Honouring Parents

General Name Discussion
1

I love the idea of giving your child an honour name after your own parents, but how do you choose which parents to honour if you’re both close to both parents?

Did that make sense? Let me know if I need to figure out another way to explain what I mean :slight_smile:

2

Easier way is not pick one, but both. Some ideias:

1. Pick a completely different given name and put both moms (or both dads) names as middles (order depends on flow alone). Eg: [name_f]Marie[/name_f] and [name_f]Lola[/name_f], grandchild is [name_f]Phoebe[/name_f] [name_f]Lola[/name_f] [name_f]Marie[/name_f].

2. You could try to blend the name of both moms (or both dads). Eg: [name_f]Lydia[/name_f] and [name_f]Cora[/name_f] = [name_f]Lyra[/name_f].

3. You could use a variation of one parent name as given name and just copy the other as middle. Eg: [name_f]Lucia[/name_f] and [name_u]Jean[/name_u] = [name_f]Lucille[/name_f] [name_u]Jean[/name_u].

4. Use both moms’/dads’ names - choose given name vs middle based on sound alone. Eg: [name_f]Lola[/name_f] [name_f]Marie[/name_f] and not [name_f]Marie[/name_f] [name_f]Lola[/name_f].

If you can only use one parent name, I see 2 options:
a) Pick your favorite. You L.O.V.E your mom, but her name is [name_f]Sheila[/name_f] (which is kinda dated), while [name_f]MIL[/name_f] is named [name_f]Josephine[/name_f] (one of your faves).
b) Base your pick on flow and sound alone. [name_f]Annabelle[/name_f] [name_f]Sheila[/name_f] sounds [a little] better than [name_f]Annabelle[/name_f] [name_f]Josephine[/name_f].

Other ideas: you could make a list of possible ways of honoring future-grandma [name_f]Lucia[/name_f] ([name_f]Lucy[/name_f], [name_f]Lucille[/name_f], [name_f]Luciana[/name_f] etc) and ask the other future-grandma to choose her favorite. If one future-grandpa name is horrible, you could ask him to give you list of names he likes/feels honored by while the other future-grandpa name is copied as it is.

3

I don’t do honour name, but if I do, I will simply start with a name I like more. [name_m]Say[/name_m] you’re close to both parents, but you like your mom’s name more, I say use her name first.

4

I’m very close with both my parents as well and have thought how to honor them. Here’s what I came up with for my parents to give you a few ideas. My dads name is [name_u]Loren[/name_u] and my moms is [name_f]LaDawn[/name_f]. So for a boy I thought I could either just do [name_m]Lorenzo[/name_m] for my dad or [name_m]Don[/name_m] for my mom or [name_u]Ellis[/name_u]- since both of their initials are LS. For a girl I could either do [name_f]Dawn[/name_f] for my mom or [name_u]Ren[/name_u]/[name_u]Wren[/name_u]/[name_f]Florence[/name_f] for my dad or [name_f]Lola[/name_f] which takes the first two letters from both of their names. As far as actually choosing which one to use first, I will probably just pick out the first name first and then see which honor name goes the best.

I like the idea of combining honor names to come up with a new name so the child feels like they have their own name and it also has meaning.

Although depending on how many kids you want, it may be nice to just use one honor name per child. I have known people that have used all their honor names on the first baby and have no more honor names to use for the rest of their kids.

5

I’m personally team “the best honor names are the ones that don’t seem like it”. So my suggestions would be the following -

  1. Ask them what their all time favorite names are. Eg. Dad might say [name_f]Natalie[/name_f] and Mum might say [name_f]Maria[/name_f]. Boom! [name_f]Natalie[/name_f] [name_f]Maria[/name_f] or ____ [name_f]Natalie[/name_f] [name_f]Maria[/name_f]
  2. Pick a name based on something they love. For example if your parents’ favorite football team is the broncos you might choose the name [name_u]Denver[/name_u] or you might choose the names [name_f]Diana[/name_f] or [name_m]Clark[/name_m] as your aunt and uncle are massive comic book nerds.
  3. Pick something from their collective history (only really works if they are a couple). For example you might pick the name [name_u]Auburn[/name_u] as they lived on [name_u]Auburn[/name_u] [name_m]Street[/name_m] when they were first married or choose [name_f]May[/name_f] as a middle because they got engaged in [name_f]May[/name_f].
6

Thank you all for your replies, these are some great ideas!