Maybe this should go into the Baby Names topic, lol

[Saltire]

I have been doing a lot of research into my family - I have done my mum's dads side. Most of the names (south and east london) are things like ,Eliza,Lucy,Alice,Maud,Hannah, etc. Most of the men are William's, Johns,matthew.etc

I have now started on my dad's parents sides of the family. One thing has struck me. The amount of similar sounding first and surnames

Donald Donaldson
John Johnstone
Robert Robertson
David Davidson
even a Steven Stevenson

and also a lot of men's names adapted for girls, now I'm not talking things like Olivia, or Michaela. I'm on about things like Henrietta, Roberta, which are probably common nowadays as well, but also things like

Andrewina
Thomasina
Jamesina
Douglasina (I'm serious)
Alexanderina (not Alexandrina)
All these were quite common to southern Scotland, is this a Scots things or was it quite common in parts of England as well?
There are also a lot of Mary's,Agnes,Betty's,Jean etc, which when compared to names from the same era on the London side of the tree seems "plain"- don't want to offend anyone. Maybe it was the more rural life they led

Oh that sounds interesting. I like the mens'names that have been adapted.

I imagine it was a lot of bible names and also local names as people didn't travel as much so didn't know many other names.

Well there were a lot of Alexanders, James and davids on my dads side of the family.

Would you use one of those mens' names that had been adapted.
One branch of the family had a Thomasina, an Andrewina, a Henrietta and a Roberta. Then 8 years later a son called Bob!

IIRC the Scots have always been pretty keen on the [man's name]ina form of names. I don't know whether that goes along with the traditional naming patterns (First son is named for the father's father, first daughter is named for the mother's mother, second son is named for the mother's father, second daughter is named for the father's mother, etc... far more common in Scotland than in England or Wales) -- maybe if you kept having daughters you just started naming them after the grandparents after a while?

That should read "...naming them after the grandfathers"