Judy asked for additional naming patterns - check out http://www.fairacre.demon.co.uk/ Dorothy Falk ---------- From: Judy Wick <JWick@compuserve.com> To: ILMADISO-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Some Naming Patterns Date: Thursday, December 03, 1998 4:06 PM I thought I would pass on some information recently given to me from friends on the Internet that may prove useful when researching your ancestors. It has proved very helpful to me, although it is not always a guarantee that your ancestor followed the patterns, it does give you a possible clue to a name. This is why you may find two people with the same names living in the same time period but with different birthdates---they may be cousins and not the same person afterall. If anyone has some additional naming patterns, please pass them on to us. Judy Clark-Wick JWick@compuserve.com OLD NAMING PATTERNS The first son was named after the father's father. The second son was named after the mother's father. The third son was named after the father. The fourth son was named after the fathers eldest brother. The first daughter was named after the mother's mother. The second daughter was named after the father's mother. The third daughter was named after the mother. The fourth daughter was named after the mothers eldest sister. SWEDISH NAMING PATTERNS If Olaf had a daughter that he named Inga. Inga would be named: Inga Olafsdaur (or Olaf's daughter) If Olaf had a son that he named Sven, his son would be called: Sven Olafson. When Sven has a daughter that he names Olga, Olga's name would be Olga Svensdaur. Her brother Lars would be: Lars Svenson. SCOTS PATTERN OF NAMING Our Dunn family was really stuck in the pattern. William begot James, James Begot William, William begot James etc., etc., etc., down through the generations. It was the traditional Scots way of naming. This was also apparent in the women of our family. You will also find that middle names are quite significant if your ancestors are from Scotland. Often the middle name reflects a previous generation Sur-name. For instance, William Abercromie Dunn, was the son of James Dunn and Mary Birnie. James parents were William Dun (notice spelling change in descendants) and Margaret Abercrombie. William Abercrombie Dunn and his wife, Annie Young, named their children, in my grandfather's generation, with the same pattern as described first. His children were: James Dunn no middle name (named for William's father) Robert Young Dunn (named for wife's father: First and middle name) William Birnie Dunn (named for father and middle name is that of William's mother.) Lillie Haddow Young Dunn (named for Annie's mother: Lillias Haddow and her father's surname: Young) My Grandfather: Andrew Carnegie Dunn, was a broken part of the pattern. William didn't have an older brother. The name, Andrew Carnegie, came from his employer and friend. The Andrew Carnegie, Steel Magnate. Mary Birnie Dunn, named for William's mother, Mary Birnie. This continues through the remaining 12 children. Sylvia was the first to discover the naming pattern when she did the initial research. She found alternating William and James and found it more than a coincidence. It didn't take long to discover that it was a common practice amongst the Scots. 19th CENTURY GERMAN NAMING PATTERNS: At baptism, if two given names were given to the child, the first given name was a spiritual, saint's name, originally developed from Roman Catholic tradition and continued by the Protestants in their baptismal naming customs. The second given name as the secular or call name, which is the name the person was known by, both within the family and to this rest of the world. The spiritual name, usually to honor a favorite saint, was usually repeatedly given to all the children of that family of the same sex. thus the boys would be Johan Adam Kerchner, Johan George Kerchner, etc., or Philip Peter Kerchner, Philip Jacob Kerchner, etc. Girls would be named Anna Barbara Kerchner, Anna Margaret Kerchner, etc., or Maria Elizabeth Kerchner, Maria Katherine Kerchner, etc. But after baptism, these people would not be known as John, Philip, Anna, or Maria, respectively. they would instead be known by what we would think of now as their middle name, which was their secular name. Thus these people would be known respectively as Adam, George, Peter, Jacob, Barbara, Margaret, Elizabeth, and Catherine in legal and secular records. For males, the saint's name Johan or John was particularly heavily used by many German families. The child's secular name was really John, if and only if, at baptism he was named only John, usually Johannes, with no second given name. Many researchers, new to German names, who find a baptism of an individual with a name such as Johan Adam Kerchner, thus mistakenly spend a lot of time looking for a John Kerchner, in legal and census records, when he was known after baptism, to the secular world, as Adam Kerchner. Also when reading county histories, etc., especially those written by individuals in the 20th century, and the author is referring to someone as John Kerchner, and you are not looking for a John Kerchner, but the history sounds otherwise familiar, further research may turn up that this person was really not a John Kerchner, but instead was someone else such as a Johan George Kerchner. You would thus find all his 18th century records recorded under the name George Kerchner and not John Kerchner and therefore after checking the data and correlating the facts you may find this is really a story about your missing George Kerchner. ==== ILMADISO Mailing List ==== 2,500 Discussion Lists!!! 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