Hello Peter, In my experience the use of Bowden as a middle name was to continue the surname of the mother or other relative. In my family, my eldest brother was named Victor Bowden Moore to honour the paternal grandmother (Elizabeth Moore nee Bowden) who he never knew and who died when our father was a child. The second born in our family was a girl so she was named Sarah Elizabeth Moore. Elizabeth was the first name of our paternal grandmother. I have come across this in other branches in my family tree and other folks have told me that they have found this in their families as well. I hope this helps. Jean McCarthy nee Moore On 04/07/07, Peter Wood <petwood@waitrose.com> wrote: > Hello, > > I am a new subscriber to this list though I have been using other lists for > some years. > > I am trying to trace my GG grandfather Richard Bowden HALL who was baptised > in > St Andrew's, Plymouth, Devon on the 22 Dec 1813 (aged 1). His parents were > George HALL and Ann GILES. > > I have looked at the Hugh Wallis -middle names- site and there are a lot of > persons with BOWDEN as their middle name. Can someone please explain why > this is so? > > Regards, > > Peter Wood > Flitwick, Bedfordshire, England > > > > > BullGuard Anti-virus has scanned this e-mail and found it clean. > Try BullGuard for free: www.bullguard.com > > > ------------------------------ > Topic: A mailing list for the discussion and sharing of information regarding the Bowden surname (and variations) in any place and at any time. > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BOWDEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jeanmccarthy36/ jeanmccarthy36@googlemail.com