[name]Do[/name] you know any female “Juniors” (by that I mean the mother and daughter have the same first name, even if the last names have since changed)? The discussion on the [name]Amy[/name]/Up All [name]Night[/name] thread about how this practice is less common than father and son sharing a name inspired me to ask this question. (If there are any Berries who have this experience themselves feel free to elaborate on it if you like.)
I have an aunt and a cousin who are both named [name]Lillian[/name]. The family always thought it was weird–but that’s more because we’re Ashkenazi Jews, and thus, we only name after the deceased–never the living. I think it’s doable if one of them has a nickname. Otherwise, it get’s crazy confusing. I always think that I’m listening to someone talk about one of them and it turns out that they’ve been talking about the other one all along. It’s hard to keep up.
I know a few mother/daughter duos with the same first and middle name but not many. From what I’ve seen in census records/genealogy research, the practice was more common in the Victorian era and prior.
I share the same middle as my mum, and I know of another couple of cases where the daughter has the mum’s name as the middle (one of my friends has this as a family tradition going back a good few generations) but never anyone who has the same first and middle. I think it comes across as slightly pretentious naming your child exactly after you, both on boys and girls, but using either your first or middle for the child’s middle and giving them an original first name gives them their own identity, whilst still honouring the parent. I’m not keen on the practice of Juniors at all, I’m all for passing on family names but there’s so much pressure to live up to the name, especially if you end up being [name]John[/name] [name]Paul[/name] [name]Collins[/name] [name]VI[/name] or whatever.
My mother in law and gradmother in law are both called [name]Colleen[/name].
My mom and grandma have different fns but the same middle, [name]Elizabeth[/name], which they both go by. It’s a treasure trove of nns, and they use different ones. I am considering a version of my name for my son, which isn’t the same as giving my exact name to a daughter, but along the same lines. The other option is my grandfather’s name, used with my middle, which is my mom’s maiden name.
I don’t know any real live ones. But it was the reason [name]Lorelei[/name] from [name]Gilmore[/name] Girls named her daughter [name]Lorelei[/name] nn [name]Rory[/name]. She figured if men can do it why can’t she. (Seems very logical for a 16 year old in labor I must say. Probably too much so…lol).
The only female junior I have “heard” of is fashion designer [name]Carolina[/name] Herrera who has a daughter with the same name.
I know several Hispanic mothers named [name]Maria[/name] something (like [name]Maria[/name] [name]Luz[/name], for example) who have daughters with the same named switched. However, the mother goes by her middle and the daughter by her first. So mom [name]Maria[/name] [name]Luz[/name] is known as [name]Luz[/name], and daughter [name]Luz[/name] [name]Maria[/name] is known as little [name]Luz[/name]. I don’t really know if this is an actual tradition or if these specific families (I know about 4 of them) came up with the idea independently, but it’s pretty interesting.
I have a half-Spanish, half-[name]German[/name] friend who has the same first name as her mom ([name]Ana[/name]) but a different middle name, and I believe the grandma is an [name]Ana[/name] as well, but I’m not sure. I have no idea either if this is some kind of tradition in the Spanish-speaking world, and I can’t ask my friend right now, she went offline for the holidays. A ‘real’ junior would be really hard to stumble upon in a Hispanic family anyway because of the surnames being a combination of the mother’s and father’s first surnames.
Coming to think of it, one of my great-aunts must have been a junior. If I remember correctly, my paternal granddad’s mom was a [name]Maria[/name], and she named both her first (who deceased at the age of 8) and her second daughter (my great-aunt, born after the elder daughter’s death) [name]Maria[/name]. I think I was once told that naming a child after a deceased elder sibling was some sort of (Catholic?) tradition back then.
My great grandmother was [name]Ruby[/name] [name]Jeanne[/name] and she gave her daughter the exact same name ([name]Ruby[/name] [name]Jeanne[/name] - my grandmother). It got very confusing so my grandmother always went by [name]Jeanne[/name]. In fact…her own son didn’t know her birth name was [name]Ruby[/name] until I told him, lol - she started using [name]Jeanne[/name] as a young child. Her birth certificate read [name]Ruby[/name] [name]Jeanne[/name] but none of her other paper work had it. Before she went by her middle, they were Big [name]Rube[/name] and [name]Little[/name] [name]Ruby[/name]…her mom got tired of being called Big [name]Rube[/name] (I dont blame her).
ETA - spelling.
My grandmother got her middle name from her mom, but that’s it. I think it’s more common to pass on your first name as a middle name. I’m not a fan of juniors at all. It seems like a very snobbish/stuck up thing to do.
My middle name is the same as my mothers middle name, which is her mothers FN.
I think it would be very uncommon (and maybe slightly odd?) to have a female junior. I also suspect it is becoming increasingly less popular for males as well.
I went to high school with a girl whose name was Alevia [name]Ann[/name] and her mothers name was Alevia. I also currently know a family where the mothers name is [name]Mary[/name] [name]Monica[/name] and her 2 daughters are [name]Mary[/name] [name]Katherine[/name] and [name]Mary[/name] [name]Christina[/name]. They all dropped the [name]Mary[/name] part of their names and go by their middles (so [name]Monica[/name], [name]Katie[/name] and [name]Tina[/name]) and I believe that the mothers family growing up did this too.
My daughters actually have variations of DH’s and I middles as their middles ([name]Elizabeth[/name] and [name]Leonard[/name]), not exactly the same, but its not common at least local to us to do this unless its skipping a generation (naming after a grandmother etc) and more uncommon with cross gender relatives.
I went to high school with a girl who was named after her mother, they were both [name]Carol[/name] [name]Ann[/name] lastname and the daughter went by [name]Carol[/name] [name]Ann[/name].
I think that while it is a bit unusual, it’s only fair that if a man can have a [name]JR[/name] than so can a woman. I don’t know that I would do it personally, as I am not a huge fan of my name style-wise, but if I adored my name, then I definitely would.
My great great great grandma was [name]Rose[/name] [name]Anne[/name] [name]Gore[/name], her daughter was [name]Rose[/name] [name]Anne[/name] Doolittle, her great granddaughter was [name]Rose[/name] [name]Anne[/name] [name]Walsh[/name] and her great great granddaughter (my nanna) was [name]Rose[/name] [name]Anne[/name] O’[name]Shea[/name].
I have suspicions that it went back further than that but no proof as yet. And as far as I know they were all just referred to as [name]Rose[/name].
My great-grandmother was named [name]Katherine[/name], she named her first daughter [name]Katherine[/name] (went by [name]Kay[/name]), who then named her daughter [name]Katherine[/name] ([name]Kit[/name]), and also had another daughter who named her daughter [name]Kathryn[/name].
My one friend planned to name her baby after her if female, after her husband if male. Personally I found that odd and pretentious. Sadly she miscarried.
My fiance and I agree that a ‘junior’ is a masculine term, not for girls. I have never met or would have a junior daughter, or son for that matter.
I have the same initials as my Mom, but that’s all I know of personally.