The Importance of Secondary Names

Most often than not, when we travel back in time through our research in parish birth records we find that a person is not identified by just a name and surname, but has a number of secondary names given to him/her by her parents and god-parents. This list can be quite short ( 3 names, one each) or quite long - ( 6 names, two from each). The names given by the god-parents are usually only there in their honor and not used during that person's lifetime. These names are usually the names of the god-parent him/herself, of someone related to that godparent, a parent or grandparent, or some other name as they desire ( a patron saint or other religious figurehead).

Now the matters get complicated when the names given by the god-parents are listed before, and not after, the primary name. This would mean that the name written along the side-margin for easy identification would enlist a secondary name rather than the one you would be looking for!

This happened to me when I was looking for the birth of Lawrence Fenech, father of Joseph Fenech, husband of Maria Debono, whose marriage is listed below. I could not find an entry for the birth of a Lawrence Fenech to a John and Mary Fenech. So I performed what I call a family profile, that is, I started looking for all the baptisms to this family. The closest entry I could find to Lawrence's estimated birth date (thanks to his death record listed here) was this:




I will not go into detail on this record as it merits its own undivided attention, but the name listed is Cajetanus Laurentius Annettus Fenech - where Lawrence is the second name, not the first. Here's to prove my point: his godparents were a certain Cajetanus and a Clara, daughter of Annettus... so that leaves Lawrence as the name given by his parents. It is that name with which he got married, and died of plague at the end of his days.

In a similar way, his granddaughter Xaveria, listed as Rosa Xaveria Marcella after her god-mother Rosa.

So I must stress that when you look for, and record, the baptismal names, list them ALL as you might need them for cross-linking.

An interesting exercise I would like to make to this regard is mapping the god-parents mentioned in the brothers and sisters of Xaveria Fenech to the children of Ignatio Debono and Joanna Zammit, the parents of her mother, Maria Debono.

First I would like to list once more the children of Ignatio and Joanna:

• Gregorius Aloysius Antonius Albertus born 1797
• Paola Magdalena Caterina born 1794
• Maria Anna Francisca born 1791
• Vinartus Pasquali Bartolomeus Domincus born 1788
• Joseph Bartolomeo Antonius born 1786
• Petris Michel Felix born 1784
• Joanne Maria Josephus Bartolomeo born 1782

Next I would like to list the godparents of Xaveria's siblings mentioned as being children of Ignatio:

• Michael Debono son of Ignatio
• Rosaria Debono wife of Vicenti
• Catherine Debono daughter of Ignatio Debono
• Anna daughter of Ignatio Debono
• Ignatius son of Ignatio Debono

Have you spotted them?

Let me rewrite them, putting the corresponding names in bold:

• Gregorius Aloysius Antonius Albertus born 1797
• Paola Magdalena Caterina born 1794
• Maria Anna Francisca born 1791
• Vinartus Pasquali Bartolomeus Domincus born 1788
• Joseph Bartolomeo Antonius born 1786
• Petris Michel Felix born 1784
• Joanne Maria Josephus Bartolomeo born 1782

No, I did not find all matching pairs... but the point is that they were all using their second or third name in their every day life.

So let that be a lesson to you: keep track of ALL given names!