PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Same middle name for three family members (Piekielnicki)

eurocaribbean — Fri Feb 09, 2018 3:20 am

Author: eurocaribbean

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2018 3:20 am

From what I learned it could be for two reasons:
There was some ancestor (grandparent etc.) that they wanted to remember and they were giving each child his/her name as a middle name.
The other reason could be rate of children dying at young age in those times... people believed that if God took away one child with certain name, another one with the same name may be spared.

Re: Same middle name for three family members (Piekielnicki)

Sophia — Wed Feb 07, 2018 11:09 am

Author: Sophia

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2018 11:09 am

Hi,
I am not familiar with this naming tradition, but it reminds me of a German custom in which several children in the same family have the same first name. For example, Johann Sebastian Bach had one brother named Johann Jacob Bach and another named Johann Christian Bach. If you look at the composer's extended family tree, the number of men whose first name is Johann is impressive. It does not mean that they were necessarily called Johann in day-to-day life. You sometimes see in German genealogy documents, where a person has several Christian names, that one of them will be underlined, and that would be the name that they were called. The repeated use of a name given at baptism was, as I understand it, a way of honoring a particular saint. Your family may have been doing something similar, honoring Saint Gabriel, but in a rather more convenient way by making it the second name.
Best of luck in your research,
Sophia

Piekielnicki surname with middle name of Gabriel or Gabril

bareed2112 — Sun Jan 28, 2018 12:31 pm

Author: bareed2112

Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 12:31 pm

I know the origin of my family surname of Piekielnicki, from the village of Piekielnik. My question is regarding three family members with the same middle name, my grandfather, Jan Gabriel Piekielnicki, his father Ignac Gabriel Piekielnicki, and Ignac's sister Julianna Gabril Piekielnicki. I was wondering if you could provide me with some insight into this naming custom