My grandmother's first and middle names were the first and last names of her parents' first landlady in Canada (they had emigrated from Scotland). I can imagine someone in the future spending a lot of time trying (and failing) to find an ancestor with those names.
My great-grandmother gave one of her sons an unusual middle name. It turned out to be her aunt's married surname. I later learned that my great-grandmother's son's first and middle names were the first and last names of her aunt's son who died in early childhood. He must have been a favoured cousin of my great-grandmother. I only learned of this when I visited the cemetery where the aunt, etc., were buried and saw the inscription for her son.
Someone in my tree had three unusual given names; this full string of names was used in two different generations of the family. I only discovered where the names came from after I was able to push this family line back three generations, learned of another family surname, and tracked the various branches of that family as far as I could.
Regards,
Josephine
