In some locations and time periods, naming children for the baptismal sponsor was common. Other times it was not.
When my grandmother and two of her siblings were christened as infants in 1915 at a Protestant church of German heritage in Illinois, all were named for their baptismal sponsors. In looking at other entries for the same church during the same time period, the practice was relatively common.
That was not the case when looking at the christening records of a German immigrant church in Nebraska (again, Protestant). My great-grandmother and several of her siblings were christened there in the 1880s–none of them had the same name as their sponsor (all were named for grandparents in this case). In looking at several pages of entries for the same time period–again, not just looking at entries for my family–naming the child for the sponsor (or using one of the sponsors’ name for one of the child’s names) was done, but was done in less than half the entries I looked at.
Practices regarding naming children for sponsors vary from one time and place to another. Look at other contemporary entries and see what they were doing. You can’t really know if something was a common practice unless you look at others in the same place and time.
One specific example of someone doing something does not mean it was a common practice.
3 Responses
How about the baptismal name in no way related to the name on the birth certificate? My father and his 2 siblings born 1910 to 1915 in schuylkill County PA. We had the baptismal certs with the names we’ve always known. I stumbled across the birth registration for my uncle . Parents names and birth date were correct but the name????. So I looked further. All three birth certificates signed by attending Dr had names with no relationship to baptismal name and none of us children -cousins -had ever heard anything of the birth names. PA Dutch ancestry.
This has no relation to baptismal sponsors but… one of my uncles, born in the early 1900’s, was premature , weak, struggling to survive in every way possible. His grandmother said to the doctor – we’re naming him Robert. The doctor said No. “Don’t waste such a good name on a baby who has no chance to live. I put my name on all the birth certificates of those who won’t last out the day.” And he did!
My Uncle Jake lived to fight for his country, marry and have two daughters. His oldest daughter named her son Robert.
There certainly is a lesson there. Thanks for sharing a very nice story.