Perhaps I’m being overly sensitive, and I’m not expecting yet so quite happy to receive criticism. I [name_u]LOVE[/name_u] honour names and plan on using quite a few (either exact copies or names inspired by family members), but I only plan on having 3-4 children so definitely will not be able to honour everyone I’d like (for instance, I’ll probably only honour my dad out of our parents). [name_m]How[/name_m] do you deal with this? [name_m]Will[/name_m] some relatives feel left out? My favourite honour names have not been based on who my favourite relatives are, but simply which names I like best… Am I totally overthinking it?
We’ve definitely got firm favourites for a first child - if it’s a boy, his middle name will be my husband’s name, and if it’s a girl, her first name will be a variant of my (recently) late grandma’s name. It’s siblings I’m worried about!
Mmm… Well, I think it’s likely that someone will feel disappointed their name isn’t chosen. My brother intends to name his son after our Dad and my Mum, even if jokingly, always says, “Well why won’t you name you’re child after me?” Her legal name is [name_u]Terrie[/name_u] due to her not being registered born until age thirteen (weird, I know,) but her name, had her parents registered it would’ve been [name_f]Theresa[/name_f] so I would name a girl [name_f]Tessa[/name_f] after her or something like that. Which to her is little consolation. Haha.
Mor
My brother has three honour names and I have one. Which occasionally does niggle at me. More so because my first name is just a name they like, while my brother’s first name is in honour of a legendary race car driver.
I think that as long as your family (or any family) is considerate, grateful, and non-entitled, you are able to honor some people and not others. I don’t think it’s reasonable to believe that any one young couple will be able to (or necessarily want to) honor ALL of the people in their lives through their childrens’ names.
If I were you, I’d establish from the get-go that there should be no expectations from the family in terms of who gets named for, and that rather than expectations there can be thoughtful surprises.
My daughter is named after my two grandmothers, and (as far as I know) my husband’s side of the family is OK with that. Maybe there is a way for you to include more than one person in an honour name? For example, if you want to honour a [name_f]Katherine[/name_f] and a [name_f]Jolene[/name_f], you could name the baby [name_f]Kathleen[/name_f]? Or if the majority of a side of your family is a certain nationality, you could pick a name from that nationality…like, my husband’s family is nearly 100% [name_m]German[/name_m], so names we’ve considered have been [name_f]Ada[/name_f] and [name_f]Adelaide[/name_f](which is the English form of a [name_m]German[/name_m] name.)
In the end though, you can’t please everyone, so just make sure you choose names YOU love and that are special to YOU. Our first baby is named with two honour names, but the names we chose for our second are purely names we love (that do honour national heritages to a certain degree) because, there just weren’t really many “family tree” names we both loved! There is no rule that if one baby has an honour name, all siblings have to as well.
I wouldn’t worry if I were you, I doubt your families will even be expecting that you honour them, it’ll just be a nice surprise 
I am trying to find a way to honor my grandparents and my nana in one baby. There is no guarantee that I will get more than one, so I am trying to find a combo I like best. So far, I’ve only been successful with a girl. We have decided on: _________ [name_f]Margaret[/name_f] [name_u]Gray[/name_u] or ________ [name_u]Marion[/name_u] [name_m]Jenkins[/name_m] as an honor name. For a boy, he will be named after my two favorite people: [name_m]George[/name_m] [name_m]Harrison[/name_m] and [name_m]Ernest[/name_m] [name_m]Hemingway[/name_m]. My husband does not have anyone in his family that he would like to honor, so it was always just down to me. My brother carries my father’s name, so I feel like that was handled and then my mom’s name is a variant of [name_f]Margaret[/name_f] and [name_u]Marion[/name_u], so I can just kind of lump her in, too.
Either way, you shouldn’t feel pressured to honor anyone, nor should anyone make you feel bad about it. My sister has an “honor” middle name (my mom’s grandmother’s maiden name) and she doesn’t feel especially connected to that side of the family, nor does she feel as if her name is more “special” than ours. And in that vein, we have never felt like we were left out because she got an honor name and we didn’t. You should choose the names that feel right for you and your baby.