Middle Names in England early 19th century

[Familyskeletons]

Little Nell - I had initially focussed on my great grandfather - the middle name that he added produced a name that very closely matched a person of considerable status so I thought perhaps he was trying to look more important than he really was. I recently found that his brother may have also used a middle name that he hadn't been christened with but I knew where that name came from. With respect to my great grandfather, I do think it had something to do with climbing the social ladder - just not sure if I can verify this one way or the other. Interesting situation to say the least!

[Familyskeletons]

uk4753 - you have my sympathy. With middle names like those, you'd think that it would be relatively easy to find where they came from. One article I read referenced a tradition that the first child a new clergyman baptized would take his name - so there could be all sorts of obscure traditions out there. Good luck!

[chempat]

How do you know who added the middle name?
His parents may have just had him baptised with one name, but then used 2 names when they referred to him.  They could have done the social climbing for him.

[UK4753]

The baptismal record for each son shows the complete name so no,  they did not adopt their names later in life.  Scanning the records I observed this practice was not uncommon; other children were given a middle name.  I guess it was stylish in Chippenham in those days.

 

[ThrelfallYorky]

I've never been able to find where and ancestor of mine got his middle name -  William "Whiteley" Isherwood Although on some trees it arrives incorrectly transcribed as "Whickley", on documents and records it is clearly "Whiteley", but search round the family - even neighbours - as I can, I simply cannot discover where he got it - although it has been passed down to descendants.
And I rather doubt it'd help the family (joiners ) to advance socially!
TY

[UK4753]

Here's a good one:  My grandfather was named Frederick James Jones.  We had never seen the first two names anywhere until I looked at his parents wedding record.  A witness, probably the best man, was named Frederick James Styles!  He must have been a favorite of the couple and they honored him by naming their first son after him.

As it turns out, the name Frederick has been used in my family to name the first boy in each generation.  This has been going on for 6 generations!

 

[margaret davies]

Hi, Could never work out where the PEPLOE name originated from in my family tree so many generations had the second name PEPLOE,and for the life of me I couldn`t find my 5X greatgrandfathers perents until a lovely person on rootschat found a marriage for me in Bristol in 1771 of JAMES MELLIN to JANE PEPLOE, so Happy now problem solved.Margaretx

[Familyskeletons]

ThrelfallYorky - another interesting thing about you William Whitely Isherton, of six siblings baptized on same day he is only one with middle name.

[medpat]

My husband's paternal grandmother had a C of E wedding as Lucy however she may have thought she hadn't been baptised as she later had an adult baptism in the same church. In the church records she has suddenly acquired the middle name Margaret and when she died, some 15 years later, her death cert. names her as Lucy Margaret.

From all the evidence I have for the family going back into the 1700s they always had C of E baptisms and weddings so not about changing religion.