"First names, Middle names

[worcmik]

I saw this ...Previously published in RootsWeb
Review: 20 April 2005, Vol. 8, No. 16.


Pesky Problems of Forenames
  By Kathryn Morano

After doing extensive research using census records in Canada, I
discovered that in one census year, children will be listed with first
names, middle initial, but in another census year it will be middle name
only. It seems that in Irish traditions, extending to Canada and the
United States many children went by their middle names.

A death record for Jane SWEENEY in Massachusetts eluded me for years.
By chance I discovered it in an index under Mary SWEENEY with her
maiden name next to it. All those years, the census takers had listed
her as Jane, when her birth name had been Mary Jane. It's definitely
worth searching for an ancestor using each and every name.

REPRINTS. Permission to reprint articles from RootsWeb Review is granted
unless specifically stated otherwise, provided: (1) the reprint is used
for non-commercial, educational purposes; and (2) the following notice
appears at the end of the article: Previously published in RootsWeb
Review: 20 April 2005, Vol. 8, No. 16.

Has anyone else found this to be true?

[worcmik]

>Another one on Names
 The following article is reprinted with permission of the author.
>
> "Maybe Your Irish Ancestor's Given Name is Not the Name You've Been
> Searching"
>
> We have all been reminded to check the various ways of spelling a
> surname but most of us forget about variances to our ancestors' given
> names. When I discovered that my ancestor, Eugene Finnigan was named
> after his father, Owen Finnigan, I was truly surprised. I went back to
> check other records and sure enough, Nancy was Honora! There are many
> excellent books in Salt Lake City with name feferences and the list
> below is English names and the Irish counterpart of the names
> mentioned most often in the many books. Just be aware of the name
> change possibility when you seem to be hitting a brick wall in your
> research.
>
> Abigail - Libby, Gail Abbie
> Alice - Elsie, Alicia, Lizzie
> Eileen - Ellen, Evelyn, Helen, Nellie, Lena
> Ann - Hannah, Johanna
> Benjamin - Bernard
> Bernard - Benjamin, Brian Bryan
> Bridget- Biddy, Brenda, Delia, Dina, Bess
> Catherine - Kathleen, Cassie, Cathy, Kate, Kitty, Trina
> Charles - Carl
> Daniel - Donald, Donny
> Dennis - Duncan
> Doreen - Dora, Dorothy
> Edwin - Edward, Edmund
> Eleanor - Lena, Nora, Ellen Helen, Evelyn Ellie
> Elizabeth - Bess, Betsy, Betty, Sheila, Eliza, Biddy
> Ellen - Nellie, Lena, Helen, Eleanor
> Eugene - Owen
> Felix - Phillip
> Frances - Fanny
> Garret - Gary, Gerard
> Gertrude - Grace, Trudie
> Honora - Anna, Nancy, Johanna, Nora, Ann
> Harold - Henry
> Herbert - Hugh
> Isabel - Elizabeth
> James - Jacob, Jim, Shamus
> Jane - Janet, Jean, Joan
> John - Sean, Jack, Shane
> Louis/Lewis - Aloysius, Lucius
> Margaret - Peggy, Molly, Rita, Greta, Polly, Madge, Marge, Meg, Maggie
> Mary - Molly, Maureen, Minnie, Mamie, Marie, Maria
> Nancy - Ann, Hannah
> Nicholas - Colin
> Penelope - Fiona, enny
> Pierce - Peter
> Robert - Robin, Burt
> Rose - Roseann, Rosetta
> Sarah - Sara, Sadie, Sally
> William - Liam, Will
> end of article
>
> I might add that when you are studying Latin records, look for
> Guillermus/Guillermo which is William. Then there is Jacobus, which is
> James. Most of the latin names are distinguishable as their English
> counterparts.
>
> Diane Shaw


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[worcmik]

This info is from another list/ the submitter/Author is Identified in the first line, forwarsed here with every attempt to credit Jane Lyons:

"From Jane Lyons of the County Tipperary list, 2002:

Irish Christian names can cause such confusion amongst
those who search for
their elusive ancestors. Some of the confusion exists
because we spoke
Irish, our nicknames and diminutives can look and
sound nothing like the
original, there is no standard reference to these
names.

People think that our names changed because of
Anglicisation - however,
names in our oldest registers are written in either
English or Latin, the
Latin forms also contribute to this confusion.
However, few people fail to
realise that many of our names were 'introduced' to
Ireland.  The Irish
abroad have long been known as 'Paddy' because so many
men were called
Patrick after St. Patrick - the Patron saint of
Ireland, yet, the name
Patrick is an introduced one.  St. Patrick himself was
brought to Ireland as
a slave, and the name itself is found mainly to be
held by English and Welsh
who came with the Normans and rarely by a native Irish
at that time.

In ancient times the Irish had only one name, the name
was usually
descriptive, names such as 'The hound without a
mother' - Cúganmhathair; The
Hound of Culainn - Cú Chulainn; The Black haired
person from two rough
districts - Dubhdábhoireann; Colm was simply a dove
like person; Diarmaid
was someone without envy. There are thousands of such
names recorded in the
Annals, the lives of the Saints and the Martyrologies,
Christianity brought
few of these in.  Christianity introduced 'Mael'
(servant of) and 'Giolla'
(devotee of): so Maelíosa is servant of Jesus;
Maelmhuire is servant of Mary
while Giollaphádraig is devotee of Patrick.

The Norsemen introduced names such as Olaf (Olive,
Olave); Magnus (Manus);
Renald; Lochlain (Loughlainn, Loghlain) and Roderick
(Rory).

The Normans introduced so many names which we consider
to be typically
Irish.  They came to Ireland and spread through the
whole country, from
Antrim to Kerry and from Mayo to Wexford, north,
south, east and west they
settled in and mixed with the Irish.  At the time,
English officials
complained that the Normans were more Irish than the
Irish themselves.

The Normans gave us Anna, Agnes, Alice, Catherine,
Cecily, Eleanor, Honora,
Isabella, Joan, Margaret.  From these names come other
names such as Úna
which is an Irish form of Agnes.  For boys they gave
us Benedict, david,
Edward, Gerald, Geoffrey, Henry, Hugo (Hugh), James,
John, Matthew, Maurise,
Michael, Myles, Nicholas, Oliver, Pierse (Peter),
Philip, Raymond, Richard,
Robert, Roger, Simon, Stephen, Walter and William.

The Norman and Irish Lords brought in names from the
Western islands and
highlands of Scotland.  We have Alasdair (Alexander),
Coll and Randal.  At
that time (Middle ages) the Church also began to
insist that children be
given the names of well-known Saints, so we have
Angela, Barbara, Clare,
Gertrude, Monica, Teresa and Ursula. Also, men's names
such as Alphonsus,
Augustine, Bartholomew, Bernard, Christopher, Dominic,
Francis, Paul and
Vincent.

After the Hundred Year War, the English began to have
more influence in
Ireland; typical English names were introduced such as
George, Jasper,
Victor, Wilfred, Valentine and Sidney, Arabella,
Belinda, Charlotte,
Matilda, Pamela and Sophia.  The English immigrants
also used names from the
Old Testament: Elizabeth, Ester, Judith, Rebecca,
Sarah, Susannah, Abraham,
Ebenezer,  Isaac, Joshua, Moses and Samuel.

Legal officers and Landlords tried to reduce Irish
names to some form which
they could understand, so names changed.  Those in
authority were not all to
blame either, the Irish gave male names to females and
vice-versa, they had
diminutives for names, they had their own variations
on any name which were
seemingly unrelated to the original.  Different
accents resulted in
different pronunciations.  It was common amongst
Protestants to give
surnames as Christian names, usually to sons and
normally either the mothers
maiden name or the surname of some relative the son
would inherit from.

Names given to both sexes.
Constance

Giles - more commonly a female name in Ireland

Florence - more commonly to male than female children
in Ireland
Sidney/Sideny - more commonly to female than male
Constant -  Male
Constantia - Female
Francis (Male)
Frances (Female)
Olive (Female)
Olave (Male)
Jess - Male
Jessie - Female

Diminutives differing from the original:
Anastasia/Anastatia - Anty, Antsy (Stasia)
Bartholomew - Bartle, Bat, Batty, Bartly
Elizabeth - Bessie, Betsy, Libbie, Lizzie
Bridget/Brigid - Biddy, Bride, Beesy
Christopher - Kit, Castor, Kitty
Cornelius - Con, Connor, Corny, Neily
Hyacinth - Centy, Cynthia
Dermot - Darby (Diarmaid/Diarmuid)
Honora - Oney, Onny, Honny, Noey, Norah, Nora
(Honorah)
Laughlin - Lack, Lacky (Locklin/Loghlin)
Judith- Judy, Juggy
Anne - Hannah, Nancy, Nan, Nany, Annie
Eleanor/Ellen/Helen - Nell, Nelly
Roderick - Rory, Roddy
Margaret - Pag, Peggy, Peig, Mag, Mags, Maggie
Sarah - Sadie
Mary - Molly, Mally, Polly, Maire
Martha - Polly, Patsy
John - Jack, Jock
Theobald - Toby

The Irish have names which are different but are used
interchangeably and
accepted.  This may be because of the Irish form of
the name or a common
diminutive to both names either in their Irish,
English or Latin form.
Abigail: Deborah: Gobnait  (because of the similarity
of their respective
diminutives) Abbie and Debbie and of Gubbie the
diminutive of the Irish
Gobnait (Gobnet)
Alexander: Alistair
Alice: Ellen (probably due to the diminutive Eily for
both the Irish names
Eilish and Eileen)
Bridget: Bedelia: Delia: Bessy
Daniel: David
Edward: Edmond
Gerald: Garrett, Gerard
Giles: Cecily, Cecilia, Celia, Julia
Grizell: Grace (In Ulster)
Hannah: Honora, Johanna
Sarah: Sadie
Jacob: James (because of Latin form Jacobus)
Jane: Joan, Jean (all Johanna in Latin)
Judith: Julia (diminutive Judy)
Patrick: Bartholomew (because of confusion of
respective diminutives Pat and
Bat)
Peter: Patrick (in Ulster)
Randal: Randolph: Ralph ( all variants of the same
name and rendered
Randolphus in Latin)
Susan: Johanna (Irish Siobhán)
Theobold: Tobias (diminutive - Toby)



With the attempts of officialdom to change Irish names
to versions which
they could understand we have other names which are
equivalents of one
another but not necessarily a direct translation of
one another.
Irish: English
Brian: Bernard, Barnabas (Barney)
Diarmaid (Diarmuid): Jeremiah, Darby, Demetrius:
Dermot
Tiernan: Terence
Teige/Tadgh: Thaddeus (Thady)
Morrogh: Morgan
Aodh : Hugh, Edie
Tirlogh/Turlough: Terence
Seán: Shane
Eoghain: Owen, Eugene
Cormac: Charles
Cathal: Charles
Cearbhal: Charles
Cathaoir: Charles
Sorley: Charles
Eamonn: Edmond, Edward, Aimon
Conchobar/Conchubar: Connor, Cornelius, Constantine
Donogh: Denis, Donat
Donal: Daniel, Donald
Giolla na Naomh: Nehemiah
Eileen: Ellen, Helen, Eleanor
Eilish: Alice
Sadbh: Sabina, Sarah
Siobhán: Johanna, Susan, Jane, Judith, June
Sheelagh: Cecilia, Cecily, Giles, Sheila, Celia, Julia
Úna:, Oonagh Winifred, Agnes
Maelmordha?Maolmordha: Miles/Myles

Favourite Catholic Christian names were:
For Boys:
John, Patrick, James, Denis, William, Darby, Dermot,
Daniel, Cornelius,
Henry, Timothy, Thomas, Michael, Jeremiah,
Bartholomew, Brain, Laurence,
Thady, Terence, Owen, Martin, Mathias, David and
Joseph.

For girls:
Mary, Catherine, Bridget, Honora, Margaret, Ellen,
Anastasia, Johanna,
Judith, Julia, Rosanna, Maryanne, Elizabeth and Jane.
Less common were
Magdalen Monica and Theresa. Marcella is found in
Ireland but is rare in
England.

Protestants were more varied, boy names were:
Arthur, John, Henry, James, William, Frederick,
George, Edward, Richard,
Charles, Philip, Oliver, Jonathan, Anthony, Andrew,
Simon, Marmaduke and
Stephen. They also used old testament names which were
rarely used by
Catholics such as Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Isaac ,
Samuel, Joshua, Gamaliel.

Favourite Protestant girls names seem to have been:
Mary, Sarah, Elizabeth, Eleanor, Lucy, Catherine,
Susanna, Hannah, Margaret,
Jane, Isabella, Frances and Alice. Less frequently:
Barbara, Gertrude,
Dorothea, Charlotte, Diana, Rebecca, Lydia , Race,
Phoebe, Henrietta,
Lettice, Ursula, Penelope, Esther and Heather.

Some Regional Naming Practices were:
Austin (for Augustine) was common in the Catholic
peasantry in Connaught but
was uncommon elsewhere.
Bernard and Sylvester in Cavan
Dominick was common amongst Catholics in Mayo and
Galway
Hyacinth in Galway
Fintan amongst Catholics in Laois/Leix/Queen's County
Ignatius and Xaverius were common amongst Catholics in
Mayo and Galway
Florence was used as a boys name especially amongst
Catholics in Cork
Jasper and Horatio had a vogue in Cork
Lancelot in Monaghan
Lettice was widespread amongst Protestant families in
Cavan.
Moses, usually a name used by Protestants was a
popular Catholic name in
Wexford.
Catholics in 19thC sometimes gave male children second
name of Mary or
Maria, and even rarely Ann"

[worcmik]

Again Copied From another list Crediting :

"From Rosemary Reisenhauer, 2003.
The Irish Naming Pattern:

Such data was memorized, a part of the Oral Tradition
in Ireland (as on the
Continent) because most of the people most of the time
were illiterate, from
aristocrats to common laborers. Only a few, e.g.,
monks, could read and
write. Illiteracy was still common at the end of the
19th c. as 8 million
European immigrants a year poured into the U.S.

1.) The Celts arose in central Europe and so it is not
surprising that
numerous countries/cultural groups would also practise
some version of a
Naming Pattern for infants. Because the U.S. had such
large immigrations
from many European countries, I witnessed these
Patterns first-hand as well
as finding them in European Histories.

One important purpose was for individual
identification. Another was for
purposes of inheritance, either of land or privileges
or the like. Yet
another was to honor ancestors. Hence, grandparents'
names often became the
first to be used. After that, the naming patterns
continue the tradition but
with variations from the Irish.

2.) I do not know specifically about the Naming
Patterns among the Scots.
Perhaps another Lister does.

3.) A family with English ancestry probably would not
use the Irish Naming
Pattern unless the husband was Irish. Apparently the
responsibility,
insistence on the tradition, and the prerogative of
naming an infant fell to
him. His choice, however, was often a source of
contention with wives,
English or Irish. Perhaps this is what led to the
extensive use of nicknames
for infants among the Irish. For example, how could
one family deal with 4
generations of Bridgets, especially if they lived
under the same roof?
Hence, Bridget became Bridgey, Bridey, Beesy, Begee,
Bird, Birdie, etc. (One
of my aunts was a "Bird." She never knew herself as
Bridget and never used it.)

4.) For a case study you can search right in County
Tipperary. As you run
through list after list, you will find more English
Given names (and
Surnames) in North Riding than you will in South
Riding. Also, in the19th c.
the English introduced "junior" and "senior" for
father and son. Such things
were undoubtedly a result of the transplantation of
the local Irish from
sections of County Tipperary to lands elsewhere that
were much less
productive. So we now come to the question of
"influences" and there were a
lot of them in the course of Irish history which
changed Irish Naming
practices in certain parts of Ireland.

5.) Just to name a few, there is: the first wave of
Christianity by
Continental monks in the 1st c. A.D. who supplanted
the Druids. Suddenly
there were saints' names to deal with. While the
Romans did not appreciably
affect Ireland directly in this period, their
descendants among the
"Romano-Britains" certainly did. Such peoples in the
West of England, e.g.,
Wales, were the mercenaries in the Anglo-Norman armies
of the medieval
period.and many remained in Ireland after the battles.
(You can also check
THE LONDON TIMES, 1966-67. If I remember correctly
they ran some articles on
the Romano-Britains.)

6.) When the Roman Empire fell in the 400s A.D., the
Anglo-Saxons began
their incursions, limited in Ireland but a major
influence in England until
the 6th c. From the 6th-to-the-9th c. A.D., it was the
turn of the Vikings
(from present-day Norway and Denmark) and, as in
England, they eventually
colonized sections of Ireland. In seaports like Dublin
the Vikings
introduced merchantilism, coinage, more advanced
technology, etc., and
Naming Patterns that varied from the older Irish
versions. They seem to have
gone back just one generation, e.g., Leif Ericson was
Leif, son of Eric.
Similarly for daughters--at least until the medival
period when there was
the call by authorities for consistent and permanent
surnames to deal with
the burgeoning European population.

7.) Under the circumstances it is remarkable that the
Irish Naming Pattern
survived at all. But it has. Vestiges of it will run
in my family until the
late 21st c. This says something about the enduring
nature of tradition. But
we need to be cautious about applying the Naming
Patterns too rigidly to our
genealogical searches because of the vagaries of
Irish and European
History.

Remember, the west of Ireland is rocky, the land is
not generally of good
agricultural use, it is also subjected to bitter winds
from the North
Atlantic, and is a considerable distance from the East
Coast which is closer
to markets in England, Scotland, Wales, and the
Continent. Historically,
then, western Ireland was not regarded as worth the
effort for Conquest.
Even Roscommon was essentially ignored by the
Anglo-Normans because it was
too boggy and the people too difficult. Only critical
places in the West,
e.g., around Galway Bay were developed by the
Anglo-Normans.

8.) As a result, however, such remote, even backward
areas of Ireland would
be the best places to rely on the Naming Pattern
because they were isolated.
Elsewhere in our searches, we need to be more
conscious of "historical
influences." That is, unless we factor in the
accidents of personal
misfortune.

In many countries, large families were the rule. But
individual diseases and
epidemics took their toll and infant mortality was
appalling. So, when I
found an infant baptism of a "Barney", a nickname for
Bernard, in 1839 I was
at first confused because his father's name was
Bernard. But it would be
valid IF this were the 3rd son, named after his
father. Or it could be valid
if an earlier infant named "Barney" had died and the
name was used again.

These are the kinds of things that could upset the
sequence in the Irish
Naming Pattern, and confuse our expectations. So, yes,
we can use it as a
clue, just not as an absolute rule."