Have you hit a brick wall in Ireland or Scotland? Naming Patterns may help you.

Question

In trying to get through my Irish brick wall, I've put together some naming standards for children at Irish Naming Patterns The Scots followed it also.

Here is a short version of it 

1. The eldest son was named after the child’s paternal grandfather.
2. The second son was named after that child’s maternal grandfather.
3. The third son was named after the father.
4. The fourth son was named after the child’s eldest paternal uncle.
5. Subsequent sons were named after other paternal uncles, in order of the age of the uncles or mother's eldest brother.

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   1. The eldest daughter was named after the child’s maternal grandmother.
   2. The second daughter was named after the child’s paternal grandmother.
   3. The third daughter was named after the mother.
   4. The fourth daughter was named after the child’s eldest maternal aunt.
   5. Subsequent daughters were named after other maternal aunts, in order of the age of the aunts or Fathers eldest sister.

Comments

GREAT info.  thanks!

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thanks so much Richard

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Thank you!

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This is very interesting but my Irish great grandfather's first name was Samuel and there are no other Samuels in the line.  Thank you for the info.  I will follow this with my othe Irish Ancestors.

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I've hit a brick wall with the Doyles, particularly  with John Doyle's wife, Margaret.

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I've hit a brick wall with the Doyles, particularly  with John Doyle's wife, Margaret.

commented 8 minutes ago by Tanya Kasim

This other thread has some alternates that may be helpful.  It certainly helped explain some of my 3Xgreatgrandfather's family, as they seemed to have gone by the alternate "pattern".  :)

I hope you break your wall.

Answer 1

Oh wow, this is really helpful. Now I know why my fiance's maternal line is a list of alternating Sarah's and Jean's as far back as I've been able to search! How consistently have you found this pattern to be followed exactly? Every time? 90%? Mostly, but every family has some exception?

Comments

Reliability depends on family, etc. but it is only a tool to find possible candidate families. By itself it can't be used as proof but when used with a lot of other indirect evidence can lend credence to your hypothesis.

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Makes sense. Thanks.

Answer 2

What about the case where the father and grandfather had the same name? For example: [https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Irvine-2238 Robert Irvine], son of Robert Irvine, appears to have had sons: Robert, Victor, Valentine. Should I search for a second Robert? Or guess that they decided not to have two sons named Robert and so skipped to Valentine (who might be eldest paternal Uncle)?

Answer 3

This is incredibly helpful!  Thanks.