Common naming patterns circa 1800s

[blackapple]

There is a branch of my family that is a terrible dead end- people have been searching for YEARS on these 3 sisters. I was wondering about maybe just searching for "likely" names for their father or mother, based on their own names and the names of their children. I know there are often traditional patterns in the way people named (still do to an extent) their children, especially here in the South in the 1800s. Anyone know info on this, or maybe where I could find such info?

[ckevans]

Your question seems a little vague to me, but I think the thing to do is to look at the names of their children and see if any first or middle names are the same among the cousins. You can then make a good guess that those names might be from the maternal line.

[ckevans]

Back in colonial times, the first son was usually named after the paternal grandfather, the second after the maternal grandfather, and the third after the father. Then they started in on the father's and mother's brothers.

But this was never a 100% followed custom, and it became less and less followed as the 19th century wore on.

I would guess that Bullard and Bateman are a bit more probable as family names than Winfield, depending on exactly when the Winfield was born. Winfield became a generally popular name in the USA after the Mexican War because of the fame of Gen. Winfield Scott:

http://www.tulane.edu/~latner/Scott.html

And Asa would be more likely as a family name than Joseph simply because it was so much rarer, generally speaking.