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Archiver > IOWA > 2002-05 > 1020491192
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Subject: Re: [IOWA] Middle names
Date: Sat, 04 May 2002 0:46:32 EST
It may seem that more men than women are called by
their middle names, but in my family it's women as well
as men. I don't think gender has anything to do with it,
although in days gone by, even when women worked
outside the home, their formal signatures were their
husband's names. Men who used their second names
were known either by initials or by F William or J Thomas...
Why call a child by the second name? Perhaps there is
already a Susan in the family (The mother, an aunt...)
or a George. With several generations under one roof,
or nearby, this meant the name got passed on, but there
was a distinctive second name that was used everyday.
Every man in my immediate family used his second name
except the youngest brother, because his second name
was my father's second name (which was the one Dad
was already using).
As to why the names are shortened or incomplete on the
census: The census was taken orally. The enumerator
simply asked the person to whom they were speaking to
list the children, oldest first. If two names were given,
an initial was used for the second. If the parents had
been asked to fill out a document themselves, perhaps
they'd have written the legal name, but orally, they
simply said the name that came to mind, the name the
child was called. And it it was a second name, or a
shortened form of the name (Nellie, Nettie, Fred for
Frederick), it was simply what the child was called.
That's why censuses are good clues as to names, but
are not primary sources.
And then there are the adults who sometimes give
the enumerator one name (Samuel Omer) and 10
years later tell the enumerator that it's Omer Samuel.
<g>
Mary Jane
Mary Jane Anderson
St Joseph, Michigan
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