What's with all the Patrick Mahers?

If you look at the list of baptisms for Gortnahoe from 1800 - 1850, you might notice a steady increase in the number of Patricks in baby names, yes, but also in parents. And, as you've seen already in this blog, we are dealing with several Patrick Mahers that we need to keep straight. You might wonder what that is all about. It can be explained by the Irish Naming Conventions that were pretty standard before the 20th century.

• First son usually named for the father's father
• Second son usually named for the mother's father
• Third son usually named for the father
• Fourth son usually named for the father's eldest brother
• Fifth son usually named for the mother's eldest brother
• First daughter usually named for the mother's mother
• Second daughter usually named for the father's mother
• Third daughter usually named for the mother 
• Fourth daughter usually named for the mother's eldest sister
• Fifth daughter usually named for the father's eldest sister. 

So, let's say that a Patrick had 10 children--certainly not unusual in Ireland particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries. The number of first born grandsons with the name Patrick would depend on the number of sons he had, and the second born grandsons would depend on the number of daughters. So, one Patrick could potentially have 10 grandchildren with the name Patrick. It gets even more complicated in that each son's son, with the name Patrick, will have the same last name.

Let's put it this way, a certain Patrick Maher had 5 sons. This means that he had a son named Patrick (3rd son) and each son had at least one son named Patrick. You now have, from that first Patrick, 6 additional Patricks all with the exact same name of Patrick Maher. 

It can become frustrating trying to figure out which parent is which, and why Irish genealogy can be challenging at times.