Jean, Thank you for sending the additional information on naming patterns. I'm going to send it on to the other web-pages too. I've received quite a few responses from people saying it answered some questions they had about family names. And I received one that said it never worked for them. So there you go. It may work, it may not. My family is Scot-Irish and I've found the naming pattern held true for many generations and my friend who was Swedish found it fit in her family. But of course, this may not be true for everyone. Some families may have tossed the whole idea. I simply offered it as a tool that might assist in research. Thanks again for the information Jean. Judy Clark-Wick JWick@compuserve.com Here's the additional Naming Pattern information from Jean Bushnell: From: "Jean Bushnell" <jeanb@wf.quik.com> Old-To: <ILGREENE-L@rootsweb.com> It was a common practice in some German families to name the first born son after the child's paternal grandfather and the second born son after the maternal grandfather. Here are several more detailed naming patterns practiced by some families. Pattern A 1st son after the father's father 2nd son after the mother's father 3rd son after the father 4th son after the husband's father's father 5th son after the wife's father's father 6th son after the husband's mother's father 7th son after the wife's mother's father 1st daughter after the wife's mother 2nd daughter after the husband's mother 3rd daughter after the mother 4th daughter after the father's father's mother 5th daughter after the mother's father's mother 6th daughter after the father's mother's mother 7th daughter after the mother's mother's mother Pattern B The pattern B for the sons is the same as the above but this pattern for daughters was different 1st daughter after the father's mother 2nd daughter after the mother's mother 3rd daughter after the mother 4th daughter after the mother's father's mother 5th daughter after the father's father's mother Pattern C 1st son after the father's father 2nd son after the mother's father 3rd son after the father's oldest brother 4th son after the father 1st daughter after the father's mother 2nd daughter after the mother's mother 3rd daughter after the mother's oldest sister 4th daughter after the mother Whenever a duplicate name occurred in these patterns, the next name in the series was used. If a child died in infancy the name was often reused for the next child of the same gender. A rare twist occurred sometimes. A child's name would be reused when a spouse died and the surviving spouse remarried and had more children with the next spouse. I found this happened when a spouse had children in Germany and then his spouse died. He left his children behind in Germany, possibly with the grandparents, and then emigrated to Pennsylvania. Sometime after arrival he remarried and named his eldest son born in Pennsylvania by his new spouse with the same name as the son still living in Germany. This results in two adult children with the same name. If you are lucky enough to find a family with a lot of children, who strictly followed one of these naming patterns, then it may give you useful clues to determining the possible names of family members in earlier generations. 5. An "in" or "en", added to the end of a name, such as Anna Maria Kerchnerin, is a Germanic language name ending suffix denoting that the person is female. Thus the correct spelling of the last name in the example would be Kerchner, not Kerchnerin. 6. An "er" or "ner", added to a surname based on the name of something, denoted that the person worked with that object or at that occupation, if the main portion of the name was an object or an occupation, or that the person was from that geographic location or city, if the main portion of the name was a geographic location. Examples: Forst is German for a forest, thus Forster is one who worked in a forest or with woodlands or was from a forest. Berlin is a city in Germany, thus Berliner is one who is from Berlin. Since English is a Germanic rooted language we do the same thing in English, i.e., Paint(er), Garden(er), New York(er). The suffixes mentioned in 5. and 6. above are compounded in many cases. The nouns Kirche and Kerche are German words for church. Thus for the surname Kerchnerin, i.e., Kerch(ner)(in) we thus have a person who worked in or near a church who is female. 7. 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. I hope that the above information will be of assistance to individuals researching 18th Century Pennsylvania-German names and records. Sorry, but I cannot give you specific advice or answer questions about individual German names. For information on specific names consult one of the following excellent books. For additional information on "German-American Names" consult the book by that name written by Professor George F. Jones published by the Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD. For additional information on German names, consult the 1967 book written by Hans Bahlow. The English version titled "Dictionary of German Names" was translated by Edda Gentry. It was published in 1993 by the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI.