Dear Folks: My ancestors..thank goodness...followed a very specific pattern of 1st son after father's father, second son after mother's father; first daughter after father's mother and second daughter after mother's mother. It's made research click. Any other children seemed to be named after the parents or uncles and aunts. Now, in my mother-in-laws family, they used the mother's maiden name (in most cases) as a second name for all the children. That was just after the first world war and I can't seem to find out if that was a long standing tradition in their family. I did find in my Norvals, one branch of the family did give one son the mother's maiden name as a second name and that was circa 1800. It's lots of fun..a makes life a whole lot easier if they were as "set in their ways" as my ancestors. Sue