Thanks for your reply Cindy. Tend to agree about not 'hanging your hat on a Christian name' but on the other hand just as you mention I have found that most of the time women in my lines named Johanna, Hanora and Bridget tend to be Catholic, while names like Charlotte tend to be protestant. I just wondered when I saw that reference to William - and the protestant marriage that perhaps there was simply something about the name William of which I was unaware and the few replies about William of Orange do rather make some sense because he was not exactly the most popular person - in Ireland or England! But it has always stuck in my head that William was generally English in origin (perhaps denoting that the family was of Norman French descent rather than Anglo-Saxon) and that the equivalent name in Irish would be Liam...not William, but perhaps I am completely mistaken about the William vs Liam issue? Is Liam not the Irish version of William? Also can anyone tell me anything about the name Bridget...also sometimes spelled Brigid? Doesn't Bridget/Brigid also mean Mary? If an Irish lass was given the proper name of Briget would she sometimes be nicknamed and/or alternately called Mary? In other words in the same fashion that girls in the US named Mary were often nicknamed Polly? (a nickname that is not a shortened form of the given name but something altogether different?) Kathy (my REAL name not a shortened version of Katherine or Kathleen - lol!) Are you actually a Cynthia???? <grin!> -------------- Original message from ndhockey49112@aol.com: -------------- > By and large, I pay attention to given names, especially when I'm in certain > areas of the country.? I find that Jane, for instance, is more often a > Protestant Christian name, as is George, no matter where I go.? But especially > around Donegal, where my grandmother was from, it's more an all bets are off > type situation.? Grace and Annabelle are found in both religions.? For men on > the whole, Patrick and James, I've found to be Catholic names, while William and > John cross all boundaries.? For women, Johanna, Hanora, Bridget, those tend to > be Catholic, while Judith, Adelaide, Charlotte, those tend to be Protestant.? I > certainly don't hang my hat on the Christian name, but I do keep it in the back > of my mind. > > Cindy