View Full Version : Do you have the same name as any of your ancestors?
Minus my middle name, I have the same name as my great great and great great great grandfather.
It is certainly strange seeing your own name on a gravestone saying that you died in 1939!
Other than those two there are plenty of cousins going back with the same first name and surname.
However, when it comes to the combination of first name, middle name and surname, I am quite unique!
:D
No. Though my Mum has the same name as my Dad's paternal grandmother and it was spooky seeing her name on his grandparents' gravestone!
My brother has the same name as quite a few peeps on Dad's side though when they chose the name neither of my parents knew this.
Names are curious things aren't they? I have a grandfather whose name is a census-whack (ie the only hits that come up are him) but most of my ancestors names aren't that rare. Most irritating is my William Williams who refuses to be born or to die!
No. Mum was determined that I would have my own name and not be named after anyone.
Nell I have a William Williams like that too.
I also have ordered a birth cert just to find out someones father. The parents marriage may have recently appeared on FreeBMD but he is away from home on the census and then died before appearing with his wife. :-(
No I am the only one of my name I can find.
But my married name - I am Diane Susan and my husband's cousins wife is Susan Diane, with the same surname. We reckon it will give some descendents a giggle one day.
Di
I'm named after my aunt, so my name is only a generation old. I haven't found any other Gwynneths from any earlier, although my aunt's cousin has the same name, as does her daughter.
I didn't know this when I named him but our son's name has been in every generation of my Dad's family since the late 1600s. I chose Benjamin because it was Dad's second name.
Well we only found out 3/4 weeks ago that one of my granddaughters has the same name as her 3X G Grandmother, but on my side no living ones with same name that I have found as yet ;;
Lancashire Lady
06-04-10, 07:48
In a word, no.
my parents deliberately wanted to get away from family names, so I'm the only Victoria on either side of my tree. Until the 1980's it wasn't a very popular name. For a very long time I was also the only person in Britain (and probably the world) with my combination of first name & surname. I do now have a (probable) very distant cousin with the same name.
My parents named my sister Julia, again deliberately avoiding any family connection. My mum didn't know that her gt grandmother had had a sister Julia, as they never had any contact with that family after both moved away from their roots. Its still a unique name though, as that name never appeared anywhere in my dad's ancestry, and the only other person with her name I've ever found acquired her surname through marriage.
I've said this before (sorry!) - I have the same forenames as my great-grandmother.
My gran disowned her mother and my mum was brought up to think this lady was her stepgran. Gran's mother didn't have much of a life - a difficult first marriage that ended when her husband ran off to Australia without her, a second (bigamous?) marriage to a confirmed bachelor 20 years her senior, four children, two of whom (one being my gran) seem to have made her life a misery and then lastly 20 years in an asylum for no particular reason that I can establish (medical records say she was admitted for having a street fight and having a black eye).
No one knew this lady's birth name was Sarah Jane as she dropped the Sarah in childhood (she was my brickwall for ages because of this!), but, by chance, that's my name to, so I feel a particular affinity for this woman who seems so badly treated. My gran would be horrified if she knew!
If I type my birth name into Ancestry there are only two people with the name - me and the sister of my g-grandfather.
Both sets of grandparents gave my parents non-family names and our parents did the same for me & my brother.
Langley Vale Sue
06-04-10, 09:26
We decided not to name our children after any family members that we knew of.
However our younger son has his GG Uncle's name as his middle name. He was my Grandma's brother and was killed in WW1 and I didn't know he existed until a few years ago.
My second forename is also our Grandma's second name and my brother's second forename is also our Grandad's second name.
My middle grandaughter has the same forename & surname as her 4xG and 5xG grandmothers, although their surnames were their married names not their birth names.
Uncle John
06-04-10, 12:32
I'm the 5th. John in the direct line. There are are other family names that pop up all over the place. But neither of our daughters has a family name.
Nope - my brother and I both have names unique in the family (or at least the immediate family; I have come across an 8th cousin twice removed called Michael). My middle name was the first name of both my dad's grandfathers, but he claims not to have realised that at the time and I have no reason to disbelieve him. Brother's middle name is dad's first name. Mum's first name is unique in the family and her middle name is only shared by a great-grandmother whom her parents almost certainly didn't know about at the time either; dad's middle name is unique but his first name very common in the family.
Mary from Italy
06-04-10, 15:35
My first name was probably the most common name in England when I was born in the late 1940s. My surname's a very common Irish name, but having grown up in England, I never came across anyone else with my combination of Christian and surname.
However, when I viewed the Drogheda PRs at the LDS centre, the first name I saw was mine (although not a relation).
There are two people in my tree with my name: one has the same first and last name but no middle name, and the other has my exact name, but with the first and middle names reversed. If I could get any further back with my Irish line, there'd no doubt be a lot more.
maggie_4_7
06-04-10, 16:35
I grew up knowing that my name wasn't in any of my family's ancestors but then I only knew my mother's family :)
Since then I have found a few women with my name in my Scottish ancestors but not with my middle names as well but that would be a bit of a feat really :)
My first name is quite common in Scotland seeing as it was one of their Queen's name I believe.
My father named and registered me but I think its purely coincidental that a few of his ancestors had the same name he probably never knew, I believe I was named after his best friend's wife her name was Margaret Taylor and I lived in their house until I was 2 years old. Although he had the sense to stick my mother's name in as one of my middle names.
Oakum Picker
06-04-10, 17:18
I haven't but my father was a Joseph 1922, missed his father's generation then went back 200 years to my first known ancestor with the family surname. The asterisk denotes my direct line.
1885, 1844*, 1822, 1808, 1780, 1736, 1701, m.1700*
My Paternal Granny was a rebel. after generations of Thomas' and William's she decided her children were not going to be named after anyone! Given that she had 11, all of whom had middle names as well, I guess it was quite some feat!
I felt for my one time step sons.
They both had 3 names ( as well as a surname obviosly)
The elder had
first name of his pat grandfather + his fathers first name + mat Grandfathers name
second son got
Pat Grans maiden name for a forename + Mums brothers name + Pat fathers 2nd name
I alway felt they had no identity of their own
My name is unique and not in any of my trees
but eldest son - on OH's father's side has the same first name and surname as his father, grandfather, great grandfather, missed next one as younger brother got name, great great great grandfather b1799.
On Oh's mothers side he has same first name as grandfather, great grandfather and great great grandfather b1798 (haven't got back any further)
and his middle name is also a family name on the other family lines.
Not much imagination but until I researched the family history I didn't know.
Lods of Scottish blood in my family so loads of names the same....lol
Strangely though, my married name is repeated many, many times. There were stacks of girls baptised Elizabeth Ariel, and even more Ariel males who married Elizabeths. Every generation has them....lol
As far as I know, no one in my ancestral family is called Joy.
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