Heridatary Family First Names .

hollydolly

hollydolly

SF VIP
Location
London England
Were You named after a Parent or grandparent.?

In Scotland where I was born and raised it was tradition by and large to endow the first Born son with the first name of the father and likewise the first daughter with that of the Mother, or grandmother.

Not so much in these modern days I'm sure..but certainly in my family way back in the day.. all the way down the side of the Paternal Line from way back in the 1700's all the first born men had the same name, including my eldest brother and his son (my nephew) the latter born in '73

All the women on my paternal ancestry line also had the same first name , and co-incidentally my maternal grandmother had the same name as my father's mother ..but when it came to the girls babies, my mother bucked the trend and gave all of us girls names that weren't already in the family, instead to keep the peace she added them as middle names..

So did that happen in your family, were you or your siblings named after your parents or grandparents?
 

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My second Brothers' first name is the first name of my paternal uncle...

Pappy is/was your son known only as 'junior''..?
 

Same in my family butterfly, they all insisted on not only not being called 'junior'' and being called by their given name, but also to differentiate between them all, they each use a different derivation of their name..eg... Robert , Rob, and Bobby..(that's not their real names).. :D
 
I was given my mother's first name and my middle name was from my paternal grandmother. Even though he never knew her, for she died in childbirth, when my father was born. I always used my middle name, until Homeland Security ruled that you have to use your first name on your driver's license. And MD's, hospitals ect use that as identification and will not accept first initials and middle names. So after a lifetime of using my middle name...I am being referred to as a person I do not even know. Like stripping a identity. Hate it.
 
There was also the custom of naming a male baby the same name as an older brother who died in infancy in order to carry on a traditional family name. I used to have an old bible that I bought and it had four pages of family information. There were five boy babies named "Edward". The first four either died at birth or shortly afterward. So they'd name the next one Edward and so on until they had one that lived.
 
Jujube, I was born the one surviving half of twins. My twin was named David... My brother born 14 months after me was given the middle name David!

Nona...Oh bureaucracy *sigh* doesn't it make you want to spit..? , ..that must be a really weird experience to have to answer to a name you've never been known as.. I'd hate that!!
 
The eldest boy in my father's family was always William. My eldest brother was William and his middle name was Allan, mother's maiden name. My wife is Dianne which is a mix of her parents' names, David and Annie.
Neither I or any of my family are named after any relatives.
 
According to my mother, my name was chosen because of the song, "Nancy, with the Laughing Face" :p:p (Recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1945.) I don't like the name. It is hard to pronounce. I get tongue-tied with the second "n" and it gets harder the older I get. Ha!

My middle name was chosen because both my mother and father had a sister with that name.

Nona, I have two aunts who always went by their middle names. Still to this day, every time I see a document with their real names, I have to stop and think, "Who are these women"?
 
So, that's how you got your name, "HollyDolly", is it?

Just kidding. I was named for my father with what they hoped would pass for a feminine form. My middle name was after an aunt. So, yes.. the beat goes on.
 
NancyNGA said:
According to my mother, my name was chosen because of the song, "Nancy, with the Laughing Face" :p:p (Recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1945.) I don't like the name. It is hard to pronounce. I get tongue-tied with the second "n" and it gets harder the older I get. Ha!

My middle name was chosen because both my mother and father had a sister with that name.

Nona, I have two aunts who always went by their middle names. Still to this day, every time I see a document with their real names, I have to stop and think, "Who are these women"?
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My sister was also named after that song. Though she had to be baptized with the closest saint's name. Did your aunts share the same first names as living family members? I think that it was common then to use middle names or to be given nicknames, to avoid confusion. Like pedigree dogs and cats? :rolleyes:
 
I and my siblings were all named after family members.

My own name is Morddwyd (Mor thoo id), which dates from around 1315, but I don't think it goes back that far within the family!

(For those that know about these things, I am named from the Mabinogion , not the rolling rock!)
 
Laurie, I presume then you're are Welsh with that name.. :) do you use a shortened version of it?

Talking of songs ladies, my name was also the title of a well known song, although not released until after I was born, but I grew up with everyone singing it to me all the time...I used think I'd die with embarrassment, and I didn't know anyone else with my name at all (even tho' it wasn't actually an uncommon name) so I grew up it hating it ..silly how you think when you're a kid isn't it?
 
"do you use a shortened version of it?"

No. The uncle that had it used "Mor" or "Morwood", but I spent most of my life in England where it was too often a trigger for offensive racist remarks, so my forum name is my everyday one, Laurie, my middle name is Lawrence, another family name.
 
I was the first born of all the grandchildren on my mothers side , ( I know very little of my fathers side of the family ) my middle name was passed on from my G/M to my mother.. to me , I have one daughter and I didn't give her my middle name, but my first name, as a second name ...( Kay) ..My Father name ( Ray) My brother two years younger than me is called after our father, whom we barely knew before his death at 42 years old .
 
My father name his first born after him, I was the second.crybaby.gif

My first born son was named after me.

While selecting a name for our last child (#6) we wrote down all of our names of ourselves and our children. We then noticed that we selected names (first and middle) with double letters in them!! This just happened we did not plan it!!

Kenneth (Me)
Donna (Wife)

#1. Kenneth
#2. Roxanne
#3. Randall
#4. Cheryl Lynn
#5. Kristen Eileen
#6 Kevin Scott


While doing some research on our family tree, I found a possible family member from the Mystic River area in Massachusetts.

About a week later one of my daughters called and stated that she bought a new puppy. I got chills down my spine when she told me she named her Mystic!! She did not know about my research!!
 
My mother got my first and middle names from the obituary of an elderly lady who lived in our town. She liked the combination. Thanks, mom. My granddaughter has my first name as her middle name. I was honored.

One of my sisters was born on my grandmother's birthday. Grandma was mad at my mom for a year for not giving my sister Grandma's name.

My maternal grandfather didn't like the name my mother gave my third sister and sent her a telegram that said, "When you run out of names, it's time to stop having children." Nice, huh?
 
In our family the names of relatives were popular at the time but became dated...Hurley, Edith, Eugene, even Helen. Then again my grandfather's middle name was George...still a good strong name. I should have suggested that...Richard George would have been nice too.
 

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