At one time the sons in the family were named after fathers,grandfather etc. was

Question:I researching family and checking any hints out there.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I researching family and checking any hints out there.

Ted's order is found quite often. But also, it wasn't uncommon for a male child to be named after an uncle - and if some relative was considered important or famous, you might find many "sons" named for him.

Same holds true for females, though you much more rarely find a daughter named for the mother - but grandmother, aunt, etc. is found often.

Also know that some cultures, religions, etc. kind of shoot this tradition in the foot. Many (Judiasm for example) by tradition do not name someone after a living person - so if the grandfather had died, they could be named after him - but if still alive, it wouldn't be done.

But the order Ted gave is a great (and sometimes ONLY) starting point lacking any other information. Also, if you come across a really unusual first name, look for that in other areas too. It may have been an important ancestor and you will find a number of different branches of the family have a person(s) named that.

It is just a hint and lots of people didn't do it, but
1st son - Paternal grandfather
2nd son - Maternal GF
3rd son - Father

The daughters sometimes followed the same pattern.

One warning along these lines - in a swath from Conn. to what is now WV, there are literally thousands of kids named "Lorenzo Dow" in the early 1800's, after a spell-binding preacher of the time, someone who, per capita, drew more, and more fervent, admirers than Billy Graham. You can go nuts looking for a maiden name "Dow" or some sort of Italian influence for the "Lorenzo", which is an awfully rare given name for Scots-Irish. There are three Lorenzo Dow Packs floating around in that period.

In England it tended to be
1st son after father
1st daughter after mother
Subsequent children would be named after grandparents, parents' siblings or parents' aunts and uncles.
There does not seem to be any fixed order, although a similar scheme to the American one may well have applied in some areas.
All we know here is that there were too many Williams, Georges and Elizabeths!