Genealogy Chat

My mum & her sisters decided to give their first daughters their mother's name (my granny), and breaking with tradition, the same middle name as her (this is also my Mother's name).

It wasn't until I started tree climbing and found my grandmother's birth entry I found out that granny had fibbed! She was named after her own granny, so had her granny's maiden name as her middle name. I think she didn't like the name, so fibbed (to everyone, even grandad who wrote the wrong name in his bible!).......granny instead took her own mother's maiden name as her middle name.

So here we all are, with the "wrong" name. :-D

Must admit, I prefer granny's choice. <3

Thanks Scozzie,

I finally know why we have a run of Ina's in the earlier generations! None of my old rellies would tell me why!

Jacqueline,

I also have a run of James through 6 generations & they all have the same surname & 5 generations of John, all the eldest boy with the same surname of course. As I don't have any siblings or older generation left to check data with tracking the forebears can be a prolonged search!

My ex husbands lot came from Scotland in the late 1800s, and I have found that the eldest son was named for the father with the second name being the surname of the mother......example, John McKechnie. I then found that subsequent daughters had other family surnames as their second christian names.

Kathlyn

In my husband's tree there are 3 cousins called James all with the same surname, one was my father in law. They lived on an island with only a population of about 2,000 people.

Hi,
I also have Andrewina and also Peterina

Blue1

We have 5 generations span,following the Scotish naming pattern,all have the christian names and being males same surname..........!

plus Andrina and Andrewina after---Alexander/Andrew.

Came across a Frederickina in someone else's tree just a few days ago.

I think the naming process can be a double edged sword. My husband's family had two children with the middle name of their grandparents . The problem usually arises when something like a marriage occurs ...do you Catherine Agatha Doris take William Boris Maurice for your lawful ......(suppressed sniggers). However when doing geneology it is such a bonus.
My mother considered calling me Louisa after her mother but then decided not to lumber me with the name back in the late 1940's. However by the late 1950's it was a really trendy name.
Guess you cant win- lol- jl

The Scots are also good at giving children a nice name (on the birth certificate) then calling them something else.

My granny was Isabella, her sisters Helen and Christina. They were known as Bell, Nell & Teen ! :-(

A dear friend of mine (English) has the second name Erika - her father's second name was Eric.

Using a second name as a tribute is probably better than lumbering a child with something concocted to fit a pattern

My d-i'l's family are Scottish in origin - they use a variation of the system in that they use different names which have the same 'root'

D-I-L is Elaine - her mother was Eleanor, and granny was Helena. In turn, her mother was Ellen.

I am English and glad we do not have those traditions, not sure I would like to be called Elsie :-)

I have noticed in some of my lines the names continued, but not in any order. Often the eldest son was named after the father, but the mothers name could be well down the list.
My grandparents had seven children, the only son had the same name as his father but it was the fifth daughter that had the mothers name...none of the others had any names that were related to anyone. Just the popular names of the time in the late 20s to late 40s

I don't think it's popular any more, children get their own names, not one of a long dead relative.

All my female cousins (and me) except one, have the same first and middle name, after our grandmother. We all use something else! Family gatherings could be confusing otherwise.

On the other hand......... it's very useful for finding relatives in Scotland, especially when the middle names are passed on.

The old Scottish naming tradition -

1st son named for paternal grandfather
1st daughter named for maternal grandmother
2nd son named for maternal grandfather
2nd daughter named for paternal grandmother
then for great grandparents, uncles, aunts.........
with lots of middle names after lang deid yins

What happens if there are no sons? The girls get named for grandad!!

I have nice ones, like Edwina, Georgina, Roberta etc, but some truly strange ones -

Andrewina, Andrewetta, Davidina, Ewanetta, Gideona, Hughina, Douglasina, Jamesina, Peterina, Thomasina.... the prize goes to Archibaldina.

When I was a child in Scotland, there were lots of "old ladies" called Ina... now I understand why!

Anyone else have names like this on their tree?