In a message dated 12/3/2005 6:04:27 PM Eastern Standard Time, ginia2@san.rr.com writes: In an on-line search, I have been unable to confirm this naming pattern, but in actual research I have come across families where every son was given the same first name - e.g. "Johann", but was always known by his middle name. The same for daughters, where "Maria" seems to have been a favorite. My late husband's immigrant ancestor was Johann Antony or Antonius Beck. He anglicized his name and was known in America as Anthony. Has anyone else heard of this custom? If so, was it restricted to Germany? While I cannot confirm if it was restricted to Germany, my father's German (Emrick) side, seemed to conform to this naming pattern. They used John as the first name, but went by their middle names. Therefore, if you don't know their middle name, it makes it hard to do research. My Scotch-Irish side followed the Irish naming patterns fairly closely as well.