The custom of calling one of the sons, generally the eldest, after the paternal (sometimes the maternal) grandfather, of which only nine instances are known during the Talmudic period, became more popular, especially in European states. Maimonides' grandfather was "Joseph ben Isaac ben Joseph ben Obadiah ben Solomon ben Obadiah", for instance, and certain families seem to have similarly confined themselves to a few chosen names. Thus, in the Kalonymus family there occurs "Meshullam b. Moses b. Ithiel b. Moses b. Kalonymus b. Meshullam b. Kalonymus b. Moses b. Kalonymus b. Jekuthiel b. Moses b. Meshullam b. Ithiel b. Meshullam"—only five names among fourteen persons throughout three centuries. As a consequence certain names became characteristic of certain districts: "Japheth" and "Caleb" in Greece, and hence among the Karaites; "Kalonymus" in south Italy; "Sheshet" and "Joab" in Rome; "Sinai" and "Pesaḥ" in Germany. Some of the older names were revived—"Meïr", for example, of which only two previous instances before, had been known, the tanna Meïr and the Meïr mentioned by Josephus. "Samson" was never used by Jews before the 11th century.