Hi Listers Hugh Wallis in his communication about middle names is of course quite correct. They can be very useful in identifying people. Like many of the clues used in family history they increase the probability of an identification. It is well to remember, however, that it is/was quite common either for someone to abandon a middle name or to assume one in later life. The latter is surprisingly common. It is also true that they very often reflect a mother's maiden name or a name which occurred earlier in the family but this is a likelihood not a rule. It is also possible that the name might be that of a benefactor or landowner or the name of the minister who baptised the child. In many parts of Scotland middle names as we know them today are uncommon before the 19th century. But remember that, in Argyll, what was originally a kind of nickname was frequently used to distinguish individuals or families who had the same name or the same surname. These are usually Gaelic words referring to colouring e.g. 'roy' (ruadh) meaning red, dow (dubh) meaning black, or size e.g. more (mor) [in a man's name] meaning large or beg (beag) meaning small are four of the commonest although there are a number of others. These names are often the only way in which we can relate people to their correct families. Frank Bigwood