Hi, I've always thought that it was the other way around, and the baptism sponsors were chosen because they had the same name as the parents wanted to name their child. I think this could be discussed ad infinitum, just like the chicken and the egg. I think if you find one set of parents using one of the established patterns, then you could make use of that pattern as clues to go looking for grandparents' names, etc. I don't think it's ever a sure thing. But I'm all for finding original baptismal records. The sponsors' names could provide clues about grandparents, etc. as above. They often provide the name of a brother's wife, or provide the married name of a sister. They certainly provide surnames of families who were closely associated with that set of parents, whether they were close friends, neighbors, or simply other members of that church. That's useful, because friends, neighbors, and other church members often migrated together, providing clues that I refer to as 'cluster genealogy'. Several times, I have lost track of one of my families, but was able to find some neighbors who moved to some other location, and there was my family, moved along with them. Just a few thoughts from my own experience. Bruce Fosnocht ----- Original Message ----- From: <JYoung6180@aol.com> To: <paberks@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, April 07, 2008 11:35 AM Subject: Re: [PABERKS] Naming Children Pattern? > Mine also. Almost always named for the baptismal sponsor of the same sex. > Another one that took me some time to figure out is naming the first > daughter > with a second wife after the deceased first wife--even if there was a > child > (still living) from the first marriage who also had been named for this > wife. > > Joan > ---------------------- > > Not all families followed this naming pattern. In fact, almost all of > my family named their children after the child's baptism sponsor. You > might want to try to track down your family's baptisms and check out > the sponsor names. > > > > > **************Planning your summer road trip? Check out AOL Travel Guides. > > (http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000016) > ==== PABERKS Mailing List ==== > PABERKS@rootsweb.com > > To contact the List Administrator: > Rick Berkheiser, PABERKS-admin@rootsweb.com > > To visit the Berks Message Board: > http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=localities.northam.usa.states.pennsylvania.counties.berks > > To visit the Berks County, PA website: > http://www.pa-roots.com/~berks/ > Hosted by Nancy Freehafer > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > PABERKS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message