Researching our families can be difficult enough as it is but when you also take in consideration naming patterns it can get darn right exasperating. I became aware of naming patterns when I was researching my Scottish families. Names that kept repeating themselves in my family were: Alexander, William, and James for the males and Henrietta for the females. There's no set rule but this is one variation I found:
Male children in order of birth: father's father: mother's father; father; father's oldest brother; father's second oldest brother; or mother's oldest brother.
Female children in order of birth: mother's mother; father's mother; mother; mother's oldest sister; mother's second oldest sister; or father's oldest sister.
Other naming practices: Often times when a child died the next child born of the same sex would be named after the child that had died. Sometimes when a wife died and the husband remarried the next female child might be named for his deceased wife. Other nationalities often used naming patterns, too.
Figuring out if your families followed a naming pattern just might aid you in finding more of your family.
Link of interest: http://genealogy.about.com/od/naming_patterns/
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