Genealogy Chat

I read an article the other day about how pre-the Norman conquest we had lots of names. When William the Conqueror came in the number of names dwindled and we had to invent surnames to differentiate all the Elizas and Thomases. It is maddening - I have two possible William Williams living in the same village. I suppose the locals had nicknames for them but they weren't recorded officially. However, I am to blame, before I started this lark I called my first son William Thomas! So, anyone about to start a family, give them a really unusual (but easy to spell) name!

For ages I have despaired at the names my ancesters were given. I have several hundred people in my tree and you can count the number of unique first names on one hand. Occasionally I get a glimmer of hope - there's a possible sibling Christened Loveday or a potential set of parents who are not called William and Elizabeth. But, alas, it is never to be. So today it dawned on me how useful this really was. If I stumble across a family of Lavinias and Samsons, I can ignore them, safe in the knowledge that not one of my ancesters had the imagination to call their kids anything other than John, William, Elizabeth and Mary. Bingo - I've just saved myself a small fortune and got my tree back to Biblical times in one easy step!