I beg to differ with the paradigm presented on 6/27 under the heading "19th Century Naming Patterns." Although frequently repeated, it is much too simplistic (to which the disclaimer doesn't begin to do justice) and, in some respects, just plain wrong. The trend in the nineteenth century, for example, was away from naming children after grandparents or parents. And in the previous two centuries, although it varied over time and from town to town, the broad tendency in the naming of children was decidedly *parent* centered in New England, while in Old England and Virginia it was grandparent centered. Here are several authoritative sources: Daniel Scott Smith, "Child-Naming Practices, Kinship Ties, and Change in Family Attitudes in Hingham, Massachusetts, 1641 to 1880," _The Journal of Social History_ 18(1985):541-66; David Hackett Fischer, "Forenames and the Family in New England: An Exercise in Historical Onomastics," in _Generations and Change: Genealogical Perspectives in Social History_ (Macon, 1986), 215-41; Darrett B. Rutman and Anita H. Rutman, "'In Nomine Avi': Child-Naming Patterns in a Chesapeake County, 1650-1750," in _Generations and Change_, 243-65; Gloria L. Main, "Naming Children in Early New England," _Journal of Interdisciplinary History_ 27(1996):1-27. Gene Z.