More and more people like to visit Europe, mainly to pursue the luxury goods with discounts there and feel the rich historical background. European history and culture are mainly reflected in three aspects: more churches, more museums and more castles.
Whenever the tour guide introduces you that this manor or castle belongs to nobles and kings such as Henry IV and louis xi, you will always be confused. Even if you remember it at that time, going back to another city will confuse two people with the same name. What a big head! Why did Europeans have so many duplicate names during the feudal period? Sometimes even "several generations" were the same.
In medieval Europe, names were given according to the naming date and the godfather and godmother according to the Book of Saints. Louis, Peter, John, Philip, Charlie, James, etc. were all common Christian names, and each name had different meanings. For example, Charlie Charlie was a nickname for Charles, which came from a Germanic name and meant a manly warrior.
For another example, James comes from the Hebrew word "Jacob", which means God bless his followers. Many of Jesus' disciples are called "Jacob". John John is also from Hebrew, which means that God is merciful. Therefore, most European names are followed by Christian saints, which all have the meaning of religious blessing behind them. In the face of the current situation that Chinese people love to take foreign names, it is better to understand the meaning before taking them.
There are many cases of duplicate names. In addition, in order to reflect family inheritance, each European royal family can only choose which ancestor's name when naming, and then explain which generation. In addition to boasting about the origin, this is really difficult because there are only a few common family names (for example, the name of the monarch of Bourbon in France is among Louis and Philip).
"which generation" is mainly marked in aristocratic genealogy and historical documents, which refers to "the first person who used this name under this title", such as Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte, which means "the third king named Napoleon in French history".
But "which generation" doesn't necessarily represent the generation, but only the order of succession. Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte is not the grandson of Napoleon I, but a nephew. Just because he used the name Napoleon as the emperor, and two people used the name Napoleon as the emperor (Napoleon himself and his son Napoleon II), he is Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte.