General Chat

I have a number of examples in my family tree where one or more of the children have as their middle name their mothers maiden name. Why would the parents have done this?

Thanks

Paul

I have done the same; when I married I retained my maiden name as a middle name, both of my children have it too.

I was the last in our tree, the only child (female) of an only child (male), who was one of three but the only male.
j
x

My ggg grandfather has the second name Roberts after his mother's maiden name. This was perpetuated for three more generations with the eldest son also receiving the name Roberts as his second name.

Another possibility might have been to cover up illegitimacy. We have several examples of this in out tree too.

I wouldn't complain if I were you. It's a useful naming pattern.

Maybe that's why they did it - to make things easier for us lol

Often happened the other way round too, An illegitimate child would be given the fathers surname as part of their name to acknowledge who the father was even though they arent named on the birth cert. ie Joseph Wilson Bloggs

Thank god they did,,,it makes it a lot easier to identify 'ploppy-son-of-ploppy' if his middle name is Jonquil after mummy..

My Birth 'middle' name was Mackay,which I assume is probably my B Fathers surname.No father was named on my B certificate.My other B Siblings also have middle names like this.We all had different fathers!!!!

Hi I have an anchestor who married a Frances Rippingale, and each genaration on from then (1733) had given a son the name Rippingale as a first christian name. Sadly the last child with this name died age six in 1831. but what a help it was for me. Chrys.

One of my great grans gave all her sons her maiden name for their middle name, and she gave all her daughters her mother's maiden name as their middle name. They were so easy to find, I wish a few more of my ancestors had done it.

I have the name Thompson as a middle name in my family and it sometimes appears as a Christian name but I can't find the root of it anywhere. It goes through from 1732 to present day. At least I know if there is a Thompson in the name somewhere, it's probably in my tree.

My daughter wasn't married to the father of my grand daughter, so has a double barrelled name eg Mary Father's name - Mother's name. Say, for ease of explanation Smith -Jones
Then daughter married another man, they now have 2 sons.

First son has a double barrelled name Mother's name - Father's name,
Jones - Wilson, second son just has Wilson as a surname.
Grand daughter wants to take on her stepfather's name ('cos he's lovely!), and so she would have the same surname as her brothers.
She has 3 forenames - and if she added her stepfather's name would have 3 surnames as well eg Smith-Jones-Wilson

So, in the future, anyone looking for these 3 siblings would find:
Mary Smith -Jones-Wilson (but only Smith-Jones on her birth cert)
Fred Jones-Wilson
John Wilson
Could be a little confusing!!!

Thanks to all that have replied to my question. I think everybody is correct, it's probably a number of reasons, not just one. Beverley, honest I'm not complaining, just curious and Claire in Lincs your 'ploppy-son of ploppy' comment made me laugh (Black Adder II I believe?).

But I'm thinking why bother? In my tree, the mothers-maiden-middle name thing occurs during the late Georgian/Victorian period not exactly renowned as a period for the emancipation of women. One of the families in my tree where it occurs most 'Beams Paull' are posh, did the mothers maiden have some creedance? Did it open doors? If only I had a time machine!

Regards

Paul

Paul - if you acquire a time machine - pass it along here. I'll make good use of it :-)))

Scottish people name children after their forbears . No flights of fancy there. My father's family were Scottish and they are all named after relatives as I am. I have my great grandmother's name and I am also the fifth in a line with the same name and my father and grandfather have her surname also. Very handy for finding relatives in indexes especially coupled with a fairly common surname.

Hi Marjery

That's very interesting.

The mothers-maiden-name-for-a-middle-name does occur in my Welsh and Cornish ancestry, perhaps this is a Celtic thing?

Regards

Paul

The mothers-maiden-name-for-a-middle-name occurs in my English ancestral family but not, as far as I am aware so far, in my Irish ancestral family.

It has been most helpful sometimes :-)

My grandfather with the Scottish ancestry had seven brothers and sisters and four of them had their grandparents christian names and Surname and that has made it very easy to pick out their aunts and uncles from the indexes and all the middle names of the other three were the same surnames as the rest of their father's siblings had, If that makes any sense.
Every generation used the same christian names as well.

In my gt.grandather's generation, some of his siblings, males and females alike, were given the middle names of Wells Webster. The Webster bit was easy to sort, it was the maiden name of their maternal grandmother. But, I am foxed as to where the name Wells came from.
Ironically, about 60/70 years later, Hunstanton and Wells next the Sea, became a favourite holiday place for descendants, but I do not think there was any connection in the 1860/1870's
Julia in Derbyshire

It is more common than you think Paul.
I have just remembered a few people I have known who did that.
I seem to remember my sister's first husband's middle name was a family surname.... Don't ask me what, I can't remember... ;-0)
Useless aren't I? ;-0)
Deanna X

You're right Deanna, a lot more common than I thought.

An interesting subject I think.

This is the first time I have posted and I am totally chuffed with all the great responses.

Paul