For those of you who are researching your German ancestors in Rowan County or elsewhere, the following information on German naming customs or patterns may be of some help.? I have copied and pasted the following information from the following?link:? http://www.kerchner.com/germname.htm 18th Century PA German Naming Customs At baptism, if two given names were given to the child, the first given name was a spiritual, saint's name. The second given name was the secular or call name, i.e., "rufnamen", which is the name the person was known by, both within the family and to the rest of the world. This custom was originally adopted in Germanic and other regions in Europe from Roman Catholic tradition and continued by the Protestants in their baptismal naming customs. The immigrants from these areas brought the custom with them to Pennsylvania. The spiritual name, usually to honor a favorite saint, was used repeatedly and was usually given to all the children of that family of the same gender. Thus the boys would be Johan Adam ...., Johan George ....., etc., or Philip Peter ...., Philip Jacob ...., etc. Girls would be named Anna Barbara ...., Anna Margaret ...., etc., or Maria Elizabeth ...., Maria Catherine ...., 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 for Saint John was particularly heavily used by many German families, but also Saint George was used by some families for male children. The child's secular name was really John, if and only if, at baptism he was named only John, usually spelled as Johannes, with no second given name. The name John spelled as Johannes is rarely seen spelled as Johannes as a spiritual name, i.e., you rarely will see the name at baptism recorded as Johannes Adam ....., etc. It is generally always found spelled as Johan or Johann when used as a spiritual name. Thus, you find the spiritual name of John recorded as Johan Adam ..... or Johann Adam ....., not Johannes Adam ..... . Many researchers, new to German names, who find a baptism of an individual with a name such as Johan Adam ....., thus mistakenly spend a lot of time looking for a John ....., in legal and census records, when he was known after baptism, to the secular world, as Adam ..... . The use of Saint John was the most common example of this custom, but Saint George was often used too. And thus one would find children in a family named George Heinrich ......, George Jacob ......, George Frederick ....., and of course simply George ..... by itself. In these examples the secular or call names would respectively be Heinrich, Jacob, Frederick, and George. The term "Senior" and "Junior" following a name did not necessarily imply a father and son relationship, as it does now. It could have been an uncle and nephew who had the same name and lived near each other. It could be a grandfather and a grandchild living together, where the father has died. It could even be two unrelated individuals with the same name but of different ages who lived near each other. So to help friends and business associates keep track of who-was-who in their discussions and records, they added on the "Sr." or "Jr." which merely meant the older and the younger, respectively. Frequently the secular name given to the child was also the same as the secular given name of one of the baptismal sponsors for the child. Said baptismal sponsors frequently were close relatives but also could be close and trusted friends and neighbors. Linda Monticelli ________________________________________________________________________ More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.com