I beg to differ with the paradigm presented on 6/27 under the heading "19th
Century Naming Patterns." Although frequently repeated, it is much too
simplistic (to which the disclaimer doesn't begin to do justice) and, in some
respects, just plain wrong.
The trend in the nineteenth century, for example, was away from naming
children after grandparents or parents. And in the previous two centuries,
although it varied over time and from town to town, the broad tendency in the
naming of children was decidedly *parent* centered in New England, while in Old
England and Virginia it was grandparent centered.
Here are several authoritative sources: Daniel Scott Smith, "Child-Naming
Practices, Kinship Ties, and Change in Family Attitudes in Hingham,
Massachusetts, 1641 to 1880," _The Journal of Social History_ 18(1985):541-66; David
Hackett Fischer, "Forenames and the Family in New England: An Exercise in
Historical Onomastics," in _Generations and Change: Genealogical Perspectives in
Social History_ (Macon, 1986), 215-41; Darrett B. Rutman and Anita H. Rutman,
"'In Nomine Avi': Child-Naming Patterns in a Chesapeake County,
1650-1750," in
_Generations and Change_, 243-65; Gloria L. Main, "Naming Children in Early
New England," _Journal of Interdisciplinary History_ 27(1996):1-27.
Gene Z.