In some ethnic groups, during some time periods, it was common to use the names of deceased children for children born after the child had died. A couple could easily have had four children with the same name as one of my ancestral couples did. The last child fortunately survived, but the first three did not, dying shortly after birth. Genealogical software programs typically flag these types of children–thinking you have simply entered in the same child multiple times with different vital event dates. While today this practice is not usually done, there was a time when it was commonplace and don’t immediately assume that a researcher has made a mistake when they indicate a couple had repeated children with the same first name.
Like always–do a little bit of research first.
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My husband has a Cornwall family where there were three Edwards who all died as infants. They gave up on the name, using it as a middle name instead. Edward was the maternal grandfather’s name.
I had a great grandfather named Christian, who named two sons Christian. The older one did not die in infancy; the younger one died in his twenties. That was a challenge for awhile figuring out which was which. The death records revealed the secret. One does have to wonder why…. Of course then there wouldn’t have been the confusion I guess that my mom sometimes suffered when she’d call in haste one of the five of us by the wrong name… lol