"Genevieve" a common 19th century name?

[a-l]

I knew a Genevieve she preferred to be called Jenny.

[despair]

Jennifer is said to be a Cornish equivalent of the Welsh Gwenhwyfar,in turn related to Guinevere(as in Arthurian legend) but I'm not aware of a further link to Genevieve.

Roger

[NewHudsonRyans]

My g-aunt Genevieve Ryan was born (after emigration to the US) to my Irish g-grandparents.

When was she born?

She was born in 1876 in Pennsylvania.  Interestingly the US census records where she's listed show her name as either "Jennie" or "Jane".  As I mentioned before, I'm wondering whether the Pat Ryan and Jane Ryan who were my g-aunt's baptismal sponsors were my g-grandfather's siblings (one of both), which seems a little more likely if my g-aunt was named after that Jane Ryan.

[Malcolm33]

As Barry says, Genevieve is a French name. My 'Dictionary of First Names', says it was introduced to Britain from France in the 19th century. There are no 'pet forms' of the name given.

I can't comment on it's popularity in Ireland, but I have never come across an Irish Genevieve, but I have led a sheltered life.   

     I have come across many Genevieve's that had an Irish origin.   This birth in October 1897 Hyde Park, Boston USA names her as Mary Genevieve Cullen with father from Ireland.   In later Census she just use Genevieve as her first name.

[NewHudsonRyans]

It appears that perhaps my g-aunt Genevieve possibly was named after Jane Ryan, although the replies have been mixed on whether this is likely.

I had never thought about the French connection to this name.  That's interesting.

If she was named after Jane Ryan, this doesn't give me much more information because I already know that Pat and Jane Ryan were her sister's baptismal sponsors, but at this point I'm grateful for any further crumb of information relating to my Irish ancestors.

Incidentally, am I correct in assuming that "Jane Ryan" as shown in the church's register reflects her family's name, so that her husband Pat probably came from another branch of Ryans?

-- Mike

[Maiden Stone]

Incidentally, am I correct in assuming that "Jane Ryan" as shown in the church's register reflects her family's name, so that her husband Pat probably came from another branch of Ryans?

Do you mean "Jane Ryan" shown in church register as sponsor?  Do you know who this Jane Ryan was and her relationship to Geneveive? If she was married to Pat Ryan when they were baptismal sponsors her surname would be recorded as Ryan. The only maiden surname usually written in a Catholic baptism register is that of the mother of the person being baptised.
Are you sure that Pat and Jane were husband & wife?

[Ruskie]

Why do you think that your Jane must be named after a relative?

I think you might be trying too hard to make this all fit.

The names Jane and Genevieve have different origins. Genevieve is French, Jane is English. Yes, families can and do have nicknames seemingly unrelated to their given names and can use non standard short forms. There could be any number of reasons why Genevieve was known as “Jane” ... maybe she felt that the name Jane made her ‘fit in’ better, maybe she simply didn’t like the name Genevieve?

Depending on how often you have found her referred to as “Jane” this may also have been a one off error or misinterpretation written on a document. I’m sure we’ve all seen names botched on ‘official’ documents. 

“Jennie” sounds like a logical pet name for Genevieve I would say.  Sweeping statement ... I don’t think Jennie would be a common pet form of Jane.  Jeanne is a French form of Jane, perhaps this could sound similar to Jennie depending how you say it?  You might find a loose connection that way? There are no rules though. 

The names Jane and Patrick (and Ryan) were so common unfortunately without further information, looking at names alone I don’t know how you can find out which branch of Ryans they belong to.

[NewHudsonRyans]

Why do you think that your Jane must be named after a relative?

I may be making more of a relationship here than existed.  I suppose I'm simply looking at all possible angles because with years of research into my Ryan ancestors, I'm really no closer to finding their origin that I was 20 years ago except for one record that ties them to Cooneen.  If I can show that my g-grandparents did name their children following a convention, I may be able to draw conclusions about how all of these people are inter-related.

"Ryan" is a frustrating name to research.  In Griffiths for Tipperary, there were something like 800 listings for men named Michael Ryan alone!

-- Mike

[Ruskie]

I feel your pain Mike. I have been stuck with my Irish for years.
(... and I  have Ryans too.)