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No examples of double given names have been found in any Scottish naming cultures prior to 1600 with the sole exceptions of King James VI and his eldest son in the late sixteenth century.
King James VI was baptized Charles James on 17 December 1566 (James in honor of his maternal grandfather, King James V, and Charles in honor of the King Charles IX of France, his mother's former brother-in-law) (Weir, 207; Withycombe, xliii), but thereafter appears to have been consistently called James rather than Charles James.
The eldest son of James VI, born in 1594, was named Henry Frederick (apparently Henry after his paternal grandfather, Lord Darnley, and Frederick after his maternal grandfather, Frederik II of Denmark) (Bingham, 125; Withycombe, xliii; Stewart, 140).
The naming practices of kings and princes, however, are not reliable indicators of the naming practices of less exalted mortals. No examples of non-royals with double given names have been found in Scotland prior to 1600.
| Bingham | Bingham, Caroline. James VI of Scotland. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1979. Amazon.com |
| Stewart | Stewart, Alan. The Cradle King: The Life of James VI and I, the First Monarch of a United Great Britain. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003. Amazon.com hardcover |
| Weir | Weir, Alison. Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Amazon.com paperback Amazon.co.uk paperback Amazon.com hardcover Amazon.co.uk hardcover |
| Withycombe | Withycombe, E.G. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. |
Problem Names Project articles are published by Sharon L. Krossa, with the assistance of The Academy of Saint Gabriel.
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