In many families, we see the same names over and over. Frequently children were named after parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and various other family members. The same names just crop up time after time, and will often cause confusion for family history researchers. Working out who is who can be extremely difficult when all a man's sons name their first male child after the child's grandfather - and suddenly there are 4 or 5 cousins with the same name all living in a small area. This has happened to me a few times - most memorably I have 5 cousins named James Mulholland all born within 5 miles and 4 years of each other - and two of them married women named Mary!
Naming customs, while not cast in stone, were extremely common in many areas, and sometimes trying to find a name that does not link back to a member of the family can be a challenge. Names also went through ebbs and flows or popularity, and often more frequently used names reflected current monarchs, newly born members of the royal family and popular celebrities of the day.
Another frequently used custom of the past - which can seem quite strange to us today - was using the name of a deceased child for the next born sibling of the same gender. My 3xGreat Grandfather Isaac Green was actually the third child named Isaac born in the family - his eldest brother Isaac died at only 4 days old, his next brother was also named Isaac and died of diphtheria at 6 years old. My direct ancestor Isaac was the next son born, the namesake of two dead brothers - and he lived to the grand age of 89.
