[name_m]Hi[/name_m] Berries, so my husband has expressed an interest in naming our first boy (god planned) after him. I’m okay with that, surprisingly. I always said I wouldn’t do that because I wanted my child to have his own name. For some reason, I’m open to it. Must be because I love him 
I suggested using his first and/or middle name for the baby’s middle(s) and giving the baby his own first name but he is adamant he wants his first, middle, last [name_m]Jr[/name_m]. We want to make the right choice for our child and want to know whatever there is to know about being a [name_m]Jr[/name_m]. or having one. Any pros or cons for naming a child after the father? Any stories out there? Thanks!
I only know one [name_m]Jr[/name_m]. but I’ve always been against giving someone the exact same name as their parent. I think it’s unfair to the child because it doesn’t let them be their own person because they feel like they always have to be as good as their parent was. Also, if you have a 2nd son / child, will they feel less loved if their name is less related to their parents name then the first child? The one [name_m]Jr[/name_m] I know is a a 3rd generation [name_m]Jr[/name_m]. (grandfathers name, father’s name, son’s name), and he hates his name.
But if your husband is really set on it, and you don’t hate it, then maybe it’s the right thing for you to do.
I live with a “jr”–well, technically, he’s a “III”, and my dad is the “II”, but it’s the same general idea. It’s annoying to live with a jr. Really annoying. Any time someone calls at my parents’ house for “[name_m]John[/name_m] [[name_m]Roberts[/name_m]]”, I always have to ask “which one?” Or even worse, my grandma answers the phone, assumes it’s for my dad, and then it’s for my brother, and I have to rush over and fix everything on the phone. Or my brother has answered the phone when he was still young, and the person on the line will ask for [name_m]John[/name_m] [[name_m]Roberts[/name_m]], and my brother would be like, “I’m [name_m]John[/name_m] [name_m]Roberts[/name_m]!” And the person on the phone would continue to provide sensitive information to who they think is my dad, and of course it is not. [name_m]Even[/name_m] though my brother was always [name_m]Johnny[/name_m], and my dad always [name_m]John[/name_m], my brother and dad would rarely answer because they always assumed she was talking to the other one. Or my brother would come running when my mom was calling my dad. I’ve heard stories of sons who are forced to file bankruptcy because their credit scores get mixed up with their fathers, and they get stuck with their dad’s stinky credit history. And are blacklisted from ever buying anything of worth, and much worse. Or even a mom decided to agree to let the son be named after the father, and then the father does something awful, and they separate, and the mom is left with a name she hates, because she hates the ties to the man the name represents. Sure, sometimes it works fine. I’m not sure how my brother feels about it; I don’t know if he’ll carry it on or not. But sometimes my dad has had some pretty bad episodes thanks to his own private issues I have no business sharing on here, and my brother is furious at our dad. And those scars will never go away. Sometimes, I think boys might just want to be their own guy, and not live in the shadow of their dad’s legacy. It can work out fine, but it just seems unoriginal, a hassle, and sometimes detrimental to the kid to do it. Then again, if I married a [name_m]Caleb[/name_m], I would be hard-pressed not to have a [name_m]Jr[/name_m].! That’s true about pretty much every name I love, though, haha. I would still probably give my kid his own name and use my husband’s FN or MN as a middle, though. He’d still be honored, and my son would still have his own identity. 
My uncles a junior, my pop is [name_m]Harold[/name_m] and my uncle is called [name_m]Harry[/name_m] all the time. I don’t quite know why he is a junior since he is the 5th son. My cousin (his son) is so glad he’s not called [name_m]Harold[/name_m] but instead he’s Kyal. I think in Australia juniors aren’t as common as my uncle is the only one I know.
My brother is a junior who goes by his middle name. He loves being connected to my dad. It makes him feel loved and special. We don’t have many problems with getting the generations mixed up since [name_m]Joe[/name_m] is listed as a junior on every form. I think if your son had a nickname that was different from what your husband goes by it would be fine.
My brother-in-law is a junior. He goes by his middle name (which is also his dad’s middle name). He and his son have the same middle name (so, the name he goes by is his son’s middle name), but different first names. They have the exact same initials, though (on purpose).
I think having a junior is fine. It could potentially get confusing, but if you give the child a different nickname than the father, or they go by a middle name, I imagine it works out okay. I would never have a junior, but that’s mostly because my husband’s name has no nicknames and his middle name is his mom’s maiden name (which is particularly name-sounding), so what the heck would we call the kid? I would be more than willing to let him give one of our sons his first name as a middle, though (but he doesn’t want to, even though he really likes his name). If he had a different full name and I liked his name and he wanted a junior, I’d probably go for it.
I am married to a [name_m]JR[/name_m]. I will say the following:
My husband likes the family connection with his father also. He also has suggested if we have a boy he would want to name this one after him and his father, making this one a third (possibly). If it was super terrible, I don’t think he would say this.
We have had a few issues with the whole “having the same name thing” that [name_u]Ashley[/name_u] was talking about. It can be difficult to keep some personal information separate, but my husband is very sure to put [name_m]JR[/name_m] on everything and his father puts SR on everything. I will say the information that has gotten confused is not nearly as serious as the examples [name_u]Ashley[/name_u] mentioned so that would be something to consider. We have gotten lucky I guess!
My sister is married to a twin who has the same middle name as his twin and beginning two letters for his first name as his twin. Their personal information gets confused CONSTANTLY because their socials are one number apart and they have the same birthdate. So, basically the point I am making is this confusion can happen in a number of other scenarios.
If you guys can agree on a boys name and that name happens to be a [name_m]JR[/name_m], I say go for it! Good luck!
My brother isn’t technically a [name_m]Jr[/name_m] because his and my father’s middle names are different, but growing up it was kind of annoying when the phone would ring, and with mail addressed to [name_m]William[/name_m] without a middle initial. My dad’s been [name_m]Bill[/name_m] his whole life and my brother has been [name_m]William[/name_m] and [name_m]Will[/name_m], but even still I think he would have appreciated his ‘own’ name, especially since he’s quite different from my dad. I would not name a [name_m]Jr[/name_m] (if it were to be the first time the name was reused) because of my brother’s experience.
I have maybe twenty friends on fb who have had kids so far and two of them have done [name_m]Jr[/name_m]'s. One is a [name_m]Frederick[/name_m], which I thought was so clunky at first but it’s grown on me a lot. That baby is the forth or fifth generation and so I imagine there would have been a big upset if they hadn’t continued that (and I suppose if my baby were that far in the generational line of [name_m]Jr[/name_m]'s I’d probably just do it too, to save the heartache). I’m not sure if the other [name_m]Jr[/name_m] baby is the third (or more) for their family.
Someone here said something along the lines of “Sr/[name_m]Jr[/name_m] is for real people, III/IV/V is for royalty” and I tend to agree.
I’m against it for practical reasons, because I’ve seen too many cases like a pp said of confusion in the house, credit mix-ups (in fact I heard a case where the son legally changed part of his name to prevent future problems), etc. Using a father’s first or middle name as the son’s middle name (or the equivalent with mother/daughter), yes. Using the same first name as a relative that is deceased and/or wouldn’t have the same last name, yes too. The exact same name as a parent, no.
I know quite a few Jrs, but my husband is against the idea of ever having one so I don’t live with one. The ones that I know make it work by being [name_m]Jack[/name_m]/[name_m]John[/name_m], [name_u]Charlie[/name_u]/[name_m]Chuck[/name_m], [name_u]Georgie[/name_u]/[name_m]George[/name_m], ect. I think it’s a really nice tradition and if you like your husband’s name you should go for it! Most of the traditional male names have some nickname variation. [name_m]Just[/name_m] start another thread if you want suggestions for a great nickname that will give him a separate identity from his father!
Thanks everyone! My husbands name is pretty traditional and ordinary - [name_m]Matthew[/name_m] [name_m]Dawson[/name_m]. He goes by [name_m]Matt[/name_m] exclusively. I was thinking of calling the baby [name_m]Dawson[/name_m]. To be honest, I wouldn’t have picked this combo as our last name ends in -son and is two syllables as wel. I always thought his middle and last name clashed. However, this is really important to him. I guess we’d have to add Sr. to my husbands name? I’m mostly worried about credit or financial confusion in the future.
I have a cousin who is a third. He recently defaulted on his first student loan payment, because the bill was sent to his father. The III wasn’t on the bill.
But that’s just one story. I’m sure there are a lot of good ones too.
The first time my SO and I talked about names (after only a few weeks of dating swoon), he mentioned he wants his first son to be a Jr.
Definitely not something I’ve ever wanted to do, and even though I love him, it not my naming style and wouldn’t fit with siblings; his FN and MN are top 20 from the 80s, both without nn possibilities. If his name had options for nns I would maybe consider it.
The way he brought it up was “I think it would be cool to have a son named after me”, so I think once we seriously start talking names he may be ok with the MN honouring him.
We are still a few years away from kids so time to discuss more.
Thanks you! We’re going to do it, always have. [name_m]Just[/name_m] wanted some pros, cons, and other other stories (good or bad) about having a [name_m]Jr[/name_m]. Thanks again!
Sounds like your husband thinks rather highly of himself. A child is a unique individual deserving of his own identity and moniker.
Thanks but, that’s just your opinion, doesn’t mean anything to me. He believes in tradition and it’s important to him so it’s important to me.