Scottish Naming Conventions – My WICKSON Tree

Naming Conventions: Scottish and English

First Names:
Within many cultures children are given first names that are almost "predetermined" by the names of their fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, uncles and aunts. Scottish naming convention often dictated that the first son be named for the mother's father; the second son be named for the father's father; and the third son be named for the father. This naming convention often presents valuable clues to an individual's family, and, in particular, to the parents. In the case of William Campbell, the first son born to William Campbell and Sarah Ann Havens was named William H. Campbell. Sarah Ann Haven's Father was William Havens. The second son born to William Campbell and Sarah Ann Havens was named Sylvester Campbell. William Campbell's own Father was Sylvester Campbell. The third son born to William Campbell and Sarah Ann Havens was named John Campbell. Under the Scottish naming convention, the third son would be named for his Father, William Campbell. But there already was a surviving William Campbell in the family and so the process defaulted to naming the third son either for one of William Campbell's younger brothers, John Campbell, who may have died in infancy or for one of Sarah Ann Haven's relatives, John Havens, an older Brother or John Havens, Sarah's Grandfather. In his second marriage to Isabella Jane Sidey, William Campbell and Isabella Jane Sidey name three more sons, David, George and Alexander. All these sons are named for William Campbell's brothers - sons in the family of Sylvester Campbell and Helen Mason. In all, William Campbell names six sons with first names that are all found in the family of Sylvester Campbell and Helen Mason. In light of Scottish naming conventions in William Campbell's day, this represents significant indirect evidence linking William Campbell to the family of Sylvester Campbell and Helen Mason. Also, the son of William Campbell who, by convention, is to be named for his paternal grandfather is named Sylvester - a name that, across Scotland, is almost unique within the extended family of Sylvester Campbell and Helen Mason. Each son and daughter of Sylvester Campbell and Helen Mason, in turn, names one of their sons Sylvester. The name Sylvester survives as a name of choice down to the present among the descendants of this Campbell line. Currently, in 2010, a bearer of this "signature" Campbell name, Sylvester Campbell, still resides in Ontario. This Ontario-based Sylvester Campbell traces his ancestry back to William Campbell (1819) and his second wife, Isabella Jane Sidey. Other related bearers of the name, Sylvester Campbell, still reside on the ancestral farms in Scotland and around the world.

Middle Names:
Also, boys' middle names often reflect a mother's maiden name. For example, William Campbell named the first born son from his second marriage David Sidey Campbell. David's biological Mother's maiden name was Isabella Jane Sidey. William Campbell named the first born son from his first marriage to Sarah Ann Havens, William H. Campbell, as noted in the 1851/1852 census. Before the summer of 2010, this investigator believed that the "H" stood for either Havens or a derivative of that surname. Fragmentary evidence related in 2010 by Sylvester Campbell and Clarence Ash suggests a personal as well as spiritual relationship between the family of William Campbell and the family of the Pastor of the Congregational Church at Cold Springs, Hamilton Township, Northumberland County, Reverend William Hayden. Interestingly, when William H. Campbell marries Catharine Beggs, they name their first born son Frederick Havens Campbell, linking back to the biological Mother that William H. Campbell knew for only about six years. Moreover, the birth registration of Frederick Havens Campbell (1874) notes his Father as William Hayden Campbell, perhaps clarifying for the first time the meaning of the H. in William H. Campbell.

THESIS:
Based on Scottish naming convention, William Campbell (1819-1897) named his six sons more or less exactly as would be expected of a son of Sylvester Campbell and Helen Mason. This pattern repeats itself in the families of his three brothers Sylvester, Adam and George. All four of these brothers name sons William, Sylvester, George and Alexander - all names drawn from the names of sons born to Sylvester Campbell and Helen Mason. *Also, William Campbell named the very significant second son, Sylvester, as a tribute to his Father, Sylvester Campbell, and this choice becomes all the more significant due to the uniqueness of the name, Sylvester, as a "marker name" that transcends at least nine generations of this Campbell line. To have named his sons as he did, William Campbell would almost surely have had to be a son of Sylvester Campbell and Helen Mason.

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