Monday, September 3, 2012

What’s in a Name–RALPH

 

I’ve known since I was a child that my mothers family was rife with “family” names. Names that have been passed down through the generations, Surnames that became middle names, or even Christian names and while I wasn’t given one, nor did I  chose any for my children, I now really love that tie to the past that those names deliver.
What I didn’t realise was that my fathers name was indeed a “Family” name as well.  The name Ralph appears to have been in the family since 1807.
Ralph Deakin, A Coal miner from Dawley, Shropshire, was the fifth son of Thomas Deakin, ( also a collier) . I imagine after 4 previous sons, he and his wife had run out of family names and named their son Ralph.  This is the first instance of the name that I can find in the family .  Ralph also had a son named Ralph, but it was through the marriage of his daughter Jane Ellen to Richard Glazebrook Poole that a line of Ralph Pooles was born.  Their eldest son took the name of Jane’s father and was christened Ralph Poole ( with no middle name) . He married Mary Garbett, and at that point they nearly broke the chain, for whatever reason, none of Ralph and Mary’s 3 sons were named  Ralph, but their eldest son Samuel chose to re-establish the name and his eldest son carried the name Ralph Poole ( no middle name) . That Ralph, my grandfather named his only son Ralph Poole, also with no  middle name.
My parents also passed on the name Ralph, but as a middle name to my brother, and my fathers Aunt also named one of her sons Ralph.

 

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