children named after parents

Yes I do, its flippin annoying. I worked with a father and son who had exactle the same name. It was a nightmare ringing them up for shifts and leaving memos for them.......soooooo confusing.

I had a girl at my school who had the same name as her mum too. I never understood why she didn't shorten it or alter it slightly (her name was Elizabeth) but no, both liked to be called their full name. I'd have hated to have had the same name as my mum.

My dad had the same name as his dad because there was a family tradition about second sons being given the same name.

When my younger brother turned up, he was only too happy to break it, and I haven't seen any sign of an ancient curse striking him down.

Yet.

There seems to be a tradition on my Dad's side of the family to name son's after their fathers and also after their uncle's etc.

For example, we currently have

2 x Joseph (was 4 but sadly 2 passed away)
2 x Leslie
2 x Martin
2 x Stephen etc

None of us are blood relations, but I have the same first name as JK's dad and uncle. And indeed ex-boyfriend - my immediate predecessor!

There's probably something weird and Freudian bubbling under in JK's psyche, which I'd better not enquire too closely into...

You see this a bit with Americans. I deal a fair amount with Americans and you do quite frequently come across people with names they style as "John D. Mattheson Junior" or "Arnold H. Winter III". Why you'd want to put "Junior" after your name when you are a senior person is frankly beyond me.

My SIL's family do it.Every first born son is named after the father, so there are 2 Philips, 2 Martins, 2 Charles.
I don't like it but it's nothing to do with me, although one of that family asked why the hell we called our son Harvey when it's a dog's name.I felt like saying your son sounds like an American cheerleader as they call him CJ (Charles Junior) but I bit my tongue.

I used to live next door to a family where the grandad, dad and son all had the same name - carl. They all lived in the same house as well.

I wouldn't do it - tbh with us i am trying to keep away from even having the same initials to avoid confusion.

last baby H was keen to call her catherine - i refused cos my name is kathryn... he thought it was different cos the spelling was different ?

Minerva, yes, I always think that's pretty strange too - you could have a nonagenarian called "Junior"! I get the impression that, in US circles, it's the wealthy WASP types that do this Jr./III thing, create a sort of clan (although surely the point is that you pass on your surname!) I don't think that's the case in Britain.

Thanks all - seems it is a bit more common than I thought!

Mr B was named after his father. It's an awful name as well. I think it was done to carry on the family name - which is a bit crackers considering his biological grandfather left when FIL was a small child.

When MrB came to get credit at 18 it was a right pain in the ass as FIL had some bad debt which was being linked to MrB.

Personally its not something I wuld choose to do.

My H and his father have the same name, which unfortunately is the same name as my father. I don't like it. At least dad I can refer to as dad but when speaking to MIL I say J said this she doesn't know if I mean FIL or H and I refuse to call H 'J Junior'.

H's sister also has the same name as MIL but she shortens it so it's easy to differentiate. I think it's freaky naming your children after yourself and should have been a sign before I got married of how odd the family are.

I had the same first name as my Mum. It was my Dads idea (although he hates his name so refused to call my brother the same as him). I've always been known by my second name though. I got married last year and at the same time as changing my surname, I deed polled and changed the order of my first names around.

H's family have two family names (John and Thomas) although only one was used for his generation (his brother). When his brother had a son, they gave him the family name as a middle name. If we had boys I think they would get one of the names.

quote:Originally posted by Mr JK
None of us are blood relations, but I have the same first name as JK's dad and uncle. And indeed ex-boyfriend - my immediate predecessor!

There's probably something weird and Freudian bubbling under in JK's psyche, which I'd better not enquire too closely into...

My H has his dad's name as one of his 2 middle names which isn't bad. My FIL has his dad's name as a middle name. My dad also has his dad's name as a middle name. This I think is a nice way of passing the names on within a family without the confusion of same names!
As an aside, my FIL also has the same name as my brother and my ex, very confusing to begin with!
When we (hopefully) have children I'm not going to give them the same initial as me or my H as that's almost as confusing when it comes to post! My H has the same initial as his mum!

Actually, both JK and I seriously considered the name 'Bridget' for the child that eventually became Rowan - we wanted something vaguely Celtic to reflect her ancestry, but not in an overt frighten-the-horses kind of way.

But it's (a) my mum's name, and (b) one she absolutely hates - so I think it would have been diplomatically difficult.

I'm really glad this tradition doesn't run in my OH's family as FIL's name is Neville ?

My uncle is named after my grandad but that's the extent of it in our family. For the males of my ex's family there were two names that were passed down - all of them had one or the other as either a first or middle name.

I don't think it's something I'd do though I quite like the idea of naming after someone you were close to. Probably as a middle name though.

quote:Originally posted by Hello Sunshine
I don't think it's something I'd do though I quite like the idea of naming after someone you were close to. Probably as a middle name though.

My OHs father was named after his dad but because they worked in the shop together and it got a bit confusing they called him by his middle name which he is now called by all the time. Then when my ILs had my OH they named him after his dads middle name (did they not learn?). So now whenever we're there no-one knows which one I'm talking to or about. MIL calls OH "Little G" which I can't bring my self to do.

I have the same name as my name, my middle name is my gran's name and surname my dad's name and it really irritates me that all of my names are 2nd hand!!

It's not like they didn't have nine months to think of names before I was here!

I want my own identity! Not to mention the fact it was so confusing when I lived at home!

Rant over!

quote:Originally posted by marquis
I have the same name as my name, my middle name is my gran's name and surname my dad's name and it really irritates me that all of my names are 2nd hand!!

I wanted to call our second son after my husband but he wouldn't let me; it'd be too confusing (he was probably right, though I'd have called the baby the full version or a different abbreviation). As it is I have two sons and all of their names (first and middle) are named after close relatives:

son 1: greatgrandfathersname grandfathersname
son 2: greatunclesname othergreatunclesname

It was important to me that all their names meant something and that we didn't just choose them because they were nice names.

My Dad wanted my brother to have his name, Mum said no and they gave my brother a shorter version of Dad's name.

My middle name is the 1st name of one of my aunts and K's middle name is a middle name used alot.

Interesting that you wanted names that were linked to a person as I feel almost the exact opposite! I don't want my children named after family (would realistically be my H's side as there are very few people on my side). I want my child to have a name we both love and doesn't make you think of someone else in the family. That's my feelings on first names anyway. I don't object to a family name going as a middle name.

quote:Originally posted by Mr JK
Actually, both JK and I seriously considered the name 'Bridget' for the child that eventually became Rowan - we wanted something vaguely Celtic to reflect her ancestry, but not in an overt frighten-the-horses kind of way.

But it's (a) my mum's name, and (b) one she absolutely hates - so I think it would have been diplomatically difficult.

My husband and his stepfather have the same name (not by design). It gets a bit confusing, so Mr Zebedee gets referred to as "young Derek". He's 42...

quote:Originally posted by JK
She's 5'7" BTW.

My mum's name is ******-Kay, but I rarely use the Kay part of my name, and neither does my mum. One of my mum's cousins is a -Kay aswell. If I have a girl I'll use Kay as a middle name without the hyphen, as I hated having a hyphened name as a child and H thinks it makes us sound like the Waltons/Brady Bunch ?(I'm never sure which one). My brothers have my grandads' and dad's names as middle names. I think it's a nice way to carry on a family name for girls using middle names as they eventually change their surname, but I don't really get it for boys first names who get to keep and carry on the surname anyway.

My dad was named for one of his uncles who was alive at the time when dad was born so his family used his middle name instead.

I suspect that we'll use James somewhere for a boy as it is a family name on both sides (my dad's 1st name and my great uncle's, OH is Hamish, a variation of James, his uncle and cousin are also Hamish and his grandfather was James but known as Jock) but we have to be careful with names as OH's surname can be used as a first name....

Jo

ETA: my gran (dad's mum) had Cunningham and Harvey (family names)as her middle names and kept Walker as middle name when she married grandad!

I was named after my aunt, who was named after her aunt, who was named after her aunt. I think it goes a lot further back in a similar way too.

Dont know if its an Irish thing but my family are tradationl to a T. There are the same names used over and over again, sometimes even to the point when the first and second names are the same. We then have to resort to calling each other by full names e.g instead of Patrick its Patrick John Brown instead of the other cousin who is Patrick John Casey. It has diluted as the generations have gone down but myself and my sisters all have the same middle name as do all of our cousins and aunts in this generation and the three generations before us.

My brother has exactly the same name as my dad, same first, same middle and same surname. My grandfather had the same name as did his father, great great grandfather was John rather than James with the same middle and surname. It is only the direct line that has used the names though so we don't have loads of cousins/uncles etc with the same name.

It's not religious or cultural in our family, just tradition I think.

My brother is nowhere near settling down or having children yet but he has said that he'd be quite likely to call a 1st son by the family name if wife/girlfriend agreed.

I don't know whether I like it or not, I've never known any different. I do quite like the idea of a family tradition though. That said I wouldn't use H's name for a son, just because I don't particularly like it that much. I would however like to use my dad/brother's as a middle name.

We're kind of considering this for this baby if he's a boy - though technically would have my name although he would be named after my father-in-law.

My father in law is Alexander
I'm Alexandra
And if this one is a boy he would be Alexander but would be known as Lex.

We're thinking of this as my FIL is a very very poorly man and we're not even sure if he'll still be here when our baby is born in November.

I have to say I'm not particularly keen on the baby having the same name as me - but we both really like the name Lex and my Husband really wanted to name our eldest after his Dad and I refused and e's said if this one is a boy he'd like to so I've said yes, on the provision that he's known as Lex, not Alexander.

Chances are we'll find a completely different name we prefer before November - but at the moment this is at the top of the list.

I'm not a fan of the naming your kids after yourself/other family members thing. Although i don't mind using family names as middle names.If we have a son he'll most likely get Tom as a middle name (OH's bro who's also my best friend). Both OH and his bro have family members' names as middle names, as does OH's grandad, who also has an old family surname as a middle name. Wow it gets confusing!

As for my name, well i have the same name as my aunt, but i'm not actually named after her....was more a case of my dad saying 'thats a nice name', coupled with the fact that he refused to let my mum call me Daisy as (in his words) 'its the name of a pantomime cow'!?
And as my name is more than long and complicated enough already, i don't have a middle name.

But i think we should count ourselves lucky.....my mum is one of 4 girls.... and my mum is one of two of them named after their UNCLES!(mum is italian). This makes for some interesting names to say the least! And as my mum's actual name is truely truely shockingly awful, she has always gone by her middle name.....well actually a variation of it!

My family is confusing!