We understand that traditional Irish naming patterns sometimes follow the pattern of: 1st son named after father's father; 2nd son after mother's father; 3rd son after the father; 4th son after father's eldest brother (and a corresponding pattern for daughters).
Concerning my wife's gggrand father, Cornelius LOUGHERY, born 1832, Co. Galway, the son of Martin LOUGHERY and "Katie" PINE; and Cornelius's wife Jane Hillery GARDNER, born 1835 Lisdoonvarna, Clare, the daughter of James Gardner and Bridget HILLERY:
Cornelius and Jane were apparently somewhat following the above pattern for their sons: 1. Michael M. 2. James A. 3. Cornelius, Jr. and 4. William [Cornelius and William were twins]. Now, we don't know if Cornelius (b. 1832) had an eldest brother William. Also "Michael M." doesn't exactly match the name "Martin". Surprisingly, we haven't been able to determine what the "M" in "Michael M." stands for, but if it stood for "Martin", maybe Cornelius's dad was actually Michael Martin, not just Martin ??
By the way, they followed no pattern at all (that we could see) in naming their daughters.
Question: How common was use of the above naming pattern? We notice, especially by the1901 census, it seemed quite common for the first son to be named after the father.
Question: Were "middle" names typically assigned? If so, did people often go by their middle name? This was very common in US in late 1800's / early 1900's.
Note that Cornelius's wife Jane had her mother's surname as a middle name -- a genealogist's dream!
Wednesday 19th Mar 2014, 09:11PM
Message Board Replies
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The problem with relying too heavily on naming patterns is that, apart from the fact that not all families followed it, there are lots of things that can upset it. Common ones that I have encountered are when the father and either of the grandparents have the same name. So you obviously can?t have two or even three sons all with the same name, so a different name must be used instead; if a child dies young, then it was common practice to re-use the name. And if you don?t know about the death, your analysis of who they were named after will be completely wrong; Or if a close relative had just died and their name was used out of respect. I have also noticed that many families liked to name the odd child after the local Minister/Priest, schoolteacher or a relative with no children of their own. So for all these reasons, whilst tradition says, for example, that the 4th son was usually named after the father's eldest brother, it isn?t always so.
Middle names were not very common at all in the 1800s, certainly in working class families.
Ahoghill Antrim
Thursday 20th Mar 2014, 07:44AM -
thanks for pointing out uncertainties. In absence of hard facts though, names are still helping us gauge probabilities among various Loughery families.
Thursday 20th Mar 2014, 02:26PM -
thanks for pointing out uncertainties. In absence of hard facts though, names are still helping us gauge probabilities among various Loughery families. Andy
Thursday 20th Mar 2014, 02:26PM