Given Names: A Submission for the Carnival of Eastern European Genealogy

Hello,

The new edition of the Carnival of Eastern European Genealogy, hosted by Steve Danko, is about given or first names within the family tree. I must admit that my family tree is lacking original given names. One thing that I have noticed is that each family is very consistent and generally reuses previous given names. I’d like to look at this fact as an ode to the previous generations that had come before. It shows respect for past family members and also shows a family tradition. Each family also showed their Catholicism by naming their children after saints or people from the bible.

Since most of the given names in my family tree are similar, I will focus on one family. The earliest member of my Wierzba family that I can trace back is Wojciech (Adalbert). There are two other names that are originals within my Wierzba family tree and they are Bartlomeij (Bartholomew) and Kazimierz (Casimir). Below are the given names that have been used more than twice:

Anna, Agnes, Adam, Andrew, Catherine/Katarzyna, Edward, Elizabeth, Frances, Frank/Franciszek, Helen, Jacob, John/Jan, Joseph/Jozef, Josephine, Julianna, Leo, Magdelena, Marianna, Marcianna, Martin, Michael, Paul, Pauline/Paulina, Peter, Regina, Rosalia, Stephan, Susan, Theodore, Theresa, Vincent/Wincenty and Victoria.

The most interesting part to the Wierzba families’ naming convention is that the original family, from the Lipusz Parish, started a naming trend that lasted over 200 years and spans from Poland to various cities and states within America. Generations of distant cousins that are no longer in contact with each all seem to name their children the same.

Best Regards,
Al.