Why did Charles Pratt, American oil and business magnate, give the
middle name "Millard" to "Charles Millard Pratt" (future Secretary of
Standard Oil, born 1858)?

http://www.amherst.edu/~rjyanco/genealogy/acbiorecord/1879.html#pratt-cm

|2479. Pratt, Charles Millard.  S. of Charles and Lydia A.
(Richardson), b. Brooklyn, N. Y., N. 2, 1855.  M. A., Yale, 1903. 
Alpha Delta Phi.

Prepared Adelphi Acad., Brooklyn, N. Y.  With Standard Oil Co., 1879-.
 Trustee A. C., 1897-1921, Vassar Coll.; president board of trustees,
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y.; director L. I. R. R. Co., Brooklyn
City R. R., Amer. Express Co. and other corporations.  Donor of Pratt
Gymnasium, A. C.

|

So it looks as if his mother's surname was Richardson
- not ideal for a middle name
- also they have his date of birth as 1855 which is curious - probably an error


His father's middle initial is also 'M'

http://www.bementfamily.com/webged/bement.wbg/wga45.html#I7582

|Pratt, Charles M. (1830 - 1891) 
b. 1830 in Watertown, Middlesex Co., MA 
d. 1891 
CHARLES M. PRATT (1830-1891), American oil magnate, with Henry H.
Rogers founded Charles Pratt Company (1867) for refining crude oil;
business acquired by John D. Rockefeller (1874); became executive in
Standard Oil Company. Benefactor of Amherst College and the University
of Rochester; founded the Pratt Institute (1887) in Brooklyn, New
York; established the Pratt Institute Free Library, first free public
library in Brooklyn or New York City.
Webster's New Biographical Dictionary 1996 

spouse: 
----------child: Pratt, Charles Millard (~1858 - >1913) 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

It is rather unclear what the M stood for
- I've a hunch it was Morris 
- that was what Charles Millard Pratt's first born son was called


http://bibleocean.com/OmniDefinition/Charles_Pratt
|Charles Pratt was born in Watertown, Massachusetts, one of eleven
children. His father, Asa Pratt, was a carpenter. Of modest means, he
spent three winters as a student at Wesleyan Academy, and is said to
have lived on a dollar a week at times.|

And here we find that he was married twice
- first to Lydia Richardson, then to Mary Richardson 
- yup - they were sisters
- interesting how they named the first son and daughter 
http://genweb.whipple.org/d0252/I67127.html

|Charles Pratt 
BIRTH: 2 Oct 1830, Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts 
DEATH: 4 May 1891, New York, New York 
Father: Asa Pratt (1 Mar 1794 - 8 Nov 1878)
Mother: Elizabeth Stone (11 Jun 1795 - ____)

Family 1: Lydia Ann Richardson (____ - 1861)

MARRIAGE: 1854 
 Charles Millard Pratt (____ - ____) 
 Lydia Pratt (____ - ____) 
Family 2: Mary Helen Richardson (____ - ____)

MARRIAGE: 1863 
 George D. Pratt (____ - ____) 
 Herbert L. Pratt (____ - ____) 
 John T. Pratt (____ - ____) 
 Frederic B. Pratt (____ - ____) 
  Pratt (____ - ____) |

-----------------------------------------

It looks as if Millard is a variation of Miller
A Google on the exact phrase "Miller or Millard" (in quotes) indicates that.
   "Millard or Miller" is also interesting

I also found that 'Pratt' is possibly of French descent, that would
suggest that they were Huguenots.

When the Huguenots arrived in the UK, their names got distorted, they
were also, for obvious reasons, fanatical Protestants.

My guess is that Millard is a variation of Miller, 
- but somewhere back a French name had been corrupted from something
like Millard to Miller.
- that would be remembered

An alternative is that he was greasing up to former President Millard Fillmore
- he would definitely have known him

Perhaps a combination

It certainly looks as if their ancestors were early settlers, also
that Charles Snr and his first wife Lydia liked cloning names.
Wife number two had a different view.

What foxes me is what the 'M' in Charles Snr's name stands for, it
could be an affectation like the 'S' in Ulysses S Grant, it could be
that it was never there and people are confused.

A Charles Pratt wrote a book on his ancestry in 1968
- possibly that contains a clue

Reviewing things, my best guess is that the middle letter had to be
'M', and that 'Millard' was a combination of half remembered ancestry
and greasing up to a New York 'No Nothing' (sic)

Fascinating, that search took hours, and was rather intriguing.

frde:

Interesting speculation regarding the Whig, but why not name the boy
"Fillmore" directly, rather than honoring MF's mother's maiden name? 
A related speculation might posit that Americans, in general, were
impressed with the unusual nature of the President's name and it
started a small "fad" in using this surname as a first or middle name
around the middle Nineteenth Century.  Such speculation is often
wrong, as you know, but your stream of consciousness above is much
appreciated.

Freddy,
Great work!  If I read your comment correctly, Charles jr.'s father
married Lydia in 1854 and then after she died in 1861 married Mary in
1863.  (The information above the 2nd dashed line)   There, Charles
sr. is listed as Charles Millard Pratt.
IF this is correct, then it would seem that C M jr was named after C M sr.
If the "M" of Charles sr. slipped in sometime later, I would agree
with you that the son was named in honor of the recent president.
Cheers, Myoarin

@Myoarin
That record needs careful reading 
Charles Snr married Lydia Ann first, they had two kids, who they named
Charles Millard and Lydia (note how Lydia jr has no middle name).
- There are plenty of references to Charles Snr as Charles M Pratt,
but absolutely nothing that dropped out what the 'M' stood for.

@Limill
My hunch is that the practise of incorporating other surnames in a
name developed as Americans became increasingly conscious of tracing
oneself back to early settlers.

Watertown MA seems to have been a nest of families that could trace
themselves back.

In the UK we had a spate of hyphenation around then, partly for
prestige reasons, and partly to broadcast ancestry.

I guess that in the USA, people got used to people using their second
name, and the practice of giving surnames as first (rather than
middle) names evolved.

Note that all Charles Snr's offspring had conventional first names.
It would be interesting to find out what the middle initials of the
later offspring stand for.

I suspect that the choice of 'Millard' was based on a number of
things, it is quite possible that the name was 'remembered' - it is an
old 'pilgrim' surname.

If the first criterion was to choose a name beginning with 'M', then
Millard could have been selected for a bundle of reasons - one of
which is that it has a slightly aristocratic ring to it, and the
family was on the make.

Incidentally I would not be at all surprized if Millard Fillmore
really had a conventional forename, I can't find anything on it, but
he came from a line of Nathaniels.

Rather an interesting hunt, pity I could find nothing definitive.

Fred,
You are entirely right, of course.  It was late, and I misinterpreted.
 Sorry to have troubled you for your correction.
Regards, Myo

@MyOar

Not at all, the 'snip' did not paste well, so it was confusing.

I was gratified that you followed my ramble.

It is incredibly difficult working out what people's motivations were
150 years ago, they lived in an entirely different culture.

Somehow I get the feeling that Charles Pratt Snr was a bit of a card,
I detect an ironic sense of humour - beats me why, but there is
something quirky about him. I get the impression that he had a devious
streak and enjoyed keeping people confused.