Interpreting Content of German Church Record

[Schoch]

A photo copy of a German church record show the certain given names are underlined.  Shows you how observant I am as I have had this document for some time and only just noticed it.
In risk of stating the obvious should I take this to mean that name underlined is the name the person commonly used?

Richard 

[Rena]

Yes Richard, it was the name commonly used.  Mainly the ones next to the surname were family names.  The others at the start of the list of given names were usually donated to them by their sponsors.

If you have the actual church record in front of you - compare the given names of the sponsors, often they would be family members or a local person of influence.

[Schoch]

Thank you Rena,

The photocopy I have does not have "sponsors".  It is the family births/marriages/deaths records from the small town of Ohringen, in Germany.
I tried to attach it here but the file size is too large.
Regardless I have the answer and will alter my search accordingly (kicking myself for not seeing this before).
 
Again Thanks

Richard

[Rena]

Thank you Rena,

The photocopy I have does not have "sponsors".  It is the family births/marriages/deaths records from the small town of Ohringen, in Germany.
I tried to attach it here but the file size is too large.
Regardless I have the answer and will alter my search accordingly (kicking myself for not seeing this before).
 
Again Thanks

Richard

I don't know about the new familysearch site search facility but I found that it was impossible to find a bmd for a family member if you did not know the sequence of the full given names.   I also found that when an immigrant filled in their first census, often they would enter their first given name and this is why I had difficulty finding "uncle Henry" solely because his parents had written William H. (William being a sponsor).

I was lucky in that my German line used a popular naming pattern of 1st boy and 2nd daughter named in favour of paternal grandparents, 2nd boy and 1st daughter named in favour of maternal grandparents; 3rd boy/girl named after its parents and 4th child named in favour of either father's oldest brother or mother's oldest sister.

Additionally, when I found the full set of over a dozen German siblings it was noticeable that the youngest always had a set of given names starting with "Conrad" or "Conradina".  Coincidentally the mother's oldest brother Conrad had taken two of her older children to live with him when he migrated to the UK.  His sister and the rest of her family all stayed back home in Germany.

[Schoch]

Did know that about Familysearch.  Already getting more results when I  use the correct Given 1st name.

Thank you very much.

Richard

[Schoch]

Just a thought but if I did not know about the German records "underline" for the main given name ( 1st G1) then I wonder how many others searching may in fact be using the incorrect 1st name in their searches.

Might be a good idea for this to be added to the "hints" section by Berlin Bob.