When researching the German families in Old Orange county it is helpful the understand the naming customs used by the 18th century Germans. Two given names - Generally if a child had two given names the first one would be a "spiritual" name and the second a secular name (the name that they were known by). A girl who was named Anna Barbara would be known as Barbara. A boy who was named John George would be known as George. The use of the secular name rather than the first given name was even followed in legal records. "Senior" and "Junior" did not necessarily mean father and son as it does today. It simply meant older and younger. Naming the children - There were several common patterns to choose a child's name. The one thing all these naming patterns have is common is that the first son was named after the father's father and the second son was named after the mother's father. This was not always followed but it was very common. Larry Noah - larmil-1@worldnet.att.net Listowner - NCORANGE mailing list See my Ancestors at - http://www.trailerpark.com/tango/lrnoah Gedcoms & other data are at - http://members.tripod.com/~lrnoah Florence Co,SC GenWeb - http://www.rootsweb.com/~scfloren Orange Co, NC GenWeb - http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncorange ==== NCORANGE Mailing List ==== Larry Noah - lrnoah@bigfoot.com - Listowner - NCORANGE mailing list Orange Co, NC USGenWeb site is at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncorange GENDEX at http://www.gendex.com/gendex/ has over 1400 databases on line