In areas where a strict naming pattern was used (such as Scotland), it was very common for there to be lots of living relatives with the same name - child, parent, uncles, cousins, grandparents etc. In these cases there appeared to be lots of different variations of the same name used day-to-day - ie Agnes was either Agnes, Aggie or Ashie. In Norfolk families, the first name was the common name, but the middle name was the one used. My grandmother was named after her one of her dead older sisters, as was her brother after another dead child Caroline > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] > On > Behalf Of Nivard Ovington > Sent: 01 June 2012 12:50 > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [SFK-UK] REUSING CHRISTIAN NAMES > > I can also recall a case posted some years back about a family who had > five > surviving Williams > > In reality, whilst they were baptised as William the family probably used > a > different name for each one > > I can't remember why they named all the five the same , it was in the > 1700's > if I remember rightly > > In answer to the original question, yes very common practice to name the > next child the same as the first > > Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > > > >> On Fri, 01 Jun 2012 23:03:16 +1200 >> Anne & Des Gentleman <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Hello Anne, >> >>> Anyone else discovered this practise please? I am guessing it was >>> quite common? >> >> It was, yes. There are also cases of two *surviving* children in the >> same family having the same name. >> >> -- >> Regards _ >> / ) "The blindingly obvious is >> / _)rad never immediately apparent" >

Well just to add to the confusion surrounding names - one of our Scottish families named three children Jane Eliza. Unfortunately the third child was a boy. He changed his name as an adult when he came to Australia to James Ellis and was forever after called Jem. I have no idea what he was called as a child. We also have two girls named Mary (no second names) in another family who both survived to old age. I originally thought that there may have been two grandmothers of that name but this has turned out not to be so. On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 11:23 PM, Caroline Bell <[email protected]> wrote: > In areas where a strict naming pattern was used (such as Scotland), it was > very common for there to be lots of living relatives with the same name - > child, parent, uncles, cousins, grandparents etc. In these cases there > appeared to be lots of different variations of the same name used > day-to-day - ie Agnes was either Agnes, Aggie or Ashie. In Norfolk > families, > the first name was the common name, but the middle name was the one used. > > My grandmother was named after her one of her dead older sisters, as was > her > brother after another dead child > >