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Do you share your name with an ancestor? What about a name that keeps repeating itself in your family tree? Do you have an instance of ancestors naming two children the same? (It happened more often than you might expect!)
I've found that while we have had people who were named for someone else's memory or named after one of their parents, we didn't have much of children, at the same level, named the same by the same parents. I know it was done, but it didn't seem like my ancestors followed that idea.
Instead we followed name a child is named after the parent method. It happened many times over the years.
My father Matthew was named after his father. His father was named Mathias, but he translated it to Matthew after arriving from Germany. My father's known by a few different names - Matt or Gerry/Jerry which is after his middle name. Of course, my mother had several other not so nice names for him as well, but we won't go there.
My grandfather, Mathias' picture taken for Naturalization. Then he started to go by Matthew.
My brother, Charlie, named his son after himself. The rest of the family took to calling my brother Charlie, or Chucky (like in the Child's Play movies). My nephew, his son, we took to calling him CJ which is short for Charles Jr. My brother, before his passing, either called my nephew Junior or Charles, which just sounds weird to me.
My sister law, Kathy, CJ and Charlie.
Then you have my second eldest sister, Jean's, child. She named him after his father, Tommy. Once again we had Tommy, my brother in law, and TJ, short for Thomas Jr, for my nephew.
Tommy and TJ in 1980 at my father's house in Newburgh, NY
Then you have me. I was a surprise to my parents. Due to this fact, they did a bet for my name but either way I was going to be named after one of them. If it was a girl it/I was to be named after my mother. If it/I was a boy was to be named after my father. I'm a girl, so named Jo Ann after my mother Jo Ann. Talk about a huge set of headaches there because people don't realize which one of us it is. Its affected everything from who I was when I tried to get a passport/visa to come to Australia to get married to my credit rating, to who is listed against certain addresses all over the place. I left the US over 20 years ago and I'm still dealing with it. Then there is the whole spelling thing which gets old...
Mom and I
My niece, Jessy did it with her son too. She was married to a guy named Ron. When they had their first child, a boy, they named him Ron Jr, so he was then called RJ. I told you it was a tradition...
RJ and Ron during Easter in 2011.
There there was my maternal grandfather, Louis. He was named after his father's cousin Louis Van Rompaye, who he was very close to. They made a few trips back and forth to Belgium after settling into NY. In fact, they most certainly spoke quite often because one was a dairy farmer and one - for a while before branching out - transported milk from the area farms to supermarkets all over NY and then later the US.
Louis Van Rompaye at his company in Chester NY. Credit
Credit: Middletown Daily Times Aug 11 1936 - Julius Gauquie coming back home from Belgium
My maternal grandfather's middle name was Paul, after, I think, his mother's father, who died in Denmark. I found this information out on her passport application in 1924.
Credit: US Immigration Services
My great grandmother Annie Gauquie. Credit: US Immigration Services
Then when my maternal grandparents, Janet and Louis, had an oldest son, Louis, after his father. However, they did change the middle names. His father's middle name was Paul, but they put their child's middle name was Julius which was after my grandfather's father - Jules Gauquie. This is really interesting as Jules kicked my grandfather Louis off of the farm when he was 15 years old.
His entry is the one highlighted in yellow. Credit
What's even more interesting is when my Uncle Louis had a child, they named him Louis as well. Once again, they changed my cousin's middle name too. This time from Jules to Michael - Louis Michael. In fact, on pictures they named him as Louis III. I wonder if they were trying to channel Henry the 8th of England...just my attempt at some humor.
Uncle Louis and his son Louis (called III on back of picture) Credit: J. Gauquie
This stopped when Louis Michael had a child and they went away from the naming sequence by naming him Vincent.
On my mother's side, there have been several people named after others. I'll just put a list of just some below because there have been MANY.
My Uncle James Joseph was supposed to be named Joseph I think he said. However, somehow it was mixed up and he is known as James or Jimmy. This was a nod to one of his uncles but I can't remember which one.
Florence Gauquie Sherman (my great aunt) was named after her grandmother Florentia Gauquie who died in Belgium before the family left for the US.
Mary Ann Gauquie (my great aunt) had her mother's name, Annie, for a middle name.
Alice Ann Gauquie (my great aunt) had her mother's name, Annie, for a middle name like her sister.
James Peter Gauquie (my great uncle) had was named after another relative which I can't figure out - maybe after my great grand uncle's child?
Charles E gauquie (my great uncle) was named after his uncle Charles Gauquie (born 1876 died 1952) or maybe my 4th great-uncle Charles Gauquie (born about 1823)?
I think the many Theresa's or Therese's can be traced back to our 5th Great Aunt Marie Therese Gauquie who lived for just a month in 1808 or it could be for our 4th great-grandmother Joanna Theresia Vandendriessche.
Religious Names
We have had where some names have been after Catholic saints as well.
For instance, my sister, Theresa, has a middle name of Mary after Jesus' mother, Mary.
Another example is 6th great-grandfather, Jean Baptiste Gauquie (born about 1723 - died Jan 1772). He was named after the saint - John the Baptist as they were and are Roman Catholics.
One of Jean Baptiste's sons was named Jacobus Josephus which I believe was for Flavius Josephus and who was named for Saint Joseph from the New Testament in the bible.
Yes, we were very good Roman Catholics at one time and some still are.
Where did my name Jo Ann/Joanne come from?
In fact, I always wanted to know where on earth they came up with my first name - Jo Ann. My mother always told me it was her first and middle names jammed together. Wrong. Her birth certificate has her name as Joanne and not Joan Ann as she always told me.
So I wanted to see if I could connect the name to any of the family. The first instance of the name I could find was my 4th great-grandmother, Joanna Theresia Vandendriessche, who lived from 1796 and died in 1866 in Boezinge, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.
I found it comforting the name came from some place rather than a made up one.
