tress and the terms of relationship, these folk speak of all people, irrespective of age or kinship, by their Christian names. A boy of eight announces church services to be conducted by a local preacher: Howard's a-goin' to preach Sunday evenin' (2 P. M.). Christian names and their usage in these Virginia mountain regions very often suggest an environment and background, an attitude of mind, an echo of the past, a fleeting imaginative fancy, or the mores of a group. A name may reflect a Biblical influence or a chance contact with the outside world, but it is an individual possession. Sons and daughters are usually distinguished from relatives of the same surname by the use of the given name of either parent possessively with that of the child. The name of the father is more often linked with that of the son.