Family Trends

[barelyshocking.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about names, and whether you can see unintentional trends in a group of family names. If I look at my immediate family, at first I notice nothing to suggest that our names are alike. Then of course I began to think. Ainsley and Tristan are Old English/Caledonian/Gaelic names. So is Shirley. My Uncle's name is Bradley, which solidifies the "----ley" name tradition in our family. On my father's side, you can kind of tell that he comes from quite a traditional English family. My mother is kind of the odd body; her names is quite French.

Myself: Ainsley Jade
Brother: Tristan Anthony
Sister: Teagan Ann

Mother: Suzanne Michelle
Father: Anthony (no middle name)

Maternal Grandparents: Shirley Ann and William Lawrence
Uncle: Bradley
Paternal Grandparents: George and Margaret (again with the no middle name thing)
Aunts: Susan and Ann

Can anyone else see unintentional trends in their family names? I don't mean of course assigning a traditional family name (such as in our case 'Ann') to your offspring. Rather, a strange use of alliteration or names from a certain area that you weren't at first aware of.

Comments

[samaside.livejournal.com]

The only trends in my family are intentional.

My dad's middle name is his father's first name and that goes along in my father's side. And then my mom's siblings' names all begin with the letter D, have five letters, are in alphabetical order, and have the same middle name (except for David): David Alan, Debra Ann, Donna Ann, Doree Ann.

[bornto-fly.livejournal.com]

There are a few common names in my family, mostly on my dad's side. My brother's middle name is Paul, which repeats itself a lot (my dad's older brother's first name, my mom's brother's middle name, and my mom's cousin's name). Another one is Otto, which is my cousin's name, my paternal grandfather's name, and my great-grandfather's middle name (although it was probably a family name long before that, since my great-grandfather was born in Denmark...). We also tend to have a trend of naming one of your sons after an uncle (usually the mother's, but they'll settle for the father's if there isn't an uncle on the mom's side). My brother's middle name is after two uncles and my mom's cousin, and my cousin Timmy is named after my dad (he's also Tim), my dad's middle name is after his uncle Glenn.

On my mom's side of the family, most of the names go along with the trends without being too overly trendy. We don't have any Aidans or Makenzies, but the names are generally pretty common for our age group:

Kim Renee (1962) - my mom; #37
Gerald Paul (1957) - my uncle; #51
Terry Lee (1945) - my aunt; #204
Holly Ann (1969) - my cousin; #87
Andrea Lee (1972) - my cousin; #30
Michael Paul (1984) - my brother; #1
Lindsay Rebecca (1987) - me; #49
Craig (1990) - my cousin; #116

So all of them except for two were in the top 100 the year we were named, and all but three were in the top 50, so we generally go for the more popular names of the time period. Most of us (well, I know I do, anyway) have names that totally date us. They hear "Lindsay" and automatically know I was probably born sometime between 1978-1993, during it's peak popularity.

[eleanorgrace.livejournal.com]

Not a trend, per se, but my family has tended toward very traditional, usually royally-associated male names for a few generations: Richard, William, James, Edward, James, Robert.
That's also sort of consistent with our female names, though the women were often named by other people: Eleanor, Mary, Catherine, Louise, Marguerite, Anne.

On my mother's side the male names were going for biblical: Matthew, Mark, Luke, Ian (a version of John, as my aunt didn't want a family tradition naming her son for her). But there are also two Steves and a Kyle on that side, so consistency wasn't a huge deal to them.

And among my dad's cousins, who were raised on a farm in the middle of (literally) no where, their (male) names practically scream country: Vernon, Owen, Gene, David, Bernard (BER-nerd).

[mystickiwi.livejournal.com]

On my mom's side of the family the "trend" is that all the names are more usually used a nicknames, but they're just the full name:

Betty (usually short for Beatrice or Elizabeth)
Jack (Jackson, Johnathan)
Jan (Janet, Janice, Janine)
John (Johnathan)

It's something I'd have never thought of, but that my mom has had pointed out to her several times. The trend didn't continue past that generation, and even my grandma's siblings have "full" names

[eleanorgrace.livejournal.com]

Also in the country family: Elton and Millard (haha). And we think the sister was named Sally.

[barelyshocking.livejournal.com]

Wow, those names are fantastic! I can imagine reading a Mills and Boon romance novel set in rural America, where the hero is Vernon, and his sweetheart is Sally :D

I love it!

[barelyshocking.livejournal.com]

It's interesting how you said your name and your sibling's names end in '-n'. I feel like I have the same thing happening in my family with the '-ley' part. Also, my brother and sister have the same initials, yet my initials are way out of nowhere. Strange to me, somehow :-)