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« on: Thursday 02 April 20 18:01 BST (UK) »
Hi Little Nell: Just to clarify what you're saying: Are you saying that children in Sussex, Dorset and Hampshire gave themselves middle names to acknowledge a godparent? Was that a common practice in what you've seen in Sussex, Dorset and Hampshire? If so, then perhaps the two fellows I'm looking at didn't do something odd.
What I'm trying to figure out is what motivated these two boys to give themselves a middle name despite the fact that their parents hadn't given them a middle name. In the place of their birth, middle names were extremely rare so something, subsequent to their birth, motivated them to give themselves a middle name. They did move to London area so that's why I was querying whether middle names were common in London for people in their age group.
I'd be really keen to see if somebody else has seen the same thing in their family history.