What is your Most Common Names in your Family Tree?

[KGarrad]

I have 6 generations of Abraham Garrad, all from Suffolk and Essex.

I did some analysis many years ago on a family line of the Vanstone family.
More than 50% of all the Vanstones, on the 1861 census, shared jut 7 forenames!

[Andrew Tarr]

A common tradition was to give firstborn sons the name of the father's father, which clearly affects the apparent frequency of given names.  My grandmother came from a Suffolk family with parallel branches, many of which named the sons Edmund or Brice alternately, causing much genealogical confusion.  I visited the ancestral graveyard, where Edmunds could be seen everywhere, but none of them a direct ancestor of mine as far as I could tell from the dates.

Other connected Suffolk families (Robinson) seemed to name every eldest son John, come what may.  It is an important biblical name, and the Bible was a standard source of inspiration for naming for centuries.  At least the clerics would have known how to spell those names, even if the accompanying surnames were only approximate.

[coombs]

A common tradition was to give firstborn sons the name of the father's father, which clearly affects the apparent frequency of given names.  My grandmother came from a Suffolk family with parallel branches, many of which named the sons Edmund or Brice alternately, causing much genealogical confusion.  I visited the ancestral graveyard, where Edmunds could be seen everywhere, but none of them a direct ancestor of mine as far as I could tell from the dates.

Other connected Suffolk families (Robinson) seemed to name every eldest son John, come what may.  It is an important biblical name, and the Bible was a standard source of inspiration for naming for centuries.  At least the clerics would have known how to spell those names, even if the accompanying surnames were only approximate.

On my paternal line which is in Suffolk, Richard was a common forename. Richard Titshall born 1728 in Barnham is the eldest known Richard on that line, but his maternal grandfather was called Richard Lovack so that may be where the name comes from.