What's in a name?

Names, names, names.  What is in a name?  Lately, I have been spending quite a bit of time working on the descendants of Daniel Daugherty (b. 1798, SC) and Sarah Emily Ashurst (b. abt. 1795, TN). I'm trying to be as thorough as I can with regard to children, siblings, and spouses of all those descending from this couple. I have certainly noticed it with other family lines, but it really hit me how many Daugherty's have the same or similar names. I am not finished with all the descendants, as finding online records for the living is difficult' I can only come down six or seven generations on the tree (I am the 8th generation from Daniel and Sarah Daugherty).

I currently have just under 2,000 descendants (including spouses) of Daniel and Sarah Daugherty in my family tree.  Here is just a small sample of the names that were popular in the Daugherty line.

Daugherty, Amanda - 3
Daugherty, Andy/Andrew - 6
Daugherty, Arthur - 3
Daugherty, Byrd/Bird - 5
Daugherty, Charles - 9
Daugherty, Dan/Daniel - 12
Daugherty, Earl/Early - 3
Daugherty, Edward - 5
Daugherty, Ell/El - 5
Daugherty, English - 2
Daugherty, Fisher - 3
Daugherty, George - 4
Daugherty, James - 20
Daugherty, John - 23
Daugherty, Maggie/Margaret/Peggy - 6
Daugherty, Martha - 10
Daugherty, Mary - 17
Daugherty, Nancy - 8
Daugherty, Ramsey - 7
Daugherty, Sarah - 5
Daugherty, William - 16

This doesn't take into account the alternate spellings of Daugherty - Dougherty, Darity, Dority, Darty, Dorty, Daughtery, Daughrity, etc.  Additionally, there are 17 married couples that have the same surname, 14 of which are Daugherty.

I have also come to realize that there must have only been about 10 families that lived in this area of New River, TN.  There are many marriages to and between the Daugherty Byrge, Bunch, Burress, Carroll, Jones, Lowe/Marlow, Seiber and McGhee families.

I have found some interesting characters among this group of descendants of Daniel and Sarah.  I hope to share some soon.

Ciao for now!
Kim