Traditional Family names

Bonnie said:
Funny ... I like being original, and not overusing family names.

When our first daughter was born, the first grandchild on both sides, everyone in the family thought they knew what her name would be ..... as she had one grandmother & two great grandmothers named "Mary" ....

NO WAY was that even a consideration ... I guess they got over it.
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I was the same, didn't name mine after anyone in the family at all....
 

My hubby's middle name is his maternal grandfather's surname.

Our daughter's middle name is my mother's given name. It's Japanese. It is also the given name of my niece (brother's daughter).
 
For my husband, the sons got his first name as their middle name. His second son was named after my husband’s brother, who is now deceased. They were common names then.

If you were to look on the stats of the favourite names of the year, they would be very low nowadays.

My first daughter’s middle name is for her only aunt. This is not a common name. Should have used it for my second daughter too since I like the name.

Neither of my daughters have common first names.
 
Alligatorob said:
On my mother's side we have a long line of men named "Reps", it seems to come with the last name Jones, so maybe Welsh?? I had several ancestors named Reps Jones.

I don't know its origin, but it is a rare name, in the US anyway.
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I've never heard the name 'reps''... so I had to look it up given that you think it might be Welsh because of the surname ..there was a few listed but all in the USA., but a very rare name ... I found this too...any relation ?

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/c...A&death=1915_Brunswick-+Virginia-+USA&types=p
 
It's funny reading this again. When I had my son we named him after my husband. So when we had my daughter I said to my husband why didn't we give her my name. He said that would be dumb because then we would have John, John, Barbara, Barbara. Of course when my first grandson was born He became John the 3rd, but there still is only one Barbara.LOL
 
My husband was named after his father and then called by a nickname.
It caused him problems in school, at work and with mail his whole life.

I think the very least a child should have is a name of their own.
 
hollydolly said:
there certainly is.. ..yes John Fraser a very common name indeed in my home country.....and of course Inverness-shire is the largest county in Scotland covering not only towns and cities but the outlying Islands as well... including the outer Hebrides, where parish records weren't always kept for births and deaths...
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I have his death date. He was a Boston MA based ship captain and died at sea of an illness. Some family lore says his body was brought back to Boston for burial but he's not listed as buried in Copps Hill with other family. He was a member of the Scots’ Charitable Society (oldest charitable organization in North America and it's still in existence) and listed his birth date and place in his membership info. I correspond with a direct line male descendant in California who has y-DNA tested, but so far, he has no matches beyond this John Fraser. I keep hoping he'll someday match a direct line descendant of a branch that's still in Scotland.
 
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hollydolly said:
I found this too...any relation ?
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Thanks for doing this and yes, Reps Hardaway Jones was my great grand father.

He is the only Reps shown, the others have an R initial and without a membership in ancestry I cannot tell if they are named Reps or not. I don't recognize any of the others.

You are right I just guessed Welsh because of the Jones name, maybe its just a local American name??
 
Alligatorob said:
Thanks for doing this and yes, Reps Hardaway Jones was my great grand father.

He is the only Reps shown, the others have an R initial and without a membership in ancestry I cannot tell if they are named Reps or not. I don't recognize any of the others.

You are right I just guessed Welsh because of the Jones name, maybe its just a local American name??
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Goodness me , fancy me choosng your great grandfather to post a link to... wow!!...hopefully tho' with both you and @AnnieA if there's anyone else out there looking for these names, these posts will help them find you both
 
One of my sons is named after my grandfather and my father (James).
I wanted to name one of them after their paternal grandfather, but my husband said no, because it rhymed with something that our son would be teased about school. (Briscoe = Crisco) I found out later that my FIL had been called something like Tim or Tom most of his life, so I guess he didn't like Briscoe either.

He was a very nice man, but he died two months after we got married, from a massive stroke. He used to call me every evening just to chat. He'd ask me what I was fixing for dinner. I thought this was strange, since my father called me maybe twice -- it was my job to call him. But I really enjoyed these easy conversations with my FIL.

My sister and I didn't have middle names, and I hated having to explain that when filling out forms. My dad said girls get middle names when they get married. So I made sure my maiden name was in my legal name so I wouldn't have to keep either explaining or writing NMI on forms.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
There's a ten year difference in my, & my brothers birthdays. So I was around for the discussions of his name. At first, they wanted to call him, "John". But then, "no", people would call him Johnny, and they didn't like that. So they settled on "James". How's that working for you, Jimmy?
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My mom thought she'd have a girl when my brother was born. By then, she was glad he was a boy because my sister and I promptly named all of our dolls Patricia, which was the name for the baby if it was another girl. She hated that name by the time she gave birth to James/Jimmy/Jimbo/Jim/Tigerino (all one boy).

My dad, also Jim/Jimmy had several friends who were named Jim, and all of them had sons named Jim. It was kind of confusing at our house when all the friends got together. Everybody answered to that name at once.
 
I asked the Spousal Equivalent why, as the oldest
son, he wasn't the "Junior" and his second brother was.

He claimed not to know, so I finally got up the nerve to ask his mother. She said that when he was born, she asked his father if he wanted him to be a Junior and he told her to do whatever she wanted. So she named him her favorite male name.

When son #2 came along, her husband decided he did want a Junior after all.

Funny thing.....#1 was the spitting image of the dad.
 
On my father's side, for many generations the eldest boy was called William. It was also common to give the eldest child the mother's maiden name as a middle name. Hence my grandfather was William and his eldest son and first grandson were also William. On the female side, my sister's middle name is my mother's maiden name - Allan (part of clan McDonald).

Mrs L has a 'portmanteau' name made from her parent's names, but I simply have names that were popular at the time. We broke tradition by just giving our children names that we liked.
 
My Mom and my Dad's mothers were both named Concetta so I have Aunts with that name and many cousins. My Dad's father was named Salvatore and so was my brother and 2 cousins and an Uncle named Salvatore. My brother named his first son Frank after my Dad and his 2nd son is named Salvatore. Lucky for me I was named Barbara after the nurse that helped deliver me.
 
Does anyone still have their surname on their front door these days ? We used to when I was a kid as did everyone else that we knew ... but I haven't seen anyone do it for a very long time...

My paternal grandfathers' name plate on his door were the same 2 initials and surname as my father so the same as our door name plate ...some people took great pride in polishing the brass or metal name plate on the door, as did my granny and my mother, .. and I remember being very excited in the 60's when we got a Plastic light up perspex one with a ding dong bell.. where we could just print our surname on the paper inside the case.. :LOL:
 
I went to school with a lad called Richard (he liked to be called, Dick), who was named after his father (Richard) who in turn was named after his father (Richard).
Anyway, my mate, Richard's sister, Susan, married a feller called Frank Large and had a son they named, Richard.
Now think about it, that poor lad with the name, Richard Large, must have been the butt of jokes to his school-mates. :)
 
Capt Lightning said:
My parents had a small embossed brass name plate on their door. Mother would keep it well polished.
A few people here have their names on doors, but the most common surname in this area is 'Milne' so you still have to know who's who.
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Milne is a very common name in Aberdeen I know that ... doesn't sound Scottish to those outside of the country but very traditional up there in Aberdeenshire ..

of course when I was growing up on the west coast, the vast majority of people were either Called mac something.. MacIntosh, Mackay..McDonald, Donaldson, Robertson.. etc.. or Campbell, Cameron or Gibson. or an Irish surname Connelly, Cassidy , Boyle etc.... so when we lived in the red sandstone tenement buidling with 8 families in each apartment block 2 families on each floor , it was imperative that people had their names on their doors for the postman to know who was who... ...

We have one of the most traditional Scottish surnames in my family so there's a lot of us spread around the whole world...:LOL:
 
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I have my paternal grandmother's first name as my middle name. My sister was named for my mom and her mother. My brother next to me was named for my dad and the youngest boy wasn't named for anyone. My son is named Liam and it wasn't a well known name in the U.S. at the time, but when Liam Neeson hit the scene, everyone started naming their boys Liam it seems. Still, in checking with, "howmanyofme.com" my kid is the only one with his name in the U.S. This of course is use Christian and surname.
 
My surname is very common in the Scottish borders where my father's family were from, but very uncommon in Hampshire where I lived for many years. Although it's a short name, I usually had to spell it for people. Then I ended up working in Edinburgh and on day one, I went to the reception desk at the office. Hello, my name is ..., that's xxxx. The man behind the desk looked at me and said "We know how to spell here".

I found myself working in an environment where several people had the same names as me.

As well as 'Milne', a lot of names here end in 'ie' - Cowie, Lovie, Hosie, Cassie, Howie etc..

A quick aside... I notice that in the US, you seem to say "named for" while we say "named after".
 
Capt Lightning said:
My surname is very common in the Scottish borders where my father's family were from, but very uncommon in Hampshire where I lived for many years. Although it's a short name, I usually had to spell it for people. Then I ended up working in Edinburgh and on day one, I went to the reception desk at the office. Hello, my name is ..., that's xxxx. The man behind the desk looked at me and said "We know how to spell here".

I found myself working in an environment where several people had the same names as me.

As well as 'Milne', a lot of names here end in 'ie' - Cowie, Lovie, Hosie, Cassie, Howie etc..

A quick aside... I notice that in the US, you seem to say "named for" while we say "named after".
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...or called after
 
Lewkat said:
I have my paternal grandmother's first name as my middle name. My sister was named for my mom and her mother. My brother next to me was named for my dad and the youngest boy wasn't named for anyone. My son is named Liam and it wasn't a well known name in the U.S. at the time, but when Liam Neeson hit the scene, everyone started naming their boys Liam it seems. Still, in checking with, "howmanyofme.com" my kid is the only one with his name in the U.S. This of course is use Christian and surname.
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Liam is an extremely popular boys name here in the under 40's...
 

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