mother's maiden name as child's middle name

[nsc]

Sorry, this is a bit of a general question:

Was it common practice in the 1850s to give a child their mother's maiden name as a middle name? I have 3 instances in my family - John Dean Cartwright and Sampson Cartwright Worsey in 1853, and William Jervis Cartwright in 1857.

Does anybody else have anything like that? Was it fashionable, or in some way, perhaps, a response to the cholera epidemic in Nantwich  in the late 1840s?

It definitely seems to be a middle name and not a 'double-barrelling'.

Any ideas?

Thanks



Neil

[sillgen]

Seems to have been quite common if our family are anything to go by.   Very useful for tracing the ancestry!
Andrea

[Sooziecats]

3 of my dad's male cousin's were given the middle name of Jeffries which was their mothers maiden name. They were all born in the 1940's or 1950's.  Is definately a middle name and not a double-barrelled surname.  Their sister, fortunately was not given this as a middle name!

Sue

[RichardReed]

My family have been passing surnames down as middle names since about the mid 1700's...

my father has Driver & Gear as his,
I have Gear as mine, as does my son (I'm sure he'll thank me for it one day!  )
and my elder brother has Dart.

But it seems that often the daughter would have the grandmothers first name as her middlename, my daughter has her Gt-grandmothers first name,any thoughts on this?

Richard Gear Reed 

[Emmeline]

We gave our third daughter the second name of Kirk - this being her father's second name. The original forebear was the Reverend Kirk who was a missionary at Hokianga - New Zealand  in the early 19th century when the natives were still in a ' savage state.'  We thought it would be nice to retain it in some way  and she has always been proud of it.

[molly78]

I definitely have this in my family too. From various different branches so it wasn't just 1 particular family.

[stonechat]

Check this thread
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,18801.msg285347.html#msg285347
for a great way of tracing those middle names

Bob

[Rebecca Steele]

My Grandad had his mothers maiden name Peverill for his middle name!

He's the only one in the family to have a surname for a middle name that I've found so far though.

[AnneMc]

Hi Neil:
I have had lots of relatives with surnames for middle names. Including my grgrgrandfather who had his mothers maiden name for a first name he was called Frankish Thompson. My great grandfather had his mother's maiden name for this middle name  John Allison Thompson.  I can be a big clue in finding out maiden names of wife's if you don;t know it all ready.


Anne
Canada