Hi, I'm just curious about a naming practice in one branch of my family and was wondering if this is a normal late 19th Century thing One of my relatives is Edward Clifford Howson Crockford and other is Cyril Kinder Crockford The Edward's "Howson" middle name is his mothers maiden name and Cyril's middle name is his grandmothers maiden name And last but not least by Grandmother who's brother's these two were had the middle name "Ulian" - any ideas where that might have come from. Note: I'm a newbie at this so be kind :) Alan

> The Edward's "Howson" middle name is his mothers maiden name and Cyril's > middle name is his grandmothers maiden name This kind of naming is very common in some families, usually for boys, but sometimes also for girls. > And last but not least by Grandmother who's brother's these two were > had the middle name "Ulian" - any ideas where that might have come from. Well, Ulian does come up as a surname but not as a particularly common one (e.g. it appears once in the entire FreeBMD). However, when dealing with rare and unusual names, it is worth considering whether you are seeing a transcription error. In this case, Ulian as a middle name for a girl looks a lot like a transcription error of "Lilian". Does her name consistently appear as Ulian in all her BDM records? Kerry