Questions tagged [naming]
Social practices associated with assigning a (locally unique) label to an individual.
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Catholic naming conventions
Is it a convention in the Catholic church to put a baby's Christian name first in a birth record, before their actual first name?
For instance, my father was born Elmer Edward. Since he was very ...
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Removing media file name under pictures in person report of Macfamilytree
How do I remove a media file name under pictures in a person report?
Filenames all different and some with huge names and I cannot find a way to remove it other then going to each file and deleting ...
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Creating record for individual where no details are known?
Where a child is born but no details of the father are known, should a record be created for that person and no details recorded or should no record be created?
The part hinting at this in How ...
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Can one known use of a name be regarded as a nickname?
On Margaret's Death Registration, Francis is recorded in the 'If married, to whom" section.
The informant section is Frank - Husband. There is no mistaking the 'k' for 'cis'.
The original record is ...
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Norwegian naming conventions
I'm looking for a comprehensive explanation of Norwegian naming conventions, specifically relating to multiple given names and middle names, etc., as opposed to Surnames, patronymics, etc. (even if ...
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People who give their children the same first name as themselves [closed]
I've come across people who give their children the same first names as themselves, and just call the child "junior" while the parent is referred to as "senior". For example, the Nobel laureate John ...
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Was traditional Scottish naming pattern the same for Highlands, Lowlands and Ulster Scots?
I've recently started checking my Scottish ancestors' families against this traditional Scottish naming pattern:
For sons:
1st Son = Father's Father
2nd Son = Mother's Father
3rd Son = Father
...
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answer
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Why were there no Polish given names in Polish village (part of Prussia)?
In order to find information about my ancestors, I accessed a Catholic church register of a village in the upper part of Silesia, via Family Search. The village, Śmicz, was Polish but was part of ...
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Reading given name of German great-grandaunt?
I cannot read this name, which is the name of one of the older sisters of my great-grandfather. It is supposed to be a german female name. This was written in 1878.
Sample of handwriting by the same ...
- 1,407
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In 17th century Scotland/Virginia, could a Jr. have a different name than his father?
According to all known records, John Burnett (b. Scotland 1610, d. Virginia 1686) had sons named John and Thomas. The will of John's widow, Lucretia, refers to "MY ELDEST SON JOHN BURNETT" and "my ...
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Did other countries have the concentration of first names that England had in past centuries?
Anyone who has done genealogical research on England in the 17th through 19th centuries will have noticed it: a parade of Johns, Williams and Thomases, accompanied by Marys, Elizabeths and Annes. ...
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Why might name Ferdinando be found in early 17th century Cornwall baptisms?
I have two direct ancestors named Ferdinando:
Ferdinando Hicks, baptised 1 Jan 1630 at St Germans, Cornwall
Ferdinando Sleep, baptised 13 Sep 1720 at Morval, Cornwall (who is a grandson of the above)
...
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Custom of hyphenated names in Germany
I am searching for Joseph/Josef Greiner (my 4th great grandfather and a glass maker from the German Greiner line of glassmakers) and while doing so have gathered literally thousands of records which ...
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What might "biblical" names for Abel/Foot and Noake children in 17-18th Century Devon indicate?
As I look over my family tree I have started to wonder at the significance of what I call "biblical" names in a couple of branches.
For example my 6th great grandparents William Noake and Elizabeth ...
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Wife's surname used as second name to indicate Smyth child named after someone from her Osment family?
My 5th great grandparents Sarah Osment and John Smyth married on 13 Jul 1764 at Stoke Damerel, Devon.
The ten children I have for them, who appear to have all been christened in or near London, ...
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Which parent generally named the babies in 18th and 19th century USA?
I have found, when researching long-dead ancestors, that sometimes the names that parents chose to give their children are the only glimpse I have into the inner life of those parents. When I look at ...
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Did 19th century English women sometimes change the first name they used?
I have some confusing, conflicting sources that suggest that the one woman went by two different names. They relate to the parents of Cyril Albert Victor House, born in 1897. His christening record ...
- 2,998
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Mary and Mally: were they used interchangeably in Yorkshire in the late 18th century?
In my previous question on Finding the Fatherless Feathers, I made reference to a Mally Thomas with whom the Feather siblings seemed to be lodging in 1841, in Heptonstall, Yorkshire, England.
In 1851,...
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Name variants for Schufeldt?
I have an ancestor Charity Schufeldt (1792-1851, married Wait Hurlburt) that I am researching. To aid in my search, I'm looking for name variants for Schufeldt. So far I have Schufeldt, Zufelt, ...
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Is there a standard reference for alternative forms of a given or personal name?
I learned as a child that Uncle Jim was really my father's brother James. As a beginning family historian, I discovered that my g-g-grandfather often wrote the same name as Jas.
I could learn more of ...
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What is needed in a Name?
I wanted to find a way of raising this question within the limited strictures of SE so please bear with me on the explanation.
When we think of personal names, we immediately think of given-names and ...
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Did son-in-law have a different meaning in mid-19th century England?
Most modern dictionaries define family relationships in a narrow sense. So that "son in law" refers to the husband of your daughter. However, I have encountered a very different use in the UK census ...
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How do I deal with alternative spellings to names?
I am trying to find out information for an Arzula Hokum and am running head-first into issues with her name. Her first name sounds like Ursula and her last like some variant of Holcomb(e). How do I ...
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How can I identify all the possible alternatives for a surname
My ancestor Mary Ann Harper is frustratingly elusive as mentioned here. However, Harper is a surname that would lend itself to different spellings in censuses, birth records and the like — ...
user104
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Correctly identifying individual who goes by multiple names?
This question is general to all inquiries where a person has differing last names in multiple records. In my particular case, I am researching my 3rd great grandfather Simon Zoller (1840-1902) and I ...
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Is there a chart type that shows myself, a chosen ancestor, every intervening ancestor and their siblings?
I use Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker 2012, and would like to produce a multi-page PDF chart, probably in Landscape orientation, that lists myself at bottom and a chosen direct ancestor at top, ...
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Which name should be a person's primary name?
People can have many different names over time. Examine the example of a woman who immigrated to the US from an Eastern European country. She could have three names over time:
Katerina Jurkiewicz (...
user47
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When did patronymics cease to be used in North Wales?
Searching for the marriage of Griffith Roberts and Jane Pritchard sometime between 1855 (when the groom would have been about 18 and the bride 25) and 1866 in Caernarvonshire, Wales (where they were ...
user104