Mary, Ninian appears to have been an unusual Christian name in Scotland generally, but not in Bute. Gerald Hamilton-Edwards in In Search of Scottish Ancestry refers to Ninian as a hereditary unusual Christian name in the use of family of the Marquess of Bute. However in my experience it seems to have been used by other families on Bute. At a Kingarth Kirk Session meeting of 23 July 1649, for example, three of the members present were called Ninian Stewart. Therefore I don't think your family will have used the name because of a particular fashion in the eighteenth century, although someone else might know better. I can't give examples of nineteenth century use of the name, apart from Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart, second son of the third Marquess of Bute, but I am pretty sure there were a few. Regards Madeleine Wales