Siblings having the same names

My swedish family that I have located, seemed to have named their daughter the same as the last. I noticed that also went for males. They would change up the middle name, just enough to show they weren't the same person. For example, Hanna Anna Persdotter and Hanna Ann Persdotter My great great Aunts.

Does anyone know the reason for that?

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Permalink Reply by Valerie Merriam DeBill on February 6, 2012 at 8:15pm

My grandmother's father was "Big Joe" to differentiate him from his younger brother "Little Joe" both of whom were named Joseph.

I've seen it very commonly with boys who died in infancy or very young to have a later sibling with the same name, and that at least makes more sense because the second child with the name is born after the death of the first. In the case of "family" names, especially on the male line, I can understand wanting to have a child who makes it past infancy carry the name. But naming two children, both of whom survived to adulthood, named the same thing seems very strange.

My ancestry is German and British, so I'm not familiar with naming conventions in Sweden, but I know that in German culture it was fairly common to call men by their middle name, and have the first name be only the "church" name. It leads to a lot of confusion, because you'll have situations where Karl Fredrick went by Fredrick while Andreas Karl went by Karl. If you find a letter addressed to Karl, which brother was it actually addressing?

It's also an issue with Catholic girls, who are often named Mary as a first name with their middle name being the name they are called. So you end up with six sisters, all legally named Mary, but who were never actually called that because their middle names were Margaret, Catherine, Elizabeth, Gertrude, Magdalena, and Anna. If you find a reference to a Mary, how do you figure out which of the six sisters it is if no other information is given?

With your Hanna Ann and Hanna Anna, are you positive that those are different people? Such a slight difference in middle names seems like it could easily be a transcription error or a result of inconsistent spellings, which were both extremely common in older records (I have a great-grandfather Kaspar whose name is also spelled Caspar, Kasper, and Casper in various late-19th-century records, with the last name Doring that is variably spelled During, Dearing, Daring, and a few others involving umlauts).

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Permalink Reply by Rachelle Horton on February 7, 2012 at 6:11am

Let's see! We have Hanna Anna Persdotter, b. 1861, Glimakia, Kristianstad, Sweden , d. 1961, Glimakia, Kristianstad, Sweden married and had children and her sister Hanna Ann Persdotter, b. 1862, Glimakia, Kristianstad, Sweden , d. 1950, Glimakia, Kristianstad, Sweden isn't listed having a spouse or children but a year seemed to be put into the system for those of uncertain deaths. The reason I think that 1950 was a
go to year" due to unknowing of the actual year was because Hanna Anna and Hanna Ann had two sisters both named Ingrid.

Ingrid Persdotter, b. 1864, Glimakia, Kristianstad, Sweden , d. 1950, Sweden. She married and had two children. Her sister . Ingrid Persdotter, b. 14 Dec 1881, Glimakia, Kristianstad, Sweden , d. 14 Nov 1944, Providence, RI had been listed as dying in Sweden in 1950 which was untrue because she is my grandmother! Her having immigrated, didn't show so I had that changed.

So I am going to assume that women and men alike had namesakes. Assuming that in that time frame, surviving through infancy was hopeful but not always certain.

I have been caught up in different branches on either side of my family with names like Mary with their middle names being used. I am still trying to sort through and figure that one out. It gets a little tricky.

Thanks for the reply!!

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Permalink Reply by Valerie Merriam DeBill on February 7, 2012 at 7:06am

Wow! I've never seen a family with four children sharing two names like that. I hope someone familiar with Swedish naming customs chimes in because I am really curious now if this is a common practice!

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Permalink Reply by Bryna O'Sullivan on February 12, 2012 at 12:34pm

Most of the time, I think it does have a lot to do with namesakes. I've got two siblings named Maria Anna in different orders. The mother's name was Maria; the paternal grandmother's was Anna. The names often got swapped on documents, which makes their records impossible to sort out.

Sometimes though, the meaning was religious. I have one family where every girl was named Marie. They went by their middle names.

I should preface this by saying that neither of my examples is Swedish - German and French-Canadian.