Traditional naming patterns

[ejowynne]

I wonder if anyone has studied when the traditional naming patterns stopped? i.e.  eldest son after the father's father and eldest daughter after the mother's mother.  I can see this pattern in the Northumberland ancestors I'm researching. I am now researching my Gt. grandfather whose sister was named after his mother's mother but his name  totally broke the mold and even though he was the eldest son he was named after his father's friend not his father's father. His father went free to Australia in 1828 and married there so maybe a feeling of  new beginnings unrestrained by custom or was this a general trend? Gt. grandfather was born 1835.
Jo

[bevj]

My great grandfather came from a long line of Williams and Roberts.
He called his only son Eric in 1908, a name totally unknown to either the paternal or maternal families.   
Bev

[Greensleeves]

As far as I can tell my family's naming conventions in the latter years were that the child's first name was up to the parents but the second (middle) name was the one bound by convention.  The first male child had his father's or grandfather's name.  The first daughter had the maternal grandmother's name as her middle name.  The second son had his eldest uncle's name.  The second daughter had her eldest aunt's name.  It was hugely complicated and I am surprised how families managed to negotiate these difficulties without upsetting people.  Fortunately for my parents both my grandmothers were called Elizabeth, hence my middle name.  But when our daughter was born my husband and I found we had upset his side of the family as we had followed the naming convention of my family and given her my mother's name as her middle name.  What I hadn't realised was that my husband's family had other ideas and expected our daughter to be named after her paternal grandmother.  Whoops.  But our  baby, our choice.

[Top-of-the-hill]

   I have never been aware of any particular pattern among my family. They certainly used the same names over and over, (didn't they all!!) but it looks fairly random to me.

[Gadget]

My parents (1905/1909) were given family names. My sister and I (1938/1945) were given family names as our second names but names that my Mum liked as first names!  The next generation have reverted to family names, including the Scottish system of using the grandmother/mother's maiden surname.

[Skoosh]

I blame the wireless" 

Skoosh.

[kiwihalfpint]

 

Family naming patterns have followed in my trees, maiden names of mothers/grandmothers appear as second names, (sometimes they have two maiden names) which has been wonderful for searching on SP.  My sister has a feminine second name of both our Great Uncle and Uncle, killed in WW1 and WW2 and I have a surname as a middle. Naming pattern for us both for first names.

Cheers
KHP

[ejowynne]

Great feedback. I'm interested to know  if anyone has detected a definite pattern that  was there through the 1700s and early 1800s  and changed as early as 1835  - which is when the pattern changed in the line that I am studying and I would like to get a feel for whether this was early - obviously it  had changed by the 1900s  or at least become more random. I think that this definite pattern  was a particularly Scottish & Northumberland pattern.
Jo

[Ruskie]

Some vague observations:

No pattern, no rules, no cut off dates for naming patterns - possibly naming patterns more prevalent in Scotland/Ireland. Not so popular post WW1?

Surnames used as middle names and forenames more popular in Scotland/Northumberland. Can't comment on whether this continues today.

Most of us will have examples of families which used naming patterns during certain periods in time, and other families in the same era who did not.

Is there a reason that you are trying to categorise this? You would probably need a larger sample base than the few examples on rootschat if you are hoping to find any "trends".

Sounds like a fun project. Good luck with it.