Middle Names?

[busyglen]

Does anyone know if there was a formula for giving a child the middle name of a grand/gt.grandparent etc. or was it just on a whim?

I'm trying to trace my gt. grandfather Alfred Strong JARVIS in Westminster or Chelsea in 1851/1861. I have found him from 1871 onwards. He was the son of John Jarvis (whose father named as John Green) and Emma Robbins, and born in Bucks. in 1846. I cannot trace the family in 1851 in Bucks. or later, apart from the first sighting of Alfred in Chelsea in 1871 when he was married.

I have a feeling that his parents both died before 1851, and that he was taken in by family, and I wonder if this was by STRONG's or JARVIS. I don't know John Jarvis's parents other than he states his father was John Green on his marriage cert. Was his mother's name STRONG? Was it JARVIS? Was Emma's mother's name STRONG before she was married? Until I can get at the 1851 Census, I can't begin to search, but I wondered if the way he was named STRONG, would give me a clue.

I'd appreciate any ideas. :)

Glenys

[johnpritt]

I've come across this fairly regularly in my Cumberland family, with one or more children having their middle (or indeed their first forename) that of a parent, grandparent, or even great grandparent.

My father had as his middle name the maiden family name of his mother. I've got other cases where the child has the family name of the paternal grandmother, or one of the maternal grandparents, although most take the name from the mother's side, but not all.

Strong certainly seems to be a family name, but there's no guarantee which side of the family it comes from.

[busyglen]

Thanks for your reply John. I have actually a similar occurence on my maternal side, where the grandmother's surname was used as a middle name for the first born son. I was just interested to know how common this was, and whether it followed a certain pattern. I guess, as you say, it could be from either side, so I probably won't gain any clues from this query.

Glenys

[Colin Moretti]

Hello Glenys

My own experience is that there are no hard and fast rules (no rules at all perhaps?). I have some children who took the mother's maiden name as a second name (eg John Crowch CHRISTOPHERS son of John and Mary nee CROWCH). I also have children in the same family with the surname of a sponsor at the baptism (eg Richard Rawe CHRISTOPHERS, s of John and Mary, Sponsor Richard Rawe). Sometimes an illegitimate child will be given the father's surname as second name. There are yet others whose names in life bear no resemblance to their baptismal or certificate name at all.

I suspect that any custom and practice, rather than rule, probably depends on a family or regional tradition and that unless you have clearly established some sort of pattern in a family you should be very wary of drawing any inference from a second name.

Colin

[Steve Ley]

Hi All, Follow this link is explains middle name conventions espicially for Scotland.

http://www.woodgate.org/FAQs/socgbrit.html#FAQ13

About 3/4 of the page down.


Steve.

[busyglen]

Hello Colin,

Thanks for your reply. I suspect that you are right in that there is no hard and fast rule....it was just a wild thought that there `may' be some sort of pattern. I shall just have to keep looking....who knows, `one day' ;)

Glenys

[busyglen]

Thanks for that Steve, it's interesting to note.

Glenys