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I find it very interesting is some families' names (first & middle) are repeated over and over again while less so in other families. So my question to you is were you named after someone in your family and if not how did your parents choose your name (first & middle names)?
I am named for my grandmother's brother. In many Jewish families, babies are named for someone who has recently passed. In America, many of us have Jewish/Hebrew names and English names. The English name may or may not relate to the Jewish name.
I find it very interesting is some families' names (first & middle) are repeated over and over again while less so in other families. So my question to you is were you named after someone in your family and if not how did your parents choose your name (first & middle names)?
My middle name was my paternal grandmother's last name, also carried by my uncle as a middle name. My first name was decided upon over a lobster dinner and some wine. My parents thought it sounded "cool." I would have much rather had a family legacy first name, but too late to change now.
Still, this is a better story than my younger brother, whose first name was picked because it started with the same first letter as mine. His middle name was picked so his initials would spell a word.
My wife's family is from Greece, so she and her brothers are named after their grandparents per the naming tradition.
I was given my dad's sister's nickname--not her whole name.
Mom was Catholic, so insisted on a saint's name for each of us as well, so that's my middle name.
My oldest brother got my dad's Marine Corp nickname as a middle name.
my other brothers got first or middle names from uncles, and my sister's middle name is my dad's first name.
I am named for my grandmother's brother. In many Jewish families, babies are named for someone who has recently passed. In America, many of us have Jewish/Hebrew names and English names. The English name may or may not relate to the Jewish name.
This is true amongst most Ashkenazi Jews. However, Sephardic Jews name after living relatives.
My name means "Handsome Prince" and it came out of thin air...not named after anyone. Supposedly it's Gaelic/French. Still waiting for my crown. My late uncle's middle name was an old family name dating back to the 1650s (Huguenots) but I seriously doubt that people knew where it came from....he was a junior and the last to carry the name. The old family naming patterns are sometimes helpful in breaking down brick walls in genealogy.
Many families in my ancestry repeated the same given names over generations, as did related families. It makes research a little tricky to sort out. That practice generally ended in the late 1800s or early 1900s. I notice that in the 1700s and 1800s it was common to use the mother's maiden name as a name of a child.
I have two or three generations in my mother's line where most of the males were called in life by their middle names and rarely used their given names. That seemed to end with my grandfather's generation.
My first name was chosen for the first book of the New Testament, my father was a Southern Baptist pastor at one point so they were very religious, if not very original lol.
My middle name Allen was named after my father's middle name. He didn't know where it came from though through genealogy I discovered my grandfather had an Allen surnamed grandmother who was alive and likely met or knew during his life. So pretty sure that's the source.
Turns out my Allen ancestry was interesting too, leading to a Charles Allen Esquire who was a founder of Laurens South Carolina. Before serving in the Revolution apparently he hid a Revolutionary soldier and was hanged (possibly multiple times) by the infamous Bloody Bill Cunningham but never revealed his location.
His ancestry is also very interesting, never knew my Allen middle name was more than something random.
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