While today's parents may feel free to chose children's names without regard for an unwritten rule, the Irish traditions of selecting children's names may actually prove a good tool for anyone trying to research Irish family history. Children within a family were traditionally named according to the following pattern:

It follows that in my Devlin family tree the first three sons of Daniel Devlin and Sarah Harkin should have been named Michael, John and Daniel. In actuality, they were named Michael, John and James; indicating that there was a James somewhere in the previous generation who came third in importance after Dan's father Michael and Sarah's father John (aka Shane). It is possible that Dan had an older brother named James. After James came Patrick, who was probably named after another of Dan's older brothers since a Patrick Devlin was a witness at the marriage of Dan and Sarah. Dan finally got around to naming a son after himself on the fifth time around.

Again following the above pattern, the first three girls in the family should have been named after Dan's mother, then Sarah's mother and then Sarah. Since their second daughter was named Annie after Sarah's mother; it is probable that Dan's mother was named Mary, after whom his eldest daughter was named. Catherine, the third of Dan and Sarah's daughters was probably named after Sarah's oldest sister, Catherine. The fourth daughter was named Sarah after her mother.

In short, the Devlins were very traditional in the naming of their children with one minor deviation. It appears that rather than naming the third son after the father and the third daughter after the mother they took the less vain route and named them after their elder siblings.