Irish Certificates

[AudreyF]

The research on Irish ancestors I have done has been on the IFHS website. I found all but one of six of a generation. I knew all the names and some middle names but on the baptism records available they all seemed to have an 'extra' name. Grandfather, for example, was the youngest (born 1888) and he was Claude Lionel Hume and his Irish birth certificate quotes that name but the baptism record for him says Claude Lionel Aloysius Hume which has been a surprise to us all! His siblings all seem to have a third forename too - does anyone know what this is all about. History? Tradition? Religious significance? None of them seem to have used the 'extra' name.

Audrey

[Elwyn Soutter]

on the baptism records available they all seemed to have an 'extra' name. does anyone know what this is all about. History? Tradition? Religious significance? None of them seem to have used the 'extra' name.

Audrey

RC practice was (and possibly still is) to include a saint's name when someone is being baptised and so that is the origin of the extra name. As you say, many people never used the name, but it was often a precondition of baptism that a saint's name be used or added.