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In Scandinavia - and certainly other places, too - a person's name would often be composed of three parts:

 

- A given name/"Christian name"

- A patronymicon - the father's first name with the -sen/-son or -daughter ending

- The name of the farm where the family lived

 

The patronymicon would stay with you for life, but would of course change for each generation. The name of the farm was almost an address and could stay with a family for generations. When the family moved, however, this name could change. (Certain families kept a name after they moved; sons from wealthy farms, immigrants, etc). The new owner/resident would be referred to with the same farm's name, although he was not related. Changes in legislation around 1900 demanded that family names stay the same through generations.

 

The older names are cumbersome to enter in TMG. The US name style assumes the modern two part name, where the surname is copied from the father. So far I have entered the patronymicon as part of the first name and the farm as the surname, but I see certain disadvantages. Ideally, I would like to search and sort on either.

 

I believe Russians have a similar type of triple names.

 

Has anyone come up with a name style that takes better care of this type of names?

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Guest Michael Dietz

Handling old names is a problem with most of the European countries. For instance the Welsh could have extremely long names (though not often done). They basically gave you a given name and then added 'ap FATHERSNAME'. and the ap phrase could be extended as far back as you want. So you could have Louis ap David ap Stephen ap George ap ... Throw in the horrible Welsh spellings and what a lot of fun.

 

You can set up a style to handle the more simple cases such as yours or just Louis ap David. Under Tools, Master Style List, Names, and Add. You can add a name style to handle the display of your ancestral names. It is not perfect but you can set the display modes for several situations, Output Template, Surname Sort Template, etc. I have been through trial and error able to set up these templates to handle my situations with the medieval names, at least minimally to my satisfaction. It may not work in all cases, such as sorting or searching, but it does give a good start.

 

You could have something like Label 3 = Given Name, Label 4 = Father Derivative, Label 5 = Geographical Name. Then for the various Name Tags simply choose the style. And be sure the report handles the correct style. This way you can search/sort for the Family farm name and you could change the given name sort template to be on the Father Derivative instead of the given name.

 

As Lee would say, I hope this helps because I have dinked around with names now for a couple of years and am still frustrated.

 

Mike

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This has been a "point of contention" for years and one we have discussed more than once. Michael's comment about setting up an alternate "Name Style" is the best option available and still does not make the process easy. Being of Norwegian ancestry, I am fully aware of the frustration Morten is going through. My frustration is compounded by the fact that my Wife's ancestry is Hispanic which has a different naming system that changes every generation. Being an American, I get to play with 3 naming systems and still haven't been able to work out the details to my satisfaction.

 

That being said, TMG still is the best program available for recording details and being able to use all of the information you have accumulated.

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Thanks, both of you! I have taken the advice and created a name style along Michael's recommendation. Now I am into changing name styles and editing names for the 750 or so entries where this seems most urgent. Seems there are no shortcuts to this job. :wallbash:

 

Curiously, when creating the name style, I saw that the Norwegian version actually has suitable labels embedded, but they are not accessible as a name style, US standard names is the only one that can be selected.

 

Next, I will get around to some Russian and French names too, but that is a limited number. :P

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Guest Michael Dietz
Thanks, both of you! I have taken the advice and created a name style along Michael's recommendation. Now I am into changing name styles and editing names for the 750 or so entries where this seems most urgent. Seems there are no shortcuts to this job. :wallbash:

 

Curiously, when creating the name style, I saw that the Norwegian version actually has suitable labels embedded, but they are not accessible as a name style, US standard names is the only one that can be selected.

 

Next, I will get around to some Russian and French names too, but that is a limited number. :P

 

Have fun with the French. It does get a bit confusing with the le, the de, the d', and the compounding of them all.

 

Viva la TMG!!!

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