Civil Records: No Given Name?

[skirl]

For two generations of a family that I am researching, most of the given names of the children are not stated in the civil records. This information is recorded a few weeks after the birth of each child. Does anyone know why this would be done so frequently in one family?

[hallmark]

Are you only looking at Index OR Actual Details on Cert??

[skirl]

I am using the civil records online at:
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/civil-search.jsp

[hallmark]

Are you only looking at Index OR Actual Details on Cert??

[dathai]

Are they children born and registered by a Hospital

[skirl]

The children were all born at home in the late 1800s & early 1900s. Here is an example:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1880/02873/2052775.pdf

So in this example from May 1880, 40% of the children were not named. My problem is that most of the children in 2 generations were not named. 

[hallmark]

The children were all born at home in the late 1800s & early 1900s. Here is an example:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1880/02873/2052775.pdf

So in this example from May 1880, 40% of the children were not named. My problem is that most of the children in 2 generations were not named. 

.
They weren't named when Registered, nothing unusual about it.

Most likely weren't RC's.

[skirl]

Thanks Hallmark & Dathai.

[Elwyn Soutter]

There was nothing sinister or exceptional about this. The obligation was simply to register the birth. You didn’t need to have a name for the child and so if you didn’t have one you just left that section blank. (You will have noted plenty of similar entries in the registers). You may be able to find the children’s names from baptism records. But watch out for civil dates of birth that don’t reconcile with baptism information. There was a financial penalty for late birth registration, so parents just moved the child’s date of birth forward to one that avoided any penalty. However this sometimes produces the apparent anomaly that a child was baptised before it was born. A date of birth wasn’t seen as anything special then, and a financial penalty was obviously something you would want to avoid, so it made perfect sense.