Did they Reuse Names?

Yesterday's post mentioned men who might have had wives with the same first name. Keep in mind that in some ethnic backgrounds "reusing" names of deceased children was a very common practice. One of my Ostfriesen couples had four daughters named Reenste born within a ten year time span. The first three died shortly after birth. The fourth one grew to adulthood.

And my genealogy software program thought I was nuts to have a family with four children with the same name. But it can happen.