Regency Reader Questions: Paternal Aunts and Uncle Address

Moniker/Name

Penelope

Source of Question

Research

Your Question

Suppose someone in the Regency or Georgian period with the surname of Bartram has a paternal uncle. Would this uncle be addressed as Uncle Bartram, and would his wife be Aunt Bartram? I can only think of examples from Austen novels involving maternal uncles/aunts (e.g. Aunt and Uncle Gardiner).

Additional comments

Thank you so much!

Thanks for the question, Penelope, and for being a Regency Reader!

Naming conventions are fascinating. Much of the hard work and publication rests with the community of genealogy research today, so I recommend that as a resource for folks interested in naming conventions.

Surnames typically followed paternity. With the aristocracy, land and titles also had an impact on what people were called.

Exceptions did exist. One example is in the case of “adoptions” and inheritance, as we see with Frank Churchill in Emma; “name changes were frequently demanded of heirs…” where a nobleman or landed gentry was the last male, and they selected a younger nephew or cousin as heir to their estates (Changing One’s Name During the Regency | Every Woman Dreams…).

So unless someone in the scenario was made heir to an estate by a rich, bachelor uncle or cousin, Bartram’s uncle would be Uncle Bartram (and Aunt Bartram).

A quick scan of the contemporary literature from the Victorian era shows a trend towards calling Uncle and Aunt by their first name (ie Uncle Joe and Aunt Eva), at least when referring to them directly. I can trace this to as early as the mid 1820s, in the long Regency:

Family Anecdotes. (1825). France: (n.p.).

but even found a few earlier instances, and certainly cases where Uncle was simply called “uncle”:

Howitt, M. B. (1800). The Artist-wife, and Other Tales. United States: Stringer & Townsend.

In part, I think that behind close doors one would be more likely to refer to one’s own Aunt or Uncle by their first name, with the qualifier (Aunt or Uncle), whereas it would have been polite to introduce them as Mr. and Mrs. Bartram, and then perhaps refer to them as “my Aunt and Uncle” in much the same way we might introduce someone today (albeit more likely with their first name, rather than their surname).

So I might suggest, which I am sure always causes an internal groan with these etiquette-type questions, that judgment, particularly when writing, should be used and depend on the context.

I hope that is helpful!

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