Dear Alma and all others, There is indeed a naming "tradition" for german families, not in use much after about mid 1800's at the latest. It started with the Roman Catholics and the Baptists continued the practice. The first name is a baptismal name. If a child's name were given on a birth certificate as "Johannes Martin Herche", for example, the second given name would be the call name by which the person is known to their family and also in legal and secular records. The spiritual (baptismal) name was usually repeated with all the children of that family. That is why it appears all children have the same first name. After baptism the first or spiritual name "disappears" as it were. If a child died very young the full name will in all likelihood be used again for a later child. There may even be several children with the same spiritual and call names in one family. In the absence of birth records it would be reasonably safe to assume that, if there are 2 or 3 children with the EXACT name, only the last child with that name survived infancy. This practice applies to both male and female children. In old German records, if you find a birth certificate or baptismal record for "Johannes Martin Herche" don't continue to look for that name further. In most cases all later documents would list this person as "Martin Herche". This information could help you greatly when looking at ships records, immigration papers and so on. If you have extensive records and some of the names don't make sense, try to apply the naming tradition to your records and you may find some of the different people are really one and the same. Happy Hunting, Nina Harkey