Real Expert Advice Required

[Wee Ann]

That was an explanation I hadn't considered! I know their father's name, (Alexander) but I must admit, I haven't got as far back as their grandfathers.
Ann

[Laura]

Well, that's it then! The naming pattern, if used, is perfectly obvious after you have all of the records sorted.

My father just passed away last year and went to his grave complaining about his middle name, CUNNINGHAM. I told him many times that he was named for his great grandfather, James CUNNINGHAM, but it was probably too late to change his mind.

Just to complicate things: My father, James, was his father's third son and should have been named after his father, Andrew. But, the forename Andrew had already been given as a nickname for the second son named George. I never told my father this; no sense stirring the pot needlessly.

I smile when people insist that modern Scots didn't use the traditional naming pattern. My grandparents were married in 1921 at the then new courthouse at Stirling. My grandmother's first and only daughter was named for her mother, Elizabeth DONALDSON.

A surname as a middle name, especially when it belonged originally to the forename, makes it so much easier to find records.

[Wee Ann]

I have a surname for my middle name, (McPherson) and I always said it was my grandmother's maiden name, which it was! But I was actually named after her sister, my great aunt Ann McPherson. I was quite pleased to realise that! Apparently she was my father's favourite aunt.

[Laura]

There you go.