4 One study of Middlesex County, Virginia, found both native-born colonists and immigrants favored the same forenames in the 17th century:

 

Virginia Immigrants

Virginia Natives

Rank

1650-1699

1650-1699

1

John

Mary

John

Elizabeth

2

Thomas

Elizabeth

William

Mary

3

William

Ann

Thomas

Ann

4

Richard

Sarah

Richard

Sarah

5

Robert

Margaret

George

Catherine

6

James

Jane

Robert

Margaret

7

George

Catherine

James

Frances

8

Edward

Frances

Henry

Alice

9

Henry

Alice

Charles

Jane

10

Samuel

Dorothy

Edward

Rebecca

Source: Rutman and Rutman, A Place in Time, Explicatus, 86-88.

5 This test understates the difference. The researches of the Rutmans on Middlesex County, Virginia, and Daniel Scott Smith on Hingham, Massachusetts, show a strong contrast when controls are introduced for names shared by the parents and grandparents and by grandparents on both sides. For the descent of names to the eldest male child they obtained the following result:

 

 

Percent with Same Forenames as

 

Place

Period

Father

Grandfather

Both

Neither

N

Hingham, Mass.

pre-1721

47%

17%

20%

17%

155

Middlesex Co, Va.

1651-1750

11%

44%

16%

29%

197

For the first-born daughters, the pattern was much the same:

 

 

Percent with Same Forenames as

 

 

 

Mother

Grandmother

Both

Neither

N

Hingham, Mass.

pre-1721

56%

18%

15%

11%

156

Middlesex Co., Va.

1651-1750

15%

46%

4%

34%

177

Source: Smith, “Child-Naming Practices,” 550; Rutman and Rutman, A Place in Time, Explicatus, 90.