Same-Named Siblings

In his Genealogue blog, Mr. Dunham comments on the "ridiculous" case (not his qualification, I hasten to add) of two Jamaican siblings having the same Christian names and surnames. Maybe we Dutch are a ridiculous people, but having same-named siblings was quite common over here. Not only were the names of deceased children reused, but children that survived into adulthood may well have shared the same name. Children are traditionally named after relatives. The first two boys will have their grandfathers' names, the first two girls their grandmothers', other children will be named after parents, aunts, uncles, and great-grandparents. If both grandmothers were named Johanna, there may well have been two daughters named Johanna. In practice, same-named children will have had different nicknames that they used instead of their given names. I am not aware of any currently living siblings with the same name, and also the habit of reusing names of deceased children has almost completely disappeared.