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According to information provided by Andrea DART (nee JOUSIFF):

Ancestorial worship - families often used names to honour particular members so that you can trace names through family history. Names were often used to commemorate significant events which helps to date someones birth or family involvement in the event. Thus 1805 witnessed many boys names being christened Horatio or Nelson of even Horatio  or Trafalgar. In 1885 there was a rise in Gordon Khartoum in honour of nbamtion hero General Gordon of Khartoum. Maybe Dundas was named after Col Lord Dundas?  However the practice of naming the eldest boy and eldest girl after their parents did not become predominant until 1590-1620. Prior to that they were often given the names after their Godparents as they were often chosen by the Godparents. Given the child the mothers surname as a middle name was not uncommon especially among the 19th century. This then evolved in to double barrelled surnames. Middle names can be a good indicator of social class. They were almost unheard of until the late 18th century. by the 1911 census 30% of the british population had a middle name. In 1850 the top ten names were William, John, and Thomas and Mary, Anne and Elizabeth. Alice spiked in popularity after Queen Victoria named her daughter (1843).

 

Another source provides the following information:
1st son named after paternal grandfather (patGF)
2nd son named after maternal grandfather (matGF)
3rd son named after father (F)
4th son named after father’s eldest brother (patB)
5th son named after mother’s eldest brother (matB)

1st daughter named after maternal grandmother (matGM)
2nd daughter named after paternal grandmother (patGM)
3rd daughter named after mother (M)
4th daughter named after mother’s eldest sister (matS)
5th daughter named after father’s eldest sister (patS)

However, there were other traditions too, that might have varied the above rules:

Babies may have been named after powerful people, e.g. royalty, and these names were likely to have become fashionable, perhaps particularly in London and other fine towns and cities. Naming a child after a local wealthy landowner was also common.  Perhaps this was more likely in rural areas.

In addition to the grandparents, parents, and their eldest siblings, babies might have been named after another significant family member. In my last post there’s the example of Annabella, named for her great grandmother who had recently died.

In those days of high infant mortality, babies were often named after earlier siblings who had died in infancy. This often comes as a shock to beginner genealogists. Again, in my Irish family (see last post) there’s an example of this.  As late as 1888, Patrick’s second son John was named not only for his paternal grandfather but also to honour the memory of the first-born son.  Below, William and Jane lost seven of their children in infancy, among them three Thomases and two Edwins.

Biblical names were popular amongst Nonconformists, particularly for people belonging to a dissenting protestant church or meeting house. In my own dissenting lines I have Nathaniel, Benjamin, Isaac and Abraham, but in wider research I’ve come across Jonah, Zedekiah and Zillah.

Perhaps some of these variations on the regular traditional naming pattern were more likely in 18th or 19th century England than in Ireland.  My very small-scale study, outlined below, is nowhere near enough to be able to say whether this is so, but it’s a possibility.

Source: https://englishancestors.blog/2020/04/01/english-naming-traditions/