irish name traditions

[kylejustin]

im trying to work out a theory here. so here goes.

my 3rd freat grandmother was called ellen rebecca dwyer. she was born in the 1860's. in order of birth, here are her siblings:

mary catherine dwyer, ellen rebecca dwyer, michael william dwyer, christine rebecca dwyer, and farquhar donald dwyer.

they are the children of andrew dwyer and isabella matheson.

andrew was the son of michael dwyer and catherine twigg. catherine was the the daughter of timothy twigg and ellen keanealy.

isabella was the daughter of farquhar matheson and mary matheson.
farquhar was the son of donald matheson and mary mcrae. mary was the daughter of murdoch and rebecca.

so,
child 1-mary and catherine are the grandmothers names
child 2-ellen and rebecca are the names of the grandmothers mothers
child 3-michael is the paternal grandfather, william could be the paternal great grandfather?
child 4- christine rebecca, was the name of isabella's sister
child 5- faquhar is the maternal grandfather, and donald is the maternal great grandfather, as well as isabella's brother, who died young.

so, by this theory, andrew's father michael was the son of william?
i looked for this pattern in andrew's family, and if this pattern is followed, michael's mother was mary.

any ideas?

[Val and George]

In theory that sounds quite possible, not sure if I'd lay bets on the probable though.
Have you any inkling that you could be right? Or, are you really stuck at that point?
Val

[kylejustin]

i have the death for andrew in 1876, and catherine in 1894. i also have the death for a michael dwyer in 1858, who 'was found dead in the bush'.

the info from the family comes from the first two. the michael was an inquiry, born in ireland, but that was all that was known about him.

[kylejustin]

michael and catherine were born in 1790's, clare. the kids born 1809-1840, clare. the family emmigrated to victoria, sometime around 1853, but i cant find that record, but someone has seen it.

[John_8251]

In the 1800s Irish parents sometimes named sons according to this general pattern. I believe the practice became less frequent towards the end of the century.

The first son after the fathers father.
The second after the mothers father.
The third son was named after the father

Irish Daughters sometimes followed a similar pattern

The first daughter was named after the mothers mother
The second was named after the fathers mother
The third was named after the mother.

You may be able to predict the names of Grandparents. But this is just a guide and proves nothing. But it could give you something to research. You really need to spot the trend in 5 children if possible. If you spot a gap it could be the child died?

[Olde Crone Holden]

The problem with naming patterns I find, is that they were often interrupted by the death of a favourite brother or sister and the next child was named in honour of the deceased instead of the great grandmother or whoever.

They are a very useful guide but they are not infallible.

OC

[JBee]

I have one family where none of the mothers family's names are followed yet all the fathers even his step mothers.

Another is where I'm looking for the mothers father's name William and haven't found one but have her brothers name Thomas. There is a John so there was an opportunity for him to be called William.

[kylejustin]

my problem, is that i have the children of catherine and michael (andrews siblings) from her death cert. half of them were dead by 1884, and i cant find their deaths or those for the surviving siblings.

and i dont have parish records, those will cost 340 dollars from the heritage centre. so i dont know what order they were born in. plus there are two johns, and the son who registerd the death said he as 60 at the time, so i dont know if one died in infancy or if the registrar just doubled up!!

[kylejustin]

these kids were half irish, half scottish too, so did they have different rules?
and met somewhere in the middle?

[KiteRunner]

No, the Scottish naming pattern was the same as that Irish one that John posted up.