Among all these naming ways, only among the Derbyshire Quakers (1680-1750) did the name Francis make the most popular list, coming in seventh. Thomas was number five on the list, but among Cheshire Quakers it was second after John in popularity (Fischer, 505: note 5). Anglican name lists always find Thomas in the top three, alternating with John and William. At this point it would be good to look at the names of Francis and Elizabeth's children.

Because we don't know the names of Francis's parents, we can't know if any of the children bear their names. The fact that the firstborn son was named Thomas is probably what led Marion Norwood Callam to settle on Captain Thomas Norwood as Francis Norwood's father. Of course his father might also have been Francis or possibly Stephen. The fact that the second two children are named for their father and mother in keeping with Puritan tradition is very interesting, especially since this seems to break the pattern begun in the naming of their firstborn. There is a strong possibility that the firstborn son was named in honor of his maternal great grandfather Thomas Coldom, but this break in tradition highlights a very interesting omission here--Clement. Why was Elizabeth's father not honored? There is nothing in any of the records we have, including Francis's will, that indicates any rift between Francis and his father-in-law. The name Stephen stands out. Among the names cited in Fischer, Stephen does not appear at all among the most popular names in the three colonial societies, but the name is faithfully passed down in various lines of the Norwood family, notably that of Joshua, for about four generations--probably because Stephen had died sometime before 1705, leaving only a daughter, and his brothers wanted to keep his memory alive.
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