Tempus Fugit
#ANCESTRYHOUR
  • Home
    • Foreword from the Founder
  • About
    • Who we are >
      • Susie Douglas, Founder of #AncestryHour
      • Sylvia Valentine aka #FMV
      • Michelle Leonard
      • Fergus Soucek-Smith
      • Rachel Bellerby
      • Tara (Ra Boom di Ay)
      • Paul Chiddicks
      • Dr Sophie Kay
      • Alison MacLeod Spring
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
    • Downloads PDF Files
  • Newsletter

The Scottish Naming Pattern

25/4/2015

0 Comments

 

Introduction

Graham Maxwell has been helping family history researchers on a professional basis since 1996 and in 2001 his wife Emma joined the team.  Aside from their professional research service they are continually indexing and transcribing unique sets of records and bringing them into the public domain through their website Scottish Indexes.   In this week's feature post Emma looks at how Scottish naming patterns can be a useful tool when searching for those elusive ancestors.  Whilst this is a useful guide it is important to bear in mind it is not a panacea and there are always exceptions to the rule as Emma explains:-

Blog

Have you ever wondered why so many people in your family tree have the same name? Is there a John in every generation and is searching the census really confusing because all the cousins of your family also have the same name? There is a simple explanation for this. It’s not that the parents were unimaginative when it came to choosing names but rather that they followed a ‘naming pattern’.
Picture
The Scottish naming pattern is as follows: 

 1st son named after father's father 
 2nd son named after mother's father 
 3rd son named after father 


 1st daughter named after mother's mother 
2nd daughter named after father's mother 
 3rd daughter named after mother 


Now the while the pattern can continue after the fourth son or daughter, it is our experience that few families consistently went that far. After six children there would almost always begin to be some duplication in names.

What does this mean?

If you have a couple called John and Elizabeth who name their eldest son William and their second daughter Janet you could hypothesise that John’s parents were called William and Janet. 


Why do I say ‘hypothesise’? The naming pattern should not be used as evidence but rather as a guide. If the surname is very common, or at least very common in the area, you could use the pattern to predict what the parents may be called. Once you find parents with those forenames you will still need to prove your theory using other sources.
Picture

Pitfalls

There are a number of pitfalls. Firstly, do you have a list of all the children? If an older child died in infancy this could distort the pattern of names you have. When this happens you will often find a younger child is given the same forename. When you look at the list of children you have, is there a gap in the ages? Is one 10 in the census but the next child is aged 5? This can indicate that a child has died so look at the OPRs and gravestones. 


If one of the parents was illegitimate this can also change the naming pattern. In the case of a son, sometimes a family will use the name of the stepfather, other times the eldest child is named after its father of the mother’s father. 


A common issue is that both fathers have the same name (let's say John). As they would be very unlikely to name two children John (unless one had died) this can again add to the confusion. 


Another reason the naming pattern would change is when a new minister came to the parish. It was a common practice to name the first child baptised by a new minister after him. So if the name doesn’t seem to ‘fit’ in your family at all, find out the name of the minister.

Summing up

The Scottish naming pattern can be a very useful tool. Some families used it right through to the mid-20th century. Use it with caution though, it’s not evidence in itself but it may help point you in the right direction.
Picture

Links

Keep up to date with the latest record additions to the Scottish Indexes website and take a minute to find out how you can help through their new Sponsor an Index Programme. 

Website: www.scottishindexes.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/scottish.indexes
Blog: www.scottishgenealogyblog.blogspot.co.uk
Twitter: www.twitter.com/scottishindexes
Flickr: www.flickr.com/maxwellancestry

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Articles are written by a variety of our #AncestryHour followers & cover a multitude of topics, which are of interest to researchers of #familyhistory & #genealogy. If you would like your work to feature here, please contact us!

    Archives

    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    June 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    June 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    RSS Feed

Copyright © #AncestryHour Feb 2015
Picture
Susie Douglas & Sylvia Valentine are both members of the Register of Qualified Genealogists 

Read our privacy policy  here: Privacy Policy