English naming of Children

An English tradition for naming offspring.

1st son would be named in the patriarchal line. 

* So 1^st son is then named after his paternal grandfather.  Dads dad.

2^nd son named after maternal line. 2nd son named after his maternal grandfather.  Moms dad.

3^rd son will be named after after his own Daddy.

*4^th son will bear the name of dads eldest brother.  This one must be most confusing since all the younger brothers who have a fourth son.  Will have a son of the same name.  Could lead to 5 boys of the same generation all with the same name. In the same generation.  Is it a wonder then a family of 5 sons  -- then all 5 sons have large families.  So they all name their 5th son the same name.  This is the Paternal line.  So for example there could be 5 cousins with the name of Thomas Moorehouse.


So the naming of the daughters follow pretty much the same way.

1^st daughter is after the paternal grandmother.  Dads mom.

2^nd daughter will be given the name of her Moms Mom.

3^rd daughter will bear the name of her own Mommy.

4^th daughter will be given her moms oldest sisters name.

You know this is only a guide.  It might help you to distinguish between folks when searching out a difficult family tree. No one can guarantee that all English families subscribed to this method.  It is only a guide.

When my husband & I named our children.
It went like this:
1^st son after my **husbands favorite brother.
2^nd son after my husband but not as a Junior.  But with what the *German call a saints name.

Our 1^st daughter after paternal mother middle name
& Our 2^nd daughter named after my moms middle name.

It was just how it happened nothing planned. Was never planned.

My eldest brother and his wife gave all of their children 3 names.  I really like that they did that.  All their names have a family name mixed in. It’s nice.

It great to see & hear how my nieces and nephews have named their children.

My one niece has 4 lovely children all named with first letter of “J”. Some great strong scriptural names there. 

I can see how its like the names are so new but really they are so old.

*more on this later
** I refused to have a Junior. I always remember Mickey Rooney saying ever child needs their own name not their fathers name.