Thank you Sandra for your thoughts which in general mirror my own. I have found however that naming disciplines varied enormously in England, sometimes more predictable in some counties/areas than others. This is why I floated the query on the HRT List, fishing for some clue that a pattern may have existed in the area or, as I have experienced, no pattern at all except for like you say, a propensity for a small group of given names. Repetition of the same group of names leads to some difficulty in sorting the wheat from the chaff, but at least the Scots were quite disciplined in their long established naming pattern. Names were quite predictable. Like you, I take nothing as gospel as far as this subject is concerned, but once a pattern is discovered and maintained, it can well assist our never-ending quest for ensuring that we have the full picture, or family. Just another consideration which may assist in our research and open our eyes in regard to changes over the centuries. Thanks again, Bill Sandra J Smith wrote: > Bill, > Patterns in naming one's children are fraught with difficulty; much depended > upon family tradition rather than a regional or national tradition. > In SOME families, the tradition was first son named for paternal > grandfather, 2nd son for father, later sons for paternal brothers. Other > families would bring in the names of the wife's male relatives before the > brothers. > If such a tradition existed, it was further complicated by the demise of > many infants and the renaming of subsequent children with those names, so > they then become "out of order". > Personally, (after 42 years of genealogical research), I place no credence > on naming patterns, but note that some families have a propensity for > sticking to the same small group of names. I may suggest that some children > were named after close friends and neighbours as much as family which > accounts for the odd unusual name that suddenly crops up. > Hope this helps > Sandra > >