Naming Conventions
UK Naming Conventions
One naming convention common in the UK was:
- First male child was named after his paternal grandfather.
- Second male child was named after his maternal grandfather.
- Third male child was named after his father.
- Fourth male child was named after his father’s oldest/favorite brother.
- First female child was named after her maternal grandmother.
- Second female child was named after her paternal grandmother.
- Third female child was named after her mother.
- Fourth female child was named after her mother’s oldest/favorite sister.
- Surnames were also often used as middle names.
German Naming conventions
Multiple of the boys in the family often had the same first name with only the middle names being unique. The same is true of girls
Sometimes they continued this for several generations in the U.S. However, other times they switches the first and middle names around so that the unique name was the first name when they arrived in the U.S.. You may find the names in any order for the first couple of generations (e.g. one document may have Phillip Jacob and another Jacob Phillip).