Hello all, On another mailing list there has been a thread going about unusual given names. Many were speculating the recorded versions were some corruption of a common name, particularly when it came to daughters. On one thread I commented that it appeared to be a family name and after checking the person got back with me and said "BINGO !". My father's name is Carlton Griffith Knowles - Carlton being his grandmother's maiden name and Griffith being his great-grandmother's maiden name. So family names as given names don't have to be just one generation up, they can go for multiple generations. And while I know more about the Welsh and English practice, it appears to be a common practice in many cultures. And while I was familiar with sons being given family names (my own name is Carlton David Knowles), I have been very surprised over the years at how often daughters are also given family names as given names. For the thread I answered it was : "My thought would be it's a family name. I have a collateral relative named Martha Carlton Clark, the Carlton being her mother's maiden name. When I searched the index to the 1920 US Federal census and only filled in her middle name as a Surname I got 29 hits. The index to the 1930 (in my experience a more accurate index than 1920) had 110 hits. When I loaded her middle name as a surname at FamilySearch it pulled up, among others, 85 on SSDI and 100 on IGI-North America." If you find an "unusual" given name, son or daughter, it just may prove to be an invaluable clue to the past . C. David Knowles