Some early German families followed certain systematic practices for naming their children. They weren't universal and they began to die out in the 19th century, but we do find them with some of our ancestors.
One practice resulted in a situation where, to modern eyes, the children shared a first name.
Some families would give a child two names at birth or baptism. The first would be a religious name, usually a saint's name. Quite often, this name was the same for all children of a given gender in the family. The second name, or call name (rufnamen), was intended for everyday life. The most common religious name used for boys was Johann (John) and the most common for girls was Johanna (Anna).
Therefore, it's no surprise to find Mechling brothers named:
John Theobald Mechlingor Barnhart sisters named:
John Peter Mechling
John Jacob Mechling
Anna Catherine Barnhart
Anna Maria Barnhart
Anna Elizabeth Barnhart
The children would normally go by their call names (or some variation thereof), or they might use both names. So, records and family stories might talk about Dewalt (Theobald), Peter and John Jacob, or Catherine, Maria and Elizabeth. However, to make matters more complicated, you sometimes find one child using the saint's name as their everyday name. This gives rise to situations such as in the Knepper family:
Johann Gottfried Knepper, known as Godfrey
Johann <unknown> Knepper, known as Johann
Johann Wilhelm Knepper, known as William
Finally, to make matters even more confusing, as the practice became less common, we find those children switching their name order to follow the English naming customs, so Anna Louisa becomes Louise Ann while her sister, Anna Maria, becomes Mary Ann.
When a child died young, some families would reuse the name of the deceased child for a later sibling. So, the child named Johann Petrus Knepper died when he was about a week old. The next son born into the family is found in records as Hans Peter Knepper, keeping in mind that Hans is the common nickname for Johann in German.
Additionally, some families had patterns of re-using family names for children. Each child, in sequence, would be named after an ancestor of a specific relationship. When such a pattern would result in a duplicate name, the parents might skip ahead to the next name or substitute some other name.
An common example of such a pattern is found below. There wasn't only one system — for example, many families followed the pattern below but switched the entries for the first two daughters.
| Birth Order | Son | Daughter |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paternal Grandfather | Paternal Grandmother |
| 2 | Maternal Grandfather | Maternal Grandmother |
| 3 | Father | Mother |
| 4 | Father's Paternal Grandfather | Father's Paternal Grandmother |
| 5 | Mother's Paternal Grandfather | Mother's Paternal Grandmother |
| 6 | Father's Maternal Grandfather | Father's Maternal Grandmother |
| 7 | Mother's Maternal Grandfather | Mother's Maternal Grandmother |
We can see an example that almost matches (the eldest son is an anomaly) in the first three girls and first three boys born to John Peter & Anna Catherine Seyler. Since I don't know any of John Peter's or Anna Catherine's grandparents, we can't tell if the pattern extends beyond the first three of each gender.
| Joseph Seyler | = | Elizabeth | John Nicholas Brosius | = | Anna Catherine Mayer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ⇓ | ⇓ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| John Peter Seyler | = | Anna Catherine Brosius | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ⇓ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||