Dutch names paid for?

Kate Billings

I was told that the reason the names of children were repeated in a family after a infant died is that the family had paid a fee to use that name to the government. So I have ended up with 3 or 4 children names such as Harm repeated in the family as the early one had died. Is this true? Thank you

Margreet

This is not true. There's a good explanation about the naming of newborns

The Dutch habit of naming newborns after another family member originates with a then-widespread superstition that the name in some way contributed to some form of reincarnation of the person the child was named after, who was usually much older. As the centuries passed, this practice became so standard that the names of the children were practically known at the marriage of the future parents. The rules for naming were the following:

• First-born son is named after paternal grandfather
• First-born daughter is named after maternal grandmother
• Second son is named after maternal grandfather
• Second daughter is named after paternal grandmother
• Subsequent children were often named after uncles and aunts – there was some liberty of choice here.

The infant mortality rate was high.

• If a son had died before his next brother was born, this younger brother was usually given the same name. The same goes for a daughter.
• When the father died before the birth of a son, the son was usually named after him.
• When the mother died at the birth of a daughter, the daughter was usually named after the mother.