[wolfclan]

I have a question about a comment Bill made under the thread titled Blackfoot Town & Indian River Indians. Rather than interrupt over there I thought I’d start another. First Techteach wrote:

Scottish naming patterns:

* The eldest son was named after the paternal grandfather.

* The second son was named after the maternal grandfather.

* The third son after the father.

* The eldest daughter after the maternal grandmother.

* The second daughter after the paternal grandmother.

* The third daughter after the mother.

In addition, I’ve also seen further information on naming practices:

* The fourth son was named after the father’s eldest brother.

* The fourth daughter was named after the mother’s eldest sister.

Bill responded:

This naming convention/pattern prevailed throughout Anglo-Saxon-Northwestern European cultures, and therefore colonial America, and is a great aid in breaking down so-called ‘brick-walls’ of genealogy.

This naming convention starts to break down in some parts of the northeastern/midatlantic U.S. by the 1870 census and in urban areas of the southeast and midwest by the 1880 census. By the 1900 census, it is almost non-existent in urban areas but does continue for some time in rural areas.

My question:

Do these naming patterns Bill mentioned apply as closely to families of continental German descent? We have a German immigrant ancestor married to an Indian woman in the mid-18th century. All the siblings have German names, but none seem to fit the pattern mentioned.

If our Native ancestor was Christianized, would that likely indicate that the family followed the European style of naming children? In other words, in cases when the wife is a Christianized Native married to a settler, do records show this pattern to be generally upheld?

We were hoping to determine the maternal grandparents’ names through this method, but if the paternal side is any indication, the siblings’ names don’t really match up with those of their grandparents. This causes me to wonder if Germans from the continent tended to follow a slightly different method from Scots and Anglo-Saxons in naming their children.

Thanks, John

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