Eddowes' sisters

[Joshua Rogan]

The victims page here says Catherine Eddowes had two sisters;

"She has two sisters, Elizabeth Fisher and Eliza Gold (their married names)"

Is this correct? It seems odd to have two sisters with the same first name....

[MysterySinger]

As far as I can make out, Catherine Eddowes was one of 12 siblings and had 6 sisters and 5 brothers. Her mother. Catherine Evans married George Eddowes in 1832.

These were named
Alfred
Harriet
Emma
Eliza (b 1837)
Elizabeth (b 1839)
Catherine (b 1842)
Thomas
George
John
Sarah
Mary
William

[Azarna]

Although Eliza is sometimes an abbreviation for Elizabeth it seems to have often been used as a stand-alone name in the 19th century.

I just had a look at my own family tree and spotted three families with an Eliza and Elizabeth (definitely both alive at the same time).

I also found one with a Rebecca and a Becky, one with a William and a Will, and one with an Elizabeth, an Eliza and a Beth!

The William may have died before Will was born though. Many parents reused the name of a deceased child on a later one - sometimes quite a few times.

A lot of children were named after relatives, so perhaps these families are trying to appease multiple family members?
"We will call this one after your mother, Elizabeth, and the next one after Great Aunt Eliza - perhaps she will leave the baby something in her will!"

My Elizabeth/Eliza/Beth family has examples of all three of those names in the immediate family.

[GUT]

Two different name.

But then I have a family in my tree with two sons with the same names, and whilst I suspect the first may have died before the second was born I can find no death record for that at all.

I do know it was common to name the first son and daughter after mum and dad, if they died in childhood the next son or daughter would get the name.

[Joshua Rogan]

Thanks everyone, that clears it up for me.
I thought it might just be a spectacular lack of imagination on their parents part, but if you have that many kids I suppose you're bound to start repeating yourself. Then I thought maybe they thought the first one looked a bit sickly and hedged their bets by giving the next girl the same name.
But no, separate names it is.

[GUT]

There is a famous ex boxer who has five sone, all alive, with the same name.

Some folks are just crazy.

[Karl]

Indeed - for two generations, every male in the Bach family was called "Johann", including the famous Sebastian. His brother, his father, his male cousin and his three uncles were all called "Johann" something or other. Sebastian himself named only three of his sons "Johann", and only two of his daughters "Johanna". I guess the Bach's didn't want to squander their creativity on naming children.