Middle Name Derived From County of Origin?

[Valzie]

Does anyone know of examples of a child's middle name being that of the county where the family originated? My branch of the McKillop family appears in Perthshire around 1700; but there are, and were, many more McKillops in Ross-shire; so, having searched without finding another explanation, I have started wondering whether my branch of the family could have moved to Perthshire from Ross, and whether in 1816, John McKillop might have decided to commemorate the fact by naming his son John Ross McKillop.
The reason I'm so interested in the middle name 'Ross' is that it persists in the family for several generations, so surely must have been considered more important than if it had been the surname of a godfather or an employer.

 

[Heather]

Hi Valzie, I see you have posted three queries regarding middle names. My example doesn't fit into either category, but I thought I would add it anyway. My paternal grandmother was one of nine chldren, only three of which had middle names, her sister was Ann Elizabeth Johnson, another sister was Jane Parker Johnson and she was Mary Wood Johnson. I have found where the Parker comes from, but as yet I cannot find a Wood connection to that branch of the family tree.

 

[AndyMick]

Middle name connections aren't always obvious. Had I been so inclined I could have spent ages looking at John Curtis Micklethwaite for connections. My co-researcher saved me the time and effort - Curtis was the name (can't recall whether it was surname or forename) of a good friend of John's father. In a way, this is like giving the middle name after godparents (rarely mentioned in these discussions), who of course aren't recorded in CofE baptisms but are on Catholic ones.

 

[Valzie]

Godparents are of course not recorded on Church of Scotland baptisms either. I also suspect the term was used very loosely by some of my ancestors: my father's "godfather" (and name-sake) Eugen Schulzen was Jewish, and my father's parents were Presbyterians who almost never went to Church...

 

[SuzanneD]

I was christened into the Presbyterian church without godparents (I think I am technically the responsibility of the whole congregation!). And I too have a few examples in my family tree of middle names being derived from business associates. Plus there are those unusual middle names which have no obvious origins at all...

 

[GrahamC]

I have a relation (born in Australia) whose middle name was "Stafford". His parents came from Longton in Staffordshire. He also had a brother whose middle name was "Longton". Strangely though, they were the two youngest of 11 kids, all but one born in Oz.

 

[Margery]

My mother always said that she would like to call the family home "Kenilworth" after her birthplace in Warwickshire - but it never happened! When we bought our current property the name meant nothing to us so we changed it to "Kenilworth". Sadly she was no longer alive to see it.

 

[AdrienneQ]

My husbands childhood home and our own are named Clonmoyle after the village/hamlet my Father in Law came from in Ireland

 

[Valzie]

But house names don't have anything to do with people's middle names!

 

[Margery]

But house names don't have anything to do with people's middle names!

Of course not, I thought though, that my post tied in with GrahamC's one.

 

[emjay]

But house names don't have anything to do with people's middle names!

A severe reprimand for going off topic eh? (we all do to some extent)

 

[Valzie]

Sorry, I put that badly. I should have said that, while house names can reveal genealogical information, it would be more appropriate to introduce this as a new topic.