Genealogy Chat

i have afew double barreled going back to 1841 1894 jose rathbone mellor samuel furnival mellor andrew bennett morgan malcolm bonner morgan also more that i could mention lol joyce

Here's my two pennorth! At school there was a girl with the surname Sowerby. The whole family had to adopt their uncle's surname as a condition of their benefiting from his Will. So they all became Challis-Sowerby. Pam.

OC, Bless 'em! didn't make it easy for you though! Sarah :-)

For the last four generations, my father's family have had the middle name of Seymour. When I asked my Dad why, he said that his mother told him 'We are related to THE Seymours, you know' (She was another screaming snob) Well, not only can I find no connection to THE Seymours, or any other Seymour either, despite going back nine generations, I also find that the name Seymour does not appear on anyone's birth certificate, except my father's. Seymour was added as a middle name in the 1890s. My Grandfather was baptised and registered as plain old Herbert. In some of his school books he has written Herbert SAMUEL. But he became a professional Opera Singer and adopted the name Seymour Holden as his stage name. My Grandmother was called Ethel. When these two married, it was as Seymour Holden and Ethelina Whittaker - took some finding, but made me laugh out loud. Olde Crone

... and then there's places like Spain where everyone has a d-b'd name......... father's name-mmn. My husband's parents are Ezequiel Lozano-Olivares and Isabel Pelaez-Ibanez SO: their children born in Spain are Rose Lozano-Pelaez and Manuel Lozano-Pelaez but everything went a bit pear-shaped when they had children in France because they don't use the same naming system here so they are Maria-Jesus Lozano-Pelaez (ok so far..) Christian Lozano-Olivares (my husband, has his paternal grandparents names!) and François Lozano (he didn't get anything extra!) Because of my husband's name at registration I got stuck with a d-b'd name (don't use it tho') and so did my children. It makes a nice little anecdote and must make family history research much easier in Spain (though they've got nothing online!) Sarah :-)

LOL OC! Heather - no!! my original Eales was the mother of a bank clerk from Yorkshire (I think mum was from Scotland). His son was a posh barrister in London and White wasn't good enough for him, so added granny's maiden name! Merry

Shamefully, in my family, double barrelled surnames are a sign that their parents werent married! Olde Crone

MERRY - Ive got some Eales!!! They werent in Russia as merchants and came back at time of the Revolution did they!!?

I'll confuse a few as my name has the surname of my birth father and dad !!....and is the only version known in the country....I can just picture someone scratching their head at that one in the future.

I'm sure that's true about business and getting noticed! I have on my tree business men named Clark, White and Buck They were each far more successful in business after becoming Lyon-Clark, Eales-White and Cromey-Buck!!! The original names were all pretty ordinary..... My gran (number one snob and social climber, b 1892) used to tell me that ''in her day'' it was ''better class'' to have a db'd surname without a hyphen. ie just two, or even three surnames, treated as surnames, but not actually joined together!! Merry

I have a double barrelled surname Pennell-Shawcross ... and so has my son... but different Mine is because I am the last of both lines ... my son has both his fathers surname and my maiden name, as we aren't married. My cousin also gave her children d b surnames ... her maiden name (Shawcross) and that of her husband ... although they ARE married, she kept her maiden name. My daughter will be changing her surname to that db surname that I use (Pennell-Shawcross) ... and her children will adopt the Shawcross name - so she says. ! I am also very proud to have the Shawcross name, so that was another reason ... Elaine ;-)

I guess double barrelled names are different to people having a second name that is a family surname. Ive actually added my mothers surname to my name because we are the last of her line in this country. My eldest son has added it too so that the name will continue (hopefully!) and in a hundred years time people will pick up the name in the census and think, ah, this person must be related to my lot. Luckily it is an unusual name. Double barrelled I guess, as alter said is to cling to the prestige of perhaps the wifes family in the area. It may well have been very useful in business in an area where everyone knew everyone else.

william jackson dean (mothers maiden name) married mary ann newton in 1870's my father born 1940's was called Harry jackson Newton Dean !! in between these names were used seperately Harry Newton Dean born 1880 Harry Jackson Dean born 1912 I think they were running out of ideas lol.

My wife and son have double-barrelled names. My wife is the last of her line with her maiden name ,so to keep the name going she kept it and added my surname to it when we married. So this is another reson why people have double-barrelled names.

I have quite a few people with d-b'd surnames on my tree.......I think every single one of them only had one surname on the 1901 census and before that date.......They all adopted their extra surnames between about 1901 and 1920 (at the latest). Some had the extra name already, used as a middle name at birth, and others used a family name from a past generation. I think being double-barrelled was very fashionable in the Edwardian era (1901-1910) - as was having three, four or five forenames! Merry

Thanks Alter-Ego, I know that one of the names that he used was part of a prestigious family so maybe that it why, regards, Bev

a lot are just the mothers maiden name .....I have a relative who was born a Newton ,had 8 siblings,he was the third born,but he was the only one to use his mothers maiden name as a middle name on censi and when married-at the time the other side of the family were successful cabinet makers and perhaps he wanted people to know of his association. In a similar vein,my nans father called himself Harold Cain Smith- he was a docks labourer who was probably frustrated at his life-he was an active political animal and had made designs for town planners in his spare time.The reason Cain?...his mothers maiden name,but also the family name of a big brewing firm in the city...so again a bit of 'Im related to them dont you know ' there.....

Do you know if double barrelled surnames were a sign of prestige or why did people adopt the two surnames? I have a name in my tree: Burton-Coldicott. Bev