32 Ancestors Challenge - Week 24 - Popular Name

My family do not, as a rule, follow ‘fashion’ when it comes to naming their children.  Occasionally, this unwritten rule is bent a little, for example, I did have a cousin called Shirley who was born at the time when Shirley Temple was a film star.  Otherwise, they tend to stick to the traditional or biblical names.

I therefore have parents called Arthur Edward and Eva Joan (named after two of her cousins), grandparents called Alfred Charles, Alice Matilda, William Henry and Sarah, Great Grandparents called Alfred John, Elizabeth, Henry Alfred, Jane Matilda, Harry, Emma, Arthur, and Kate, with Gt-Gt Grandparents called Charles, Betsey, James, Elizabeth, Henry, Eliza, Henry, Jane, George, Fanny, George, Emma, William Samuel, Mary Ann, George and Sarah.  All very standard.

With the larger families of the Victorian era, most just had single names, although by my Gt Grandfather’s generation one branch did tend to use two names, sometimes very usefully including a maiden name of a wife or grandmother, or if the child was illegitimate the father’s surname as a middle name.  With such large families, I dare say families ran out of ‘family’ names and chose a ‘different’ name which may have been topical or was found in literature.  Sometimes a name is avoided if a child died young, for example little Charlotte Nickels died at only a few months old.  Never again did the family use this name for a child.  Sometimes you may find a string of John’s or George’s born (and died) until a child survived.  Some may be named for personalities or occasions, such as my husband’s ancestor Nelson Wild, or little Kate Jubilee Taylor who was born and died in 1897.

The choice of a particular unusual first name can prove crucial in family history research.  With my own paternal research, the first name Lionel proved very useful in tracing the family line further back in time.  When searching the census returns in the UK an unusual name for a child can narrow down possibilities of finding the right family, especially if there are a lot of ‘John & Mary’s’ with the same surname having children at the same time.

In Scotland, where my husband’s mother’s family come from, they still adhere to the Scottish naming pattern of the following:

·         1st son named after father's father.

·         2nd son named after mother's father.

·         3rd son named after father.

·         1st daughter named after mother's mother.

·         2nd daughter named after father's mother.

·         3rd daughter named after mother.

 

Therefore, my husband has three first cousins called Robert Dodds – very confusing!

My parents decided that I was not going to be named after anyone - or so they thought!  Research into the family tree indicated that I was given the same names as two of my paternal Gt Grandparents – Jane and Elizabeth. 

I can’t say that there are any ‘popular’ names in my family, most children we named for parents’ grandparents or other relatives.  One of my Gt Grandfathers sisters was called Rosetta, which was the name of her eldest brother’s new wife.  This being child No 12, the parents had probably run out of ideas – Ann, William, John, James, Samuel, Mary Ann, Daniel, George, Frederick, Charles, Elizabeth, Rosetta, and Arthur.   We have a spattering of George’s Joseph’s, Robert’s, William’s, James’s and for the ladies, Elizabeth, Ann, Eliza, Mary, Emma, and Sarah, all very ‘normal’.

My Gt Gt Grandfather George married twice; his second wife was his first wife’s sister.  He had 10 children – Mary, George, Ellen, Annie, Emma, Elizabeth, Harry, Frederick, Fanny Amelia and Arthur, and also a stepdaughter, the illegitimate daughter of his second wife.  My other Gt Gt Grandfather also had a big family – Eliza, Sarah, Susan, Hannah, Ann, Fanny, George, Thomas William, Emma, John, Charles, Ernest Frederick, and James.

Huge families, with a narrow choice of names. 

Sometimes a name is chosen for a reason, the prospect of inheritance, by naming a child after a richer relation, for a godparent or for a family friend. 

My Uncle’s family had a tradition that the eldest son should always be called John.  Uncle was called Albert Reginald John, his two sons, Reginald Keith, and John Peter.  Further back in the ancestry, Uncle’s Dad and Grandfathers were all called John.  The tradition continues, we have a Peter John, whose son is called Adam John, with his son called Evan (the Welsh form of John).

In the late 1800’s and early 1900s floral names were popular for girls.  I had two Auntie Vi’s, so we added their hometown to differentiate them, and my dad had an Auntie Rose and an Auntie Daisy.  There were also several ‘Daisy Tunesi’s’ born in my husband’s family in the early 1900s.  My Aunts and Uncles had traditional names, although most were not known by those names in the family!  Occasionally there is a ‘strange’ choice, such as Edgar or Benjamin and in our family, Thomas is not that popular as a first name.  Some names of ancestors are just not used by any descendants – I often wonder why?  We have no further Rachel’s or Alice’s in the family, or Matilda’s!    In later generations, the popular names from films and TV programmes have been used, but overall, we’re a traditional lot. I shall never forget my dad’s reaction when one of his Gt Niece’s called her son Damien.