06 August 2013

Named for a Dead Wife?

Names of children frequently come from family members. One additional place that people do not often think of is names of deceased spouses. While it might seem strange, your ancestor may have named his first daughter with wife number two after his deceased wife number one.

This usually doesn't happen if your ancestor was divorced from his first spouse.

3 comments:

  1. Don't think that gender matters either.

    My grandmother was named Georgia. She was born just 3 months after her father-George-died in a horrible train accident in 1896. Some names can be modified to reflect any gender.

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  2. Ok, that last sentence cracked me up. (I was a divorce lawyer in a previous life....)

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  3. My great aunt Irene was named after her father's first wife. I always thought that a bit odd. I guess it was pretty common.

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