I’m always curious about honour names. My first middle name ([name_f]Emily[/name_f]) was my great great aunt’s first name ([name_f]Emilie[/name_f]), and my second middle name ([name_f]Grace[/name_f]) is my aunt’s middle name.
I hope to use the names Ester (my great grandmother’s name), Dorothy (the English variation of my grandmother’s name, Dorte, pronounced Daw-tah), Peter (which shares the same meaning as my father’s name), and Grace. I love all three of these names, and it’s a very happy coincidence that they’re all family names.
Are you named after anyone? Have you or do you plan to name any of your children after anyone? Is anyone named after you? Or is there anyone you know that’s named after someone? Are the honourable people family, fictional, or something else?
I have the same middle name as my mom, but its [name_u]Lynn[/name_u], nothing special. My husband’s middle name, [name_m]Nazario[/name_m], is his dad’s first name. My dad and his sister were both named after their parents. They both ended up changing their names because they didn’t like having the same first names as their parents.
[name_f]Noemi[/name_f] wasn’t named after anyone, but if we have a boy next, his name will most likely be [name_m]Zenon[/name_m] [name_m]Joseph[/name_m]. [name_m]Zenon[/name_m] was my husband’s grandfather, and [name_m]Joseph[/name_m] is my grandfather. If we have a girl, I want to use [name_f]Josefina[/name_f] or [name_f]Josephine[/name_f] after my grandfather because he has been sick for awhile now.
Several of my siblings have honour names. I have an honour name. My aunt was named [name_u]Lisa[/name_u], so I was named [name_f]Alisa[/name_f] (get it, A [Aunt] [name_u]Lisa[/name_u]. It’s super tacky) I have a strong non-conformist personality and an honour name doesn’t honestly fit me. There are some family names I like, but I’d never use them to honour to specific family member if I ever did, unless maybe if the family member was recently deceased.
Something that really annoys me though is that my mother hated her middle name [name_f]Ellen[/name_f], which is also my grandma’s and great grandmas middle name. But out of the three children she birthed, only one of them got away with no honour names and its the one who likes them. (the other one, my half-brother) is too young to know his name tastes imo (he’s ten)
Though, most of my favourite names do come from literature or movies or animes I really loved, and some of them I discovered from books,movies, animes I didn’t particular like but liked names from. I could never have a son if it wasn’t for fandoms because pretty much all of my favourite boy names I love because of literature, etc.
I don’t discourage people from using family names, it’s very touching, but I do discourage people from using them because they feel they have to, and not because they actually truly love the name, if that makes sense.
My dad added his, and my grandad’s name (they have the same name) to my surname, making it double barrelled. I consider it a second middle to be honest. I like the connection, and if I get married and decide to change my name, I can keep my dad’s/ grandad’s name as a middle. One of my younger cousins has the male version of my name, but I don’t think he was named after me.
I personally don’t put a huge emphasis on family names with my favourite names and combos. Someone would always be left out, and I’d feel kinda bad. But I do have some names that honour close family (parents and grandparents) but I wouldn’t use family names I disliked. I’d only use names I love even if I they’re different variations e.g. [name_f]Anna[/name_f] for [name_f]Ann[/name_f], [name_f]Georgiana[/name_f] for [name_f]Georgina[/name_f] and [name_f]Ann[/name_f], [name_m]Albert[/name_m] as a smoosh of my grandads’ names. Or I use more abstract ways of honouring family such as a combined meaning like my dad did with my name, or just using initials.
I have way more character names in my combos though. I often fall in love with names because of characters, so my list is full of them. I think all of my top names have at least one character name, they’re really important to me. Each to their own haha.
I plan to name my first daughter [name_f]Mary[/name_f], partially after my grandmother. We may go with some variation of [name_f]Mary[/name_f], but so far the only one that we both somewhat like is [name_f]Marielle[/name_f], and I go back and forth on it. We plan to name our first son [name_m]Arthur[/name_m] after [name_m]Arthur[/name_m] Guinness (who was a great philanthropist as well as brewer).
My mom was named after someone. Her mom (not [name_f]Mary[/name_f], but my other grandma) had a baby sister that only lived for a few days. I thought it was so sweet that my grandma wanted to honor her baby sister like that.
Both my names are honour names technically, but I wasn’t given them for that reason - it’s more like a cool coincidence. A great great grandmother had the first name Harriet (and as I found out only a few months ago, a great great aunt from the other side of my family was also called Harriet) and a great grandmother had the middle name Grace.
My brother’s are intentional - one middle name is my grandfather’s first name and the other means ‘son of x’ (x being my dad’s name). His first name is not an honour name.
I’m not sure if I’d use honour names myself - not for any particular reason, it’s just not my priority. It would be a cool coincidence if a name I liked happened to be an honour name but that’s all.
I was my mom’s 5th child in 7 years. No one was very happy about my impending arrival so she decided to name me [name_f]Mary[/name_f] for the Blessed Mother. I was one of EIGHT [name_f]Mary[/name_f]'s in my 1st grade class in the 1960s. All went by their first/middle name combination. Thank heavens there was another [name_f]Mary[/name_f] [name_f]Ellen[/name_f], so when the dust settled I got to be just [name_f]Mary[/name_f] - which I loved. I didn’t appreciate [name_f]Ellen[/name_f] (a nod to my paternal great grandmother) til much later in life, but I LOVED being named for someone.
When I had my two children I gave my son my father’s name [name_m]Thomas[/name_m] as a middle and my daughter’s middle is [name_f]Marjorie[/name_f] for my grandmother. I’m delighted that my three grandchildren have honor middle names including the names [name_m]Thomas[/name_m], [name_f]Caroline[/name_f] and [name_u]Reese[/name_u] (the only way we could think to honor a [name_f]Therese[/name_f] with a boy!) I often encourage people to dig deep in the family archives for family gems!
I was named after a child-actress who my mom thought was absolutely adorable on a tv show she watched when she (mom) was younger ([name_f]Alyssa[/name_f] [name_f]Milano[/name_f] from Who’s the [name_m]Boss[/name_m]?). In a cool coincidence, DH was named after someone from tv, too…though from some raunchy soap opera my [name_f]MIL[/name_f] watched while in the hospital. One of his middle names is after his great-uncle. Other people I know who have honor names:
*my mom was named after her mom. Same first name and middle name. Her brother was named after their father, same way. When asked, my grandparents said they couldn’t think of anything else.
*My grandfather, [name_m]Natalino[/name_m], was named after [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] since he was born on [name_u]Christmas[/name_u] eve.
*My brother is named after our father.
*One of my nephews’ middle name is after [name_m]SIL[/name_m]'s father. Other nephew’s middle name is an Italian version of my dad and brother’s name, as well as that of both of our great-grandfathers.
*My “niece” (best friends’ daughter) is named after a character from the tv show Bones.
*several other relatives have used names that honor someone or something.
We don’t plan on using names that honor family. It’s too dramatic…someone feels left out (even if they are supposed grown adults) and there’s often a lot of pressure to name after relative X, with outrage if you named the baby after relative Y. If we like a name that a relative happens to have, we’ll take it case by case…maybe we’ll still go with it or maybe not. It depends on the relative. Luckily, though, most of the names (including our top choices for each gender) do not contain honor names of living relatives. Who is going to fuss if you say it is after a deceased relative?
I like honor names, but when they are used for the right reasons…not just because of guilt trips.
Oh boy, I’m so glad someone made this post. My culture/my family is all about honor names, and I feel so awkward sometimes here when people say it’s bad vibes or something.
I was named after: Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Grandma, and the national holiday on which I was born!
My daughters will probably be named after my parents and/or grandparents, and eventually my spouse’s, and my sons will probably be named after my husband first, and then my side of the family afterwards! Nameberry is where I can keep track of guilty pleasure names in my signature.
I like to go through my family tree several times to find at the very least a first name I love, and a middle name I like! And it’s good to mix and match with different sides of the family. Although I like to keep to one language: my name is [name_m]French[/name_m], and I lean [name_m]French[/name_m], but I also like Spanish-Spanish or Italian-Italian, and not a mix (which is hard given the multicultural and multilingual background)!
Personally, honour names aren’t my thing. I guess it’s a cultural thing. In my country, a lot of people has 1 name, so parents, usually just pick something they like.
I understand the people who likes to do this, and there are some personal cases that I can see WHY it is done, but most of the time kinda feels “forced” to me. My parents have both honour names and they both would be much more happier if I decided honour them by using some of their favourite names than seeing their grandkids have a name they never even liked.
Then, there is the trouble. If you honor somebody, other people can feel left out and that can create a tension that it’s not worthy.
Also, it’s that I don’t really feel like being pregnant for 9 months and going to labour to have some ugly name being forced on my child just because it’s the name of somebodys grandma or grandpa that I have never even knew. I would never use a name that I don’t like.
I don’t think there is nobody in my family that it’s named after me, but I share my name with some people; but If I was told that somebody is naming a girl after me I would like to make sure her parents are picking that particular name because they like it and not only because they want to give me a nod.
But is nice to see the diversity of opinions. If all of us thought the same it would be really boring!
Neither my brother nor I have an honor name. I have a few I’d consider using, though: [name_m]Vaino[/name_m] (I’m trying this one out. It’s for [name_m]Wayne[/name_m], which is my dad, uncle, and grandpa’s mn.), [name_f]Susanne[/name_f] (for my grandma’s mn, [name_f]Sue[/name_f]), [name_u]James[/name_u] (a family name on my mom’s side), and [name_m]Adam[/name_m] (for my stepdad).
I have an honour name, the [name_u]Jo[/name_u] part of my name is after my mothers best friend [name_f]Joanne[/name_f]. I love some family names but most likely won’t use as I don’t want to cause tension