Scottish Family Naming System ?

[kiwicatz]

Could someone please explain this to me. Should I be able to work out someone's father's name from this?
Regards
Jan

[GR2]

The first son is called after the father's father, the second after the mother's father, the third after the father. The first daughter is called after the mother's mother, the second after the father's mother, the third after the mother. Then it's a free for all.

HOWEVER, it does not always work. What if the father and both grandfathers have the same name?Sometimes the first two children are called after the parents. Sometimes, if one of the grandparents is dead, the "honour" might be given to a living person instead. Sometimes an early child is named after an uncle, an aunt, a neighbour, the minister, the schoolmaster, an employer, an estate owner ......... Also there may be a child who died young and does not show up in records. It can be helpful, but it's not carved in stone. Some day I should check all the ancestors I've discovered and see how often it works.

[kiwicatz]

Thank you! No it's not going to help - but thanks for replying.
Jan

[kiwicatz]

So do you think if a couple's first child had a name not like the supposed grandfather, and if the first daughter did not have the name of the supposed grandmother, then somethings wrong?
My gt gt grandfather's children break all the rules on his supposed father's side, but it seems to work for the people on his mother's side. But I do know my gtgt grandmother's parents are correct, even though I can't find her birth, I know she emigrated to NS with them.

There is a strange story about my gt gt grandmother's grandparents. Her parents were supposedly James Fraser and Barbara Cameron. James Fraser was supposedly not scottish, but spanish and just took the name. He was apparently a runaway soldier. The strange thing is I recently had a DNA test for my father's family, and amonst the expected Scottish, English and Scandinavian there was also spanish, italian and greek. My father's relatives on his mother's side had olive complexions and Dad used to be taken as a maori when he was a child because of how dark his skin went in the sun.

[GR2]

As I said above, the "system" was not always used and should never be relied on without other evidence. Looking at random at two of my families (1d = 1st  daughter, 1s = 1st son):

1. Married 1874, 10 children: 1s after father, 2s after mother's father; 1d after father's mother, 3d after mother - all rest unrelated names.

2. Married 1873, 10 children: 1s after father and father's father, 2s after father's uncle (witness at wedding), 3s after father's uncle, 4s after mother's father and father's uncle, 6s after mother's uncle (witness at wedding), other sons unrelated names;1d after mother, 2d after father's grandmother, 3d unrelated name.

The husband in the first family is the brother of the wife in the second one. As you can see, it is often fairly random.

[DonM]

Are you referring to Barbara Cameron from Kiltarlity who married James Fraser in 1824?