Author Topic: Exceptions to Scottish naming patterns  (Read 3387 times)

Offline USCRx

  • RootsChat Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 111
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Exceptions to Scottish naming patterns
« on: Sunday 04 June 17 06:29 BST (UK) »
I'm sure this topic has been addressed before, but I can't find any previous post about it. So here goes . . . .
My Scottish ancestors in the very early 19th Century had 5 children, 1 son, and 4 daughters. The first son was named according to the naming pattern, and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th daughters were named as if they were the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. The first daughter's name is not connected with any relative, as far as I can tell.
In your experience, under what circumstances have you seen exceptions to the traditional Scottish naming pattern?

Offline Skoosh

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 5,736
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: Exceptions to Scottish naming patterns
« Reply #1 on: Sunday 04 June 17 11:31 BST (UK) »
Could be anything. a cousin, a laird or his wife, a minister, royalty even. How many Albert's were there before Victoria married?

Skoosh.

Offline Rosinish

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 14,239
  • PASSED & PAST
    • View Profile
Re: Exceptions to Scottish naming patterns
« Reply #2 on: Sunday 04 June 17 13:34 BST (UK) »
Could be something as simple as named after a good family friend who passed away.

Annie
South Uist, Inverness-shire, Scotland:- Bowie, Campbell, Cumming, Currie

Ireland:- Cullen, Flannigan (Derry), Donahoe/Donaghue (variants) (Cork), McCrate (Tipperary), Mellon, Tol(l)and (Donegal & Tyrone)

Newcastle-on-Tyne/Durham (Northumberland):- Harrison, Jude, Kemp, Lunn, Mellon, Robson, Stirling

Kettering, Northampton:- MacKinnon

Canada:- Callaghan, Cumming, MacPhee

"OLD GENEALOGISTS NEVER DIE - THEY JUST LOSE THEIR CENSUS"

Online Rena

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 4,786
  • Crown Copyright: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: Exceptions to Scottish naming patterns
« Reply #3 on: Sunday 04 June 17 15:20 BST (UK) »
I remember when I was little my dad saying the Scots were peculiar people as they even named children after the local doctor.
I discovered an anomally in the naming pattern of my gt. grandparents I found their first daughter had been named after a wife of a childless friend.   Further research showed the wife was actually a cousin of my gt. grandparents.   
I've also found that a second wife will name a daughter in favour of the first wife in the event the first wife didn't bear a daughter.
Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie:  Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke


Offline USCRx

  • RootsChat Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 111
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: Exceptions to Scottish naming patterns
« Reply #4 on: Sunday 04 June 17 17:14 BST (UK) »
Your second comment has been my suspicion. I've discovered possible evidence of a first marriage in 1798, where the first wife's name was Isabella. And then my ancestor, William Jeffrey, and his wife, Mary, named their first daughter Isabella in 1801. I was wondering if this was a possibility?

Offline dowdstree

  • RootsChat Aristocrat
  • ******
  • Posts: 1,743
  • Mary Malcolm - 1860 to 1945 - My Great Granny
    • View Profile
Re: Exceptions to Scottish naming patterns
« Reply #5 on: Sunday 04 June 17 18:04 BST (UK) »
My Grandmother and her siblings were all named as follows in Scotland 1888 to 1905.

1st child   -   Daughter   -   mother's name
2nd child  -   Daughter   -   not named after a family member (my grandmother)
3rd  child  -   Son          -    father's name
4th  child  -   Daughter   -   Maternal grandmother's name
5th  child  -   Daughter   -   Paternal grandmother's name 
6th  child  -   Son           -   Paternal grandfather's name
7th  child  -   Son           -   not named after a family member
8th  child  -   Son           -   not named after a family member
9th  child  -   Son           -   Maternal grandfather's name
10th child -   Son           -    not named after a family member

I have no idea who some of them were named for but perhaps as suggested a good family friend.

Dorrie
Small, County Antrim & Dundee
Dickson, County Down & Dundee
Madden, County Westmeath
Patrick, Fife
Easson, Fife
Leslie, Fife
Paterson, Fife

Online Rena

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 4,786
  • Crown Copyright: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: Exceptions to Scottish naming patterns
« Reply #6 on: Sunday 04 June 17 19:07 BST (UK) »
Your second comment has been my suspicion. I've discovered possible evidence of a first marriage in 1798, where the first wife's name was Isabella. And then my ancestor, William Jeffrey, and his wife, Mary, named their first daughter Isabella in 1801. I was wondering if this was a possibility?

I think it most probably is the case that the baby was named in favour of the first wife Isabella.  Unless you find that either William or his wife Mary had a step mother called Isabella.
Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie:  Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke

Online Rena

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 4,786
  • Crown Copyright: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: Exceptions to Scottish naming patterns
« Reply #7 on: Sunday 04 June 17 19:21 BST (UK) »
My Grandmother and her siblings were all named as follows in Scotland 1888 to 1905.

2nd child  -   Daughter   -   not named after a family member (my grandmother)
7th  child  -   Son           -   not named after a family member
8th  child  -   Son           -   not named after a family member
10th child -   Son           -    not named after a family member

I have no idea who some of them were named for but perhaps as suggested a food family friend.

Dorrie

An old aunt born at the turn of the century in England told me that sickly babies who weren't expected to live long would not be given family names (something about bad luck).  I subsequently discovered her grandparents ( my gt.grandparents) gave their second son non family names of Stanley Percival who only lived three weeks. 

On the other hand back in the 1700s My father's Scottish ancestor John named three of his sons John and as there were several cousins named John I never discovered if any of "my" John's Johns died or whether all three survived.  Furthermore, which John married Agnes who was widowed before the 1841 census when she was 40.  Was it one of the three sons named John or did the old man take a younger wife and died of old age?   I'll never know as there don't seem to be any surviving burial records
Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie:  Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke

Offline Rockford

  • RootsChat Senior
  • ****
  • Posts: 366
  • The Ancestral Home!
    • View Profile
Re: Exceptions to Scottish naming patterns
« Reply #8 on: Sunday 04 June 17 19:47 BST (UK) »
... I remember when I was little my dad saying the Scots were peculiar people as they even named children after the local doctor ...

My grandfather's brother was named after the doctor and my grandmother was named after (a different) doctor's wife!  ;D

Best wishes

Rockford
BURNSIDE [Londonderry, Lothians and Pennsylvania]
THORBURN [Lanarkshire], VAIR [Melrose]
SWEENEY [Donegal/Lanarkshire]
GILCHRIST [Lanarkshire, Peebles, Lothians], SMITH [Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire, Lothians]
GREGORY [Bucks, Wales], BENNETT [Somerset, Wales]
LETHERBY/HOWLETT/PHIPPS [Somerset]
HUNTER [New Monkland, Fife], GWYNNE [New Monkland, Stirling, Midlothian]
LOGIE/DUNLOP/THOMSON/YOUNG [West Lothian]