Sarah Yes I agree entirely with what you say, and it's a very good point , as I also know people who were given - not only a middle name but on some occasions first names after the midwife , nurse, or GP, who was in attendance at the birth. Regards Stewart ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sarah Galbraith" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2006 11:06 AM Subject: Re: [ARGYLL] Use of middle family name > Re middle names in general, rather than ones that appear later in life... > > In some parts of Argyll, particularly Kintyre, there was a custom related to > middle names which might have been designed to confuse family historians. > > The FIRST child baptised by a minister, after he took up his post in a new > parish, would be given the minister's name as his or her middle names. This > can sometimes lead to a child of Argyll parents having up to three extra > middle names - none of which might have any family significance at all. > > I've come across an example of this while researching my own family, but > because the child in question was not related to me, I did not note the > names - sorry. > > I do not think that this custom was very long-lived, but my mother remembers > a Carradale man born in the early 1900s who was given the non-local middle > names of Somerville McLeod - the name of the minister who baptised him. She > described it as "the done thing" at one time. > > Best regards > > Sarah > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > -- > Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.408 / Virus Database: 268.13.3/474 - Release Date: 13/10/06 > >