern' and it was used extensively in my Scottish and North of England family until the early twentieth century. When a name was 'missing' a child was usually found in the burial register. However if both grandfathers or grandmothers (or grandfather/father) had the same name it could cause a little confusion It was a useful tool for making a reasonable guess at the names of the previous generation.
My husband's family were from further south and there is no evidence of it being used by them.
Lilym

[Jan P]

My comment is not quite a follow on from the discussion on naming patterns, but I thought to add it anyway. I have a cousin, uncle, grandfather, and great-grandfather named William Miller - Australians of Scottish descent. Then another of my Miller uncles married Billie.
My husband's four great-grandfathers were all named William: William Pearce (Norfolk), William Deadman (Hampshire), William Prosser and William Jenkins (both of south Wales).
I have found the Scottish naming pattern in my family, including duplication of a child's name if the first one had died.
Jan P