Male First Names

I thought that I’d better look at the male given names seeing I’ve looked at female names.  In the Family Tree I’ve done for SNR there are 120 direct males ancestors with 138 names of which 42 are different. This result surprised me. I thought there would be a smaller variety of names compared to women.  The list is as follows:

John - 25

William - 17

Thomas - 12

Robert - 8

George - 8

Joseph - 6

Richard -5

Samuel - 4

James - 4

Henry - 4

Frederick - 4

Edward - 3

Albert - 3

Warner - 2

Nicholas - 2

Hugh - 2

Charles - 2

Augustus - 2

Arthur - 2

Then one occurrence of each of the following: Wilfrid, Walter, Victor, Nathaniel, Michael, Kenneth, Job, Jacob, Isaac, Ian, Herbert, Gary, Francis, Elliot, Elijah, Eli, Edmund, Douglas, David, Christian, Cecil, Alfred, Adrian.

The areas that are difficult to research are not represented and this skews the results!

If you compare these names to the ten most popular Australian names for boys in 2013, the only duplicate is William (number 4 in Australia). However, you could argue there were two additional names: Jack (no. 2) is a derivative of John and Charlie (no. 6) is a derivative of Charles.

What's in a SURNAME?

Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" and this leads to a large number of variations of the original spelling. No surname is 'fixed'!

It is believed there are over 45,000 different English surnames.

Most surnames originated from seven types:

• Occupational: based on a job or position in society [Heard, Pfeffler (pipe player), Spicer].
• Personal characteristic: based on nicknames that described a person. They may have described a person’s size, colouring, or character trait. [Bunn (from the French word ‘bon’), White, Pococke]
• Place name: where a person was born, lived, worked, or owned land. It might be from the name of a house, farm, hamlet, town, or county.  [Freestone, Kimberley (‘leah’ is a wood), Woolley]
• Estate name: name of their holdings, castle, manor, or estate, such as Ernle or Staunton.
• Geographical feature: Some examples are Bridge, Brooks, Bush, Camp. [Hilton]
• Patronymic, matronymic, or ancestral: from a given name (male or female).  Scottish clan names make up one set of ancestral surnames.  [Craig, Dixson (‘son of’), Dyson (from the Greek female name Dionysia), Harry, McCutcheon, Robinson, William/s]
• Signifying patronage: some surnames honored a patron. Hickman was Hick’s man (Hick being a nickname for Richard), Kilpatrick was a follower of Patrick.

Many surnames have more than one possible origin:

• Barry – three possible origins. It could be from the French word ‘bari’ meaning castle; from Norman/Irish origins as the descendant of Fionnbharr; or from the Scottish locational origin from the village of Barry, Angus, meaning rough, grassy hill.
• Bray –a number of possible origins: a locational name in East Berkshire or Devonshire, from the word ‘bre’ meaning hill or from ‘Brae’ in Scotland, or from the old Gaelic ‘O’Breaghdha’ indicating a native of Begia; or a nickname from the Cornish work ‘bregh’ meaning fine or brave; 
• Carne – of Cornish origins from the Cornish word ‘carn” meaning rock. It could be a geographical feature or a place name.
• Crofts – could be a nickname, a geographical feature or a place name.
• Folland – of Norwegian origin, either after location in Norway; or geographical, for a dweller of a beach where it is difficult to land ships.
• Joyce –origin is French, but was an early Irish name.  It could be a patronymic name from ‘Iodoc’ meaning ‘lord’ or it could be a place name from the village of Josse sur Mer, Calvados, Normandy.

Surnames in England also tend to be associated with, or concentrated in, particular areas and our ancestors followed this general trend. For example, the surname Bunn was from the East Anglia area; Hollebone from East Sussex; Dyson, Freestone, Hilton, Kimberley and Woolley from the north east of England (especially Yorkshire); Carne and Heard from Cornwell and Devon.

Female first names

So, what's in a name? Everyone has one, most people have a vague idea what their own means (I've always understood that Rebecca 'meant' enchanting!), but we don't really give them much more thought.

I've put together a list of SNR's direct female ancestors to look at the most frequent names. Obviously, I can go much further back on some lines, which means that potentially names from a particular region are easier to get than others, and therefore, my information is slightly skewed to those areas (I'm thinking of the wonderful records kept of Devon Churches compared to the scarce information from Ireland, or the 'difficult to negotiate' records from Germany). I've ended up with 124 names (counting both first and second names) of which there are 40 different names. I suspect that many people descended from mainly 'English' stock would have a similar list...

The list is as follows:

Mary (25)
Elizabeth (16)
Ann/e (12)
Jane (8)
Sarah (6)
Helen (5)
Catherine (4)
Ellen (4)
Alice (3)
Margaret (3)
Agnes (2)
Clara (2)
Hannah (2)
Isabella (2)
Marjorie (2)
Martha (2)
Matilda (2)
Susanna (2)

Then one occurrence of each of the following: Carey, Caroline, Charlotte, Christina, Dorothy, Eileen, Eliza, Elsie, Frances, Frederica, Gwenyth, Harriet, Isobel, Ivy, Latitia, Lily, Lorna, May, Rachel, Rebecca, Ruth, Tabitha.

These names were 'given' over a period of more than three hundred years, but I've compared them to the records of most popular names from 2013.  Needless to say, they are quite different!  In fact, the only names on the above list that also appear in the Australian, Canadian, Irish, UK or US top ten female names are Isabella (all bar Ireland), Sarah (Canada and Ireland), Charlotte (Aus) and Elizabeth (US).  These are probably names that would be considered 'old'!

Names

The study of names is called onomastics, a field which looks at linguistics, history, anthropology, psychology, sociology, philology and other obscure things. 

A first name, or given name, identifies a specific person, differentiating them from other members of a group, such as a family or clan, with whom that person shares a common surname. The name is 'given' to a person, generally at or around the time of birth, and usually by the parents.

Surnames are a hereditary name common to all members of a family. As Ancestry states: ‘Your last name gives you a sense of identify and helps you discover who you are and where you come from.’

All names have meaning: all first names and all surnames. In Western Society we don't generally get to choose our surname, and most people wouldn't even consider changing their name because of the meaning. First names are slightly different, and the amount of 'baby names and their meanings' books available would attest to that. I'm not sure that we actually chose the names of our children based on their meaning, but we certainly looked into the meaning of the names we chose.

So I’m not sure that my 'examining' the names of our ancestors is really all that informative, but it is fun!

Ethel Tallent / Leskovych (1908 - 1973)

Ethel Audrey Tallent is one of the “outlayers:” not a direct ancestor.  Her mother was a Watson – which is why she is included.  I was going to write a story about her mother, but seeing that my mother actually met Ethel, I’ve decided to write instead about Ethel.

Ethel Audrey Tallent, was born 15 April 1908, with the birth being registered in Hendon, Middlesex.  Hendon is 11 km northeast of London, and has been part of Greater London since 1965.  She had one sibling: an older brother named Robert Alfred Watson Tallent, who was born on 14 May 1903 in Lowestoft.  Her parents were Ellen (nee Watson) and Robert Tallent.

Ethel’s mother Ellen, or Nellie as she was known, was born on 13 July 1868.  She

married Robert Tallent in 1902 in Lowestoft, when she was 34 (and he was 35). Ellen had her first child the following year.  It may be common to have children in your late 30s at the beginning of the 21^st Century but was unusual a century before.  Ellen was about to turn 40 when Ethel was born!  Robert Tallent, Ethel’s father died in late 1912, when Ethel was four years old. 

Ethel and her brother, Robert, grew up in London with their mother, Ellen; Ethel spent her whole life in the London district. Ellen Tallent died when Ethel was 33.  At that time Ellen was living in Ipswich, Suffolk.  Ipswich is about 70 km from Lowestoft, and was where Ethel’s brother, Robert Tallent, lived with his wife and three children. 

Ethel corresponded with the Australian branch of the Watson family: exchanging letters with her cousin’s daughter, Clara Woolley, who was two years older than her.  They had a lot in common – well, they had two main things in common – they both married at about the age of 42 and they both had no children!  Ethel married Fidor Leskovych in 1950.  Fidor Leskovych, a Ukranian, had been forcibly moved to Germany as a farm labourer during World War II, and had sought refuge in Britain immediately after the war.

In 1965 Helen and Gary Hilton visited Ethel and Fidor at their home in Carbone Hill, Hatfield, Herforshire: about 30 km north of London. Fortunately they took a photo of the event!

Ethel Audrey Leskovych died in 1973, she was 64. 

Relationship to SNR = cousin of Great-great-grandmother

Mary Jane Robinson / White (1849 - 1934)

Mary Jane Robinson was born on 21 October 1849, at Stalybridge, Lancastershire, England.  She was the eldest child of John Robinson and Elizabeth White who had married in Ashton, Lancashire in 1846. Elizabeth, John and their families had recently moved to Lancashire from Leitrim, Ireland: a fairly common occurrence at this time.  John worked at one of the many Cotton Factories and the Robinson family lived at a number of different residences in the Stalybridge / Ashton-under-Lynne area: 1 Peason House; Bond Street; and Spring Bank. Mary Jane had a number of younger siblings.

On Monday 30 December 1872, when Mary Jane was 23, she married her (slightly younger) cousin, Robert White at St James, Millbrook, Chestershire. Mary and Robert would have known each other well, as they were double cousins: Mary’s father was a brother of Robert’s mother, and Mary’s mother was a sister of Robert’s father (four shared grandparents, which is why some people would argue that marriage between double cousins is effectively the same as marrying a sibling).  In modern western society, marrying your cousin is not well accepted and marrying a double cousin would be considered ‘creepy’.  Up until the mid-19^th Century, first cousins commonly married.  A good example was Charles Darwin, who married his first cousin Emma Wedgwood.  Such marriages fell out of fashion but were never legislated against in the UK, possibly because a number of the aristocracy and royalty engaged in the practice.  Interestingly, many states in the USA have never allowed marriage between first cousins.  Research into genetic abnormalities indicates that a child born of cousins is up to two times more likely to have genetic disorders, but the risk is still very low (the child has about the same risk of genetic abnormality as that of a child born to a woman over 40 years). It is not known whether Mary and Robert’s family were happy or otherwise with the union.

Mary’s first child was born in 1875, a daughter, Elizabeth Ellen. In 1878 Robert left England bound for Brisbane, Australia.  Presumably they had discussed going to Australia as a family!  Mary was pregnant at the time, so perhaps she wanted to delay her move until the birth of her second child.  Mary’s son, John William, was born on 17 June 1878 at Heyrod: one month after Robert had arrived in Brisbane.  Early in 1879 Mary left England with her two children and cousin (and sister-in-law) Ann Jane White. They arrived in Moreton Bay, Queensland on Friday 20 June 1879. By this stage Robert had obtained a job with the NSW Railway, so Mary Jane, Elizabeth, John and Ann Jane travelled onto Sydney.  Ann Jane had met a young man called William (Elwood) White – no relation – on the trip to Australia and he possibly accompanied them to Sydney.  Ann Jane and William married in October 1879 and the two couples kept in touch with each other.  Mary Jane and Robert settled in Burwood, near Strathfield.

Mary Jane had her third child, Robert Charles, in October 1880. Sadly, baby Robert contracted Pneumonia and died in January 1881.

On 30 July 1881 Mary Jane took her two children into the city with Ann.  It was the day before Elizabeth's 6th birthday.  The four were walking along George Street and needed to cross the street.  Mary was holding John, and Ann was with Elizabeth.  Elizabeth saw her mother crossing the street ahead of her and she ran to her.  George Street has always been busy, and this day was no exception.  A horse drawn omnibus was coming down the street and was unable to stop in time. Elizabeth was trampled by one of the horses and was killed instantly.  It must have been a horrible shock for Mary Jane. I know were expectations that not all children would survive: and, just like today, the roads can be dangerous.

Ann Jane’s first child was born later in 1881. Mary Jane fell pregnant again quickly and in 1882 Jane Clegg White was born.  Two years later Robert Henry was born, but he died in 1885.  Mary Jane’s last child, James Julian, was born in 1887 when John William was 9 and Jane Clegg was 5. Mary Jane remained in Sydney, and she and Robert lived separate lives.  Robert left the railway and travelled around NSW working as a Phreuologist, with a female assistant.

The only known photo of Mary Jane...

In 1903 Jane Clegg married John James Kegg (becoming Jane Clegg Kegg), and John William returned to Stalybridge and married Harriet Dyson in 1906.  Mary Jane became a grandmother in 1906 with the birth of Jane’s daughter, Eileen Gwendoline, and John’s daughter Irene.  Jane had a son, Cyril James, and John returned to Australia and had a further 4 children.  James Julian married Isabel Sargent in 1914 and had a son. 

Notwithstanding their separation, when Robert White died on 29 April 1917 in Parkes, New South Wales, Mary Jane insert a funeral notice in the paper inviting “relatives and friends to attend the Funeral of her dearly beloved husband”. It is possible that their separation was amicable! 

Mary Jane died at 14 Darcy Avenue, Lidcombe on 12 July 1934, she was 84. 

Relationship to SNR = Great-great-great grandmother