Genealogy Chat

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Does any one know what could have posessed my ancesters to constantly reuse the same flipping christian names? How on earth did they expect me to track them down when in every generation theres at least 2 Elizabeths with the same name??? Again why did they name my ggrandfather William Williams? what is the point of naming your children if your practically giving them their surname as a christian name. This works now adays as well as in the past as I met a kid about 5 years ago called...... any guesses? Lewis Lewis - now tell me that I shouldent 'shot' that poor kids parents. LOL Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr thats better got it out of my system now. :-)

Know what you mean, I keep finding the same names - mabye they had dynastic motives! Happy hunting Christine

Hi Christine, Heaven only knows, I certinly dont! If my dad had had his way I'd have been called Elizabeth Ann just like his grandmother and half of his female ancestors. Thank goodness my mum said no.

I give you ........................... THOMAS

I have one line where all the men for about 3 generations are called Thomas, James, Samuel or Henry. They all married either Ann, Mary or Esther. They all had children called Thomas, James, Samuel, Henry, Esther, Ann and Mary. Drives me nuts!

Rachel I have a William Williams as well and I don't know which of the 2 William Williams living in a tiny village of 200 inhabitants is mine! I don't know why, but people seemed to choose from a very small pool of names. I can understand naming children after yourself or your parents which is why names go through the family generations, but I have found whole villages where there are only about 10 different first names and fewer surnames. I think everyone must have had a nickname so they knew which Eliza Jones/Tom smith they meant. I am very grateful that I have some unusual surnames and a couple of unusual first names in my tree. nell

Hah well then I give you..........John I come from a long line of Johns - my Dad, his Dad, his Dad and his Dad. Had me or either of my sisters been a boy we would have been.........Michael John, just for a change. Most of my Johns have brothers called George and Richard and always have cousins called George, John, William and Henry - usually all in the same area so it's a pain trying to sort out which one belongs to whom Jeanette x

Lou - sounds like we are related !

All the men in two branches of my tree decided to marry women called Mary Ann and then named thier daughters Mary Ann Must have been very confusing at family gatherings when someone said 'Mary Ann, pass the salt please'

Ooooo yes I forgot about the women! Choose from Elizabeth, Mary, Sarah and Jane. I also have 2 sets of twins in consecutive generations called Selina and George Greenley! Jeanette x

Think I just found relatives of mine - Laird and Jeanette - and all our Johns etc. cheers Laurie

I've got a Thomas Thomas - how silly is that?! I have lots of Williams, James, William James, James Williams and like David lots of Mary Anns! What joy it is to find a Daniel, Isaac or a Herbert now and again and how chuffed was I to find a Christiana but she disappeared after the first census I found her on! Debby

Debby I too had a Christiana - love that name - and what a nice change too! Unfortunately she died when she was just 2 years old :-(

They didn't read Mills & Boon books back then to get new interesting names !! LOL

I suppose in the olden days when people couldn't read and there was no telly or other media, they didn't get any other ideas for names but the ones already in the family, and maybe a few others they heard the vicar reading from the bible in church.

CHRISTINA, how I love that name, my late mummsy was Christina Lucy. Guess what? I now have 3 nieces with variations of the name, Kristeena, Christeena & Christina - so my still family guilty of name clutter. cheers Laurie

Anne And now you use your middle name just to confuse the future generations who might try and trace you???

Anne, I hope you had a better experiance ewith you name then my mothers cousins as the were always known as their mothers daughters because they were both Elizabeth, my mum just couldent bare the thought of me never being my own person in the families eyes. The only trouble was she wanted Rachal or Rebecca and everyone in our area must have named at least one of their daughters Rachel or Rebecca in the 5 years after I was born, as in one of my classes at school there was 3 Rachel's and 3 Rebecca's then add on the rest of my year group and the common names became Rachel, Rebecca, Sain, Gemma, Jenny, Claire, Sarah, Katherine. Thank goodness there's more choice of names now.

Now theres an idea Helen ! My son totally embarrasssed me at his wedding .... I signed the register - noticed he had mis-spelled my name and the vicar was most unhelpful- 'doubt we can change it on your say so, and the LRO will want to copy it verbatim' ...... Excuse me, its ME, its my name - why not ? 'Cant be done ....' So future generations will wonder why a Gavin had 2 fathers - LOL