Quaker Naming Patterns for Children
Of the four migrating groups from England discussed by David Hackett Fischer in his book, Albion’s Seed, the Quakers show the most distinctive pattern in the naming of their children.
The Puritans in New England relied heavily on biblical names for their children, and most often named the oldest children of either gender for the parents, followed by the paternal grandparents for the next in line. Ninety percent of the children born in Boston in the 17th century carried biblical first names, compared to only fifty percent for the Quakers settling in the Delaware Valley. Toward the South in the Tidewater region of Virginia, settled heavily by the Anglicans, the Puritan trend was reversed and the children were named first for their paternal grandparents, relegating the parents’ names to the second or third born child, but again the concentration was on the father’s side more than the mother’s line, a pattern that was echoed by the settlers in the western regions of Pennsylvania who had arrived mostly from the northern part of Britain.
The Quakers, however, tended toward a much different pattern from any of these, being the only group to show a more equitable honoring of both the father’s line and the mother’s line when it came to naming children. Though these were certainly not iron-clad, the pattern is clearly discernable:
Names for Boys
First born: Mother’s father
Second born: Father’s father
Third born: Father
Most common boys names: John, Joseph, Samuel, William, Thomas, George, Francis, Henry, Benjamin, Jacob, Richard, Daniel, and Elihu
Names for Girls
First born: Father’s mother
Second born: Mother’s mother
Third born: Mother
Most common girls names: Mary, Sarah, Anne, Hannah, Hester/Esther, Phoebe, Martha, Margaret, Catherine and Ruth
Quakers did not have christenings or god-parents or baptismal rituals, but each child did go through what was called ‘nomination’. As William Penn described the practice in 1694:
“The parents name their own children, which is usually some days after they are born, in the presence of the midwife if she can be there, and those that were at the birth , who afterward sign a certificate, for that purpose prepared, of the birth and the name of the child or children, which is recorded in a proper book at the Monthly meeting to which the parents belong, avoiding the accustomed ceremonies and festivals.”