You don’t necessarily have to be a genealogist to notice that certain names in your family tree appear more than once. Obviously, surnames are going to be connected to a lot of people. Often, you will find that a first name, or a middle name, is handed down from one generation to the next. What names run in your family?
I come from a huge family. I have honestly lost count of how many cousins I have. Both my mother’s side of the family tree, and my father’s side of it, come from long lines of very fertile people. It seems inevitable that eventually, someone will share a name with an ancestor, or with someone from the other branch of the family tree.
My father’s middle name is Wayne. My parents chose to give that same middle name to one of my brothers. My other brother is named Arthur Edward. His first name, Arthur, comes from the first name of our father’s father. His middle name, Edward, comes from first name of our mother’s father. It is fairly common for parents to consider giving their baby a name that creates a connection between that child and a relative from a generation or two above him or her.
One of my aunts, on my father’s side of the family, married a man named James. They gave one of their sons the name James, (but everyone calls him Jimmy). One of my mother’s brothers was also named James. Most of the family called him Jimmy, except for his mother, when he was in trouble. Then, he was Seamus. Growing up, there were two entirely different people who I could refer to as “my Uncle Jimmy”.
The same aunt has a son named Larry. My mother also has a brother named Larry. Upon occasion, this lead to some confusion when my family would hold a birthday party, or first Communion party, for me or for one of my siblings. There would be relatives from my mother’s side of the family and from my father’s side of the family attending the party. If someone asked me where “Larry” was, I would have to ask that person which Larry they were looking for.
My family isn’t the only one that has names appear in different places on the family tree. Many of the United States Presidents have families that hand names down from one generation to the next.
George Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States. He is married to Barbara Pierce Bush. The couple named their oldest son after his father. George Walker Bush eventually became the 43rd President of the United States.
George Walker Bush is married to Laura Welch Bush. One of their twin daughters is named Barbara Pierce Bush. Clearly, this daughter is named after her grandmother, (her father’s mother). They named their other twin daughter Jenna Welch Bush, handing down the surname Welch from Laura Welch Bush, the girl’s mother.
Image by NeilsPhotography on Flickr