Inheritance custom

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The Erbnamensitte is a regional, especially linksrheinisch widespread, traditional convention for the ranking in which a family name or names of the ancestors to the subsequent generations are passed. It developed from the idea that the ancestors live on in their descendants .

According to the inheritance custom, the children of a family are named in the following order:

  • The first son receives the (first) name of the paternal grandfather.
  • The 2nd son receives the (first) name of the maternal grandfather.
  • The first daughter receives the (first) name of the maternal grandmother.
  • The 2nd daughter receives the (first) name of the paternal grandmother.
  • The first names of deceased children are repeated, i.e. given again to the next born child of the same sex.

The hereditary name custom is regionally and confessionally both widespread and of different characteristics. In some places, for example, the names of deceased siblings of the parents are passed on before the names of the grandparents , since the dead aunts and uncles of the child could no longer inherit their names.

In the 17th century, the Catholic Church in the regions it dominated tried vigorously to replace the hereditary name custom with a godparent name custom . In order to be able to continue the hereditary name custom, the parents then chose a godfather who bore the first name required according to the inherited name custom (crypto inheritance custom). Nonetheless, the custom of the patent name has become a much more common name custom over time, mostly regardless of both the denominational background of the respective family and their social status . However, by the end of the 20th century at the latest, the custom of the patent name was also out of fashion.

See also

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  • Alfred Blömer: the custom of the godparent name or the custom of inheritance? Customs when choosing the first name on the left Lower Rhine. Mönchengladbach 1983
  • Heinrich Müllers: Lower Rhine customs when choosing names and godparents for newborns. In: Culture and Life. Monthly for cultural-historical and biological family studies. 3rd year, issue 12, Schorndorf 1926, p. 369ff

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