Yesterday, Craig Kilby asked if the names of Michael Thomas' children were German sounding. I thought we might look at the question by seeing what names were used at the German Lutheran Church ( Hebron ) in Culpeper County (at the time). My sample base is the list of baptisms of children from 1750 to 1775. At that time, and in this particular church, the following names were given to the boys:
John (11),
Aaron (7),
Abraham (4),
Lewis (4),
Jacob (4),
Michael (4),
Joshua (3),
George (3),
Adam (3),
Samuel (3),
William (3), and
Zacharias (3).
I have given the English spelling of these names, but, more likely, the spelling would have been Johannes, Ludwig, Georg, Josua, and Wilhelm. Many other names were used, but less frequently. Ten names occurred only once.
A count of the girl's names shows these names were popular:
Elizabeth (19),
Mary (11),
Susanna (8),
Margaret (8),
Hanna (6),
Anna (6),
Barbara (4),
Sarah (4),
Rosina (3),
Magdalena (3), and
Catherine (3).
The actual spelling at the church would have been Elisabeth, Maria, Margaretha, and Catherina. For the girls, there was more of a tendency to use the popular names rather than "one-of-a-kinders."
Looking again at the children of Michael Thomas, John, Adam, and Samuel, were on the popular list. Jacob was popular at the church, but Michael used the name James instead. Of the girls names, Mary, Anna, Susanna, Catherine, and Elizabeth, were from the eleven most popular names at the church. With maybe one or two exceptions, at the most, the names that Michael Thomas used were popular at the Hebron Church. Anyone who had read the names at Hebron would have felt at home with Michael's choice of names.
There were definite changes taking place in the naming of children. In this same time and at the same place these were the names of the fathers:
George (4),
Michael (4),
John (4),
Christopher (3),
Henry (3), and
Peter (3).
The mothers were:
Mary (7),
Elizabeth (6),
Margaret (5).
Again, we see less diversity in the female names and more reluctance to change from the "tried and true."
In doing this study, there was a small problem because of the German practice of giving two names to the children. The first name was usually a saint's name, and the second name, which was more commonly used, was the person's "call name", i.e., the name by which the person was known or "called". Generally, the records show only one name, and that is the name used here. If two are shown, I used the "call name". Some of the women used their two names interchangeably, which confuses the following generations. For example, Nicolaus and his wife Mary may appear at church at Easter, but Nicolaus and his wife Margaret have a child baptized in July.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.