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Archiver > MAESSEX > 2005-03 > 1109884249


From: "Seth and/or BJ Hinshaw" <>
Subject: RE: [MAESSEX] Naming Patterns for Colonial New England
Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2005 16:12:16 -0500
In-Reply-To: <e0.e66d95b.2f588e66@aol.com>


However, this pattern tends not to work in colonial New England.

First, middle names are very rare before about the time of the American
Revolution (let's say 1775, just for a date that is very much an estimate of
when the change started).

Secondly, in the Puritan colonies, the naming pattern seems to have been
1st son after the father
1st daughter after the mother
and then there isn't too much of a pattern -- sometimes children are named
after other relatives, sometimes with Biblical names or virtue names, and so
on......After the first couple children, it really varied by family.

Some references on the topic (the ones that I have handy....), for those
interested in more detail:
Dumas, David W. "The Naming of Children in New England, 1780-1850." NEHGR
July 1978
"Naming and Kinship in New England" NEHGR July 1984
Jacobus, Donald L. "Early New England Nomenclature" NEHGR January 1923
Fischer, David Hackett. "Forenames and the Family in New England: An
Exercise in Historical Onomastics" in _Generations and Change: Genealogical
Perspectives in Social History_, edited by Robert M. Taylor and Ralph J.
Crandall

Hope this helps,
BJ


> Many times a middle name may be a mother's maiden name, a practice to
> insure that her name was perpetuated in her new family. Here is
> the most common
> pattern:
>
> The first son was named after the father's father.
> The second son was named after the mother's father.
> The third son was named after the father.
>
> The fourth son was named after the father's eldest brother.
> The first daughter was named after the mother's mother.
> The second daughter was named after the father's mother.
> The third daughter was named after the mother.
> The fourth daughter was named after the mother's eldest sister.
>


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