As a person with 14 ancestors named Manoel de Paiva I would also like an answer to that question, Denis. Seriously, Azoreans did try to deal with that question. One way was to use Maria, Manoel (or, whatever) as a middle name, as you mentioned. Another way was, believe it or not, to use a different surname, or, add another surname. Unfortunately, whatever they chose to do still ended up confusing people...However, I believe that the old timers didn't spend much time worrying about other peoples' confusion, they simply gave their children the names they preferred - after all, rather than worry about whether a child's name would confuse people, a considerably more important concern was to make sure they survived...
On Oct 5, 3:50 pm, Denis Meals <[email protected]> wrote: > Listers: > > I read with interest the recent discussion regarding the 'end-of-the-line' > surnames. Dano on 1 Oct. spoke to this, and I second his comments. > > However, I now have a question to pose to our listers, and ask for their > opinions. > > Azorean first and second names seem to be restricted to only perhaps 12 > commonly used, i.e. Manoel, Jose, Antonio, Joao, Maria, Jacintha, Joaquina, > Umbelina, being perhaps most common. Given that most families had many > children means that within a community, there would have been many named > Manoel, for example. For the older still unmarried, at least several named > Manoel Jose or Maria Jacintha. > > How then did they distinguish between the many same-named individuals within > their immediate community, as well as adjacent villages? > > Denis -- To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership."
