{"id":10209,"date":"2020-09-25T10:12:16","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T15:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/?page_id=10209"},"modified":"2020-09-25T10:12:16","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T15:12:16","slug":"scottish-naming-patterns","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/?page_id=10209","title":{"rendered":"Scottish Naming Patterns"},"content":{"rendered":"

from AncestralFindings.com<\/em><\/a>
\nVol. 25, No. 36 \u2014 September 10, 2020
\n(with editor’s notes at the end)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Scottish Campbell Dress tartan – one of more than thirty<\/p><\/div>\n

Scottish naming patterns of the past few centuries can provide excellent clues as to the names of parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents of your Scottish ancestors. If you have a brick wall Scottish ancestor, their name or the names of their children can be an enlightening guide past the wall. Here is the most common Scottish naming pattern of ancient times, as well as common ancient Scottish nicknames and name spelling variations to look for in your genealogy work.<\/p>\n

The traditional Scottish naming pattern goes like this:<\/p>\n

The first son<\/em> \u2014 named after the paternal grandfather
\nThe second son<\/em> \u2014 named after the maternal grandfather
\nThe third son<\/em> \u2014 named after the father
\nThe fourth son<\/em> \u2014 named after the father\u2019s father\u2019s father
\nThe fifth son<\/em> \u2014 named after the mother\u2019s father\u2019s father
\nThe sixth son<\/em> \u2014 named after the father\u2019s mother\u2019s father
\nThe seventh to tenth sons<\/em> \u2014 named after the father\u2019s four great-grandfathers
\nThe eleventh to fourteenth sons<\/em> \u2014 named after the mother\u2019s four great-grandfathers<\/p>\n

The first daughter<\/em> \u2014 named after the maternal grandmother
\nThe second daughter<\/em> \u2014 named after the paternal grandmother
\nThe third daughter<\/em> \u2014 named after the mother
\nThe fourth daughter was<\/em> \u2014 named after the father\u2019s father\u2019s mother.
\nThe fifth daughter<\/em> \u2014 named after the mother\u2019s mother\u2019s mother.
\nThe sixth daughter<\/em> \u2014 named after the father\u2019s mother\u2019s mother.
\nThe seventh through tenth daughters<\/em> \u2014 named after the mother\u2019s four great-grandmothers
\nThe eleventh through fourteenth daughters<\/em> \u2014 named after the father\u2019s four great-grandmothers<\/p>\n

Occasionally, a child in a family died, and when this happened, some parents named the next born child of the same gender the same name that had been given to the deceased child. This was to ensure the family names were moved on to the next generation. Also, if the naming pattern indicated more than one child in a family should be given the same first name (because a lot of Scottish men and women of the olden days were named Alexander and Mary), the children after the first child who was given a certain name were given two first names at their christening, in order to distinguish them from one another.<\/p>\n

Also, do not forget about nicknames when researching The use of nicknames was quite common in Scotland for many centuries, and the same types of nicknames tended to be used for the same given names. Sometimes, the nicknames were used on official records, rather than the given names. There are a lot of different nicknames used in old Scottish culture that are worth exploring in your genealogy, but a few of the most common ones were:<\/p>\n

Kate<\/strong> or Katie<\/strong> for Catherine or Katherine
\nJinty<\/strong> or Jenny<\/strong> for Janet
\nGussie<\/strong> for Angus
\nCharlie<\/strong> for Charles or Charlotte<\/p>\n

One more thing to look for when researching your ancient Scottish ancestor names is spelling variations. Some Scottish names had one or several spelling variations before spelling became standardized in the early to mid-1800s. These are some of the most common spelling variations in Scottish first names:<\/p>\n

Alexander<\/strong> \u2014 Alec, Eck, Sandy, Sander, Xander
\nAnn\/Anne\/Anna<\/strong> \u2014 Anice, Annag, Annella, Annis, Annys
\nAndrew<\/strong> \u2014 Andro
\nElizabeth<\/strong> \u2014 Elspeth
\nGeorge<\/strong> \u2014 Dod
\nJames<\/strong> \u2014 Hamish
\nJane<\/strong> \u2014 Jean, Janet Jessie
\nJohn<\/strong> \u2014 Ian
\nKatherine<\/strong> \u2014 Catrina, Caitriona, Ceitidh
\nMary<\/strong> \u2014 Mae, Morag<\/p>\n

Editor’s note: How does this apply to your family? One example from my family, with a slight loving variation, is that my oldest brother is named “Paul”<\/a> after our Scots-Irish-descended grandfather Paul Gray,<\/a> our mother’s father, not our paternal grandfather. The Apostle Paul (c.5-65)<\/a>, as you know, was a follower of Jesus who established the early churches around the Eastern Mediterranean and penned the Epistles. To make up for the backwards variation of the Scottish naming practice in our family, my brother’s middle name is “Wesley,” after our English-descended grandfather Wesley Pearce<\/a>, our father’s father.\u00a0 It’s interesting that the English more often than not named their children after famous countrymen. Of course, John Wesley (1703-1791)<\/a> was a noted theologian and evangelist. Our early Pearces probably had encounters with him as he rode through Wiltshire on horseback on his way to\u00a0 speaking engagements. My ancestors were considered religious non-conformists,<\/a> and many are still devout Methodists (article forthcoming). Ironically, Grandpap Pearce’s middle name was “Herron,” after the pioneer Presbyterian preacher<\/a> from nearby Pittsburgh who visited their area.<\/p>\n

In keeping with my Scots-Irish heritage, my Swiss-German-descended wife and I named our first-born daughter “Annie”<\/a> after her maternal grandmother Annie Lee Krause (1885-1971),<\/a> whose ancestors were probably Irish. She married a man of German origins. I later learned that “Annie” was also the name of several of my mother’s Scots-Irish-descended ancestors. So, as you can see, naming practices can get complicated. Send me your examples and naming questions below.\u00a0 I’ll share the responses and try to get answers to share with our readers. Thanks!<\/p>\n

Last revised 9\/25\/20<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from AncestralFindings.com Vol. 25, No. 36 \u2014 September 10, 2020 (with editor’s notes at the end) Scottish naming patterns of the past few centuries can provide excellent clues as to the names of parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents of your … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2495,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10209","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10210,"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10209\/revisions\/10210"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e-gen.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}