Hereditary given names, or The Importance of Being Earnest (Or Richard)

[Mart 'n' Al]

It's only when you start looking closely at history that you realise how many given names go down through generations, and often the eldest child has the same name as his father. It is fairly common seeing occurrences of a child dying and then the next child being given the same name. This extract from a plaque in a local church in Kingston-upon-Thames shows three dead Richards, two Marys and two Edmunds. It must be quite confusing for the family when they talked about out their children.  ("Do you mean this Richard, or one of the dead ones, dear?)

Martin

[medpat]

My mother's cousin was John named after his father John and so he was known as Jack. Jack/John named his son John after his now late father and he was known as Jacky.

John - Jack/John - Jacky/John. Second son was named Ian - Scottish for John.

A friend of ours a C of E vicar kept contact with a friend from university also a vicar. The friend  baptised the fourth child of a man named John his 4 sons were John Jnr, Iain, Sean and baby Euan all are John in English

I think this is where nicknames or change of names come in. To the none official world my mother was Molly but she was really Marion, named after her mother. To stop confusion right from birth she was called Molly, very few people knew her real name so on her death notice we had to put both names so her friends would recognise her.

I believe many on here will have come across names for people that they were known by and perhaps used on census forms and even death certs. thus making it difficult to tie up with birth certs. and their true names

I too have series of family names, the common ones can cause  problems but I've also got 3 that are easy to find - Simeon, Phineas and Hezekiah

[Mart 'n' Al]

I've got too many Ralphs, which I would have hated, but also several Lancelots, which I am sure would have made me feel quite dashing!!

Yet if anyone was heard calling "Lancelot, will you please sit DOWN!" on the bus, they would get funny looks, I am sure.

Martin

[medpat]

I have 2 Lancelots - Lancelot Wright and Frederick Lancelot Cater

[Nanna52]

My grandfather was James Arthur James, his older brother, who died as a baby,  was James Thomas their grandfather was also James James.

As for nicknames I have an uncle Paddy, named Roy Alan, a cousin Joe, named Alan and an uncle Jack, named Cyril Hetherington. 

[Chilternbirder]

Not related to family history but when I worked for a bank we had a father and two sons with the same names. Something like John James called John, John James called Jack and John James called James. They all worked for the same employer and one month pay cheques were sent out without account numbers - it too ages to untangle who had ended up whose overtime.

On topic I am a little uncertain if I have one reasonably long lived couple in my tree or if two generations of Johns both married girls called Ann.

[Billyblue]

I had a cousin on Dad's side, known as Sonny.
My Dad had no idea why, just "That's what he's always been called"
It wasn't until we read his Death Notice that we discovered why -
his three forenames were the same as his father's.

No wonder the family called him Sonny     

And when my brother was named Robert, my parents were roundly berated by Dad's family -
"no-one in the family has been called Robert.  He should have been George William after his father, and his grandfather."   When I started the FH, we soon discovered that the family that came out from Ireland had a Robert born 1846, died 1847; and Robert born 1847 died 1848; and Robert born 1849 who survived for 90 years.  So much for Robert not being a family name!     

Dawn M

[Greenvale]

My first name is James, my father's first name is James and his father's first name is James. Confusion was avoided in my gran's house by addressing us as Jim (Grandad), Jimmy (Dad) and little Jimmy (Me). I am now 70 years old, 6' tall and my remaining aunts and uncles still call me little Jimmy when I speak to them. My own son was named Steven but he named his son James.

[BenRalph]

I too have series of family names, the common ones can cause  problems but I've also got 3 that are easy to find - Simeon, Phineas and Hezekiah

Their surname isn't Knapton is it?

I've got brothers called John, two brothers called Arthur and two more John's. All 6 survived to adulthood so I've no idea how people/the parents named them to differentiate between them.

I had ant aunt Cissie who was really called Ivy. She was called Cissie because my great granddad - her much younger brother - couldn't say 'sister'.