For me, barely important.
I’ve only now realized how some of my name ideas end up honoring other family members, but I rarely if ever try to intentionally do so.
For some reason it rubs me the wrong way the idea of honoring someone with your child’s name. I don’t particularly know why either, sometimes I love it, other times I feel like it’s “trying to hard” or something.
Idk. I’m very weird when it comes to the subject of honoring in names. Very very weird.
[name]How[/name] about you?
I like the idea of a name meaning something. It doesn’t have to be after someone, but I wouldn’t use a name just because I liked it. My child most likely won’t have the same taste as me, so why would I give them an essentially random name that will mean nothing to them? I like the idea of a name having a story or reason behind it, even if it’s kind of convoluted. My first name is one my parents liked, and my middle is after my grandmother who I never met. I’ve always preferred my middle and felt connected to my grandmother through my name.
I would only honor someone with my child’s name, if this someone was extra ordinary to me. I have a great family, great parents and brothers and sisters, but the only one I would actually name my child after is my grandma. She is just a special person that has been ill for a very long time now. She partly raised all of her grandkids, everyone was always welcomed in her house and she was the kind of grandma who would cook every grandchilds favourite meal even if that meant she had to cook 3 different meals a lunch.
The second person I would consider naming my kid after was my great-grandfather who chose to be a political opponent of the Nazis and therefor risked his life. I like that he was so brave to stand up even though he probably knew that they might kill him, but then again, do I know what person he was? There are so many aspects about a person that you just don’t know if you never met them.
I would never do it like “well we already took a name of my family, now it’s my husbands turn, what name can we take?” If there isn’t this extremely special person, than I won’t give my child some random family name.
Especially not a name of a family member I’v never even met. Okay, it might have been my great-great-grandmothers name, but was she a great person? Maybe I wouldn’t have even liked her. Maybe she was judging oder annoying or whatever. So I would never just take a name out of the family tree.
I just don’t feel like a name must come from the family. A new child deserves a new name. That’s why I would family names only in the middle spot.
What I would NEVER do is chosing a name “because it’s tradition and it’s his dads and grandfathers and uncles and cousins name”. In this case there are already way too many people with the same name. Again, middle spot.
I like names that honour family members, but I usually stretch it a bit. For example, my mum likes owls, and I would consider using [name]Athena[/name] to honour her as [name]Athena[/name] is associated with owls. That might not be a close enough connection for some people, but it is for me. Still, if I love a name and it doesn’t honour a family member, I still use it.
Conversely, sometimes a family member stops me using a name. I [name]LOVE[/name] the name [name]Iris[/name] but my great grandma is [name]Iris[/name] so I can’t use that.
I’m the same way. I never choose names that don’t have some sort of meaning, or intense fondness for.
If I like a name, there’s a good chance I’m a fan of the literal meaning of it, as well as some sort of background reason behind it.
See now this I like! I love subtle ties to family, I think it’s a sweet connection.
Not at all important
I’m fine with getting inspiration from someone’s name/hobbie/likes/etc but “honoring” is weird to me too. None of my favorite names “honor” anybody
My grandmother always says “Give me my flowers while I’m living”. Dead people don’t know or care that you’ve named a child after them, so you’re really doing it for yourself and to show off for others. Same as having tons of flowers and saying kind words at the funeral. It also means that you “honor” the people you love by being kind to them while they’re living and by living your life in a way they’d be proud of once they’re gone.
I agree that a child should have his or her own name, but I like the idea of honoring someone you love somewhere in the name. For my son, we just liked his fn, and his mn is after his dad, my DH. Same for my DD, we just liked the fn (and the meaning as well as a literary reference) but both her mns are honoring family members. The first mn is after my dear grandma who I’m still very close to, and her second mn is my maiden name. As for me, my fn is a family name, but I never felt it wasn’t mine, and my mn, my parents just liked. I enjoyed that mix myself,of a family name and a name that was mine alone, so I have followed suit with my own kids.
I don’t like the idea of honoring family members, one because I’m not close to my family, and two, I firmly believe the child should have their own name. I don’t understand Harrisons the 5th or [name]Henry[/name] the 4ths, it just seems ridiculous. There is no uniqueness to them and they feel the need to live up to the previous [name]Harrison[/name] or [name]Henry[/name].
I guess for me it’s not a big deal in the middle name spot, but I would never do it. Also, my sister and I were not named after anybody so I feel no need to carry on a tradition or start one…
I’m huge on honoring family. My family are my best friends, they’ve been there for me through absolutely everything. It’s just something that’s very important to me. All my children will have a family connection somewhere in their name. That being said, I’m not big on honoring someone who I never really met. Are they family? Yeah. But I don’t know them, they didn’t impact my life like my parents and siblings did, they just don’t deserve that honor, imo. There are some old family names–like [name]Avery[/name] and [name]Cora[/name]–that I would seriously consider using, just because I like the connection to my ancestry, but they wouldn’t really count as “honoring” someone to me. I would still use a name to honor my mom, dad, sibling, or grandmother along with [name]Avery[/name] or [name]Cora[/name] or whatever.
I’m not huge on using the actual name, either–there are very few family names I actually like, and I’m more interested in having a combo I adore with a family connection that’s strong enough for me. I have [name]Lily[/name] for my grandmother–it was nowhere near close to her name, but her last gift to me before she was buried in the ground was a lily, so it’s very significant to me.
I definitely want to honor my grandmothers–they’ve always been a big part of my life and have helped me through so much. They’re honestly my heroes. Same for my parents and siblings. I’m not sure I’ll actually honor my grandfathers, though. I feel bad about it, but I never really knew any of them, and even if they had lived long enough to see me grow up, I don’t know that I would have the same connection with them that I have with my grandmothers. They loved me, but certainly didn’t take time to bond with me like my grandma and nana did. But then again, my paternal grandpa had the same name as my dad and brother do, so I guess I’m honoring him (and his father, haha) by default when I use [name]Jack[/name], [name]Jane[/name], and [name]Giovanna[/name]. I actually would prefer to honor my maternal grandfather–I actually knew more about him and felt more connected to him before he passed away, and he was quirky and funny and mesmerizing and I’ll always respect his decision to be an airman for so many years. Honestly, though I barely knew him, he was still my hero, nearly to the same extent as my grandmothers. It’s just so hard to honor him, though, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to. If I had the chance, though, I would like to very much.
My first and middle names are both after my great-grandmothers, and I’ve always really loved my name. They both passed away before I was born, so I’ve always felt as though my name was “my own,” but I’ve also always felt a really special connection to them. It actually makes me feel closer to my parents too… they chose to name after wonderful women that they loved very, very much… I’m forever appreciative of that! 
I plan to name my first daughter [name]Maria[/name], after my grandmother, and I hope she’ll enjoy having her name as much as I enjoy having mine.
I prefer to do it with MNs instead of the FN. For example, [name]Elizabeth[/name] is a big name in my family and is my sister’s MN ([name]Erin[/name] [name]Elizabeth[/name] is her full name). I’d consider naming my daughter [name]Everly[/name] [name]Elizabeth[/name] after her. My mom’s MN is [name]Rae[/name] ([name]Maureen[/name] [name]Rae[/name]), so I can also use [name]Everly[/name] [name]Rae[/name]. My dad is [name]Daniel[/name] and my husband’s little brother is [name]Daniel[/name], so [name]Daniel[/name] would be a natural MN choice for boys. However, I also feel like I could turn [name]Daniel[/name] into [name]Danielle[/name] and use it as a MN for a girl too ([name]Everly[/name] [name]Danielle[/name]). I don’t care for any of my family’s names enough to use them as first names, but definitely would look to them for MN use.
My husband was named for both of his grandfathers’… [name]Joseph[/name] [name]Henry[/name]. I adore the name [name]Henry[/name] for a little boy too.
[name]Douglas[/name] and I are huge into honoring our family members when choosing names for our kiddos. We both come from relatively large, close knit families and feel that passing down names, or derivatives of names is extremely important. That being said, I would never name a son my husbands exact name and call him [name]Junior[/name], and I wouldn’t use a family name if I didn’t [name]LOVE[/name] it. This is why we chose to indirectly/directly honor family members with each of our bubs names :
[name]Rigby[/name] - to honor my grandmother [name]Eleanor[/name], plus our families love for the Beatles
[name]Harrison[/name] - family name (unchanged)
[name]Miller[/name] - my maiden name
[name]Thomas[/name] - [name]Douglas[/name]’ father
[name]Wren[/name] - to honour a Lawrence
[name]Charlotte[/name] - to honour my grandfather [name]Charles[/name]
[name]Amity[/name] - to honour my sister [name]Amelia[/name] (and “friendship” tie to her twin)
[name]Eloise[/name] - honours [name]Eleanor[/name]
[name]Cleo[/name] - honours [name]Claudine[/name]
[name]Bellamy[/name] - honours my sister [name]Amelia[/name] (and “friendship” tie to her twin)
So that’s how it goes in our household. Some direct influences, and some indirect.
xo [name]Viv[/name]
I’m quite cool with honouring. I’ll try to include someone in my future kids’ names (most of the names I like do so anyway) but I won’t be devestated if it doesn’t work out. My family is big but close so I’d love to give a child something from that, even it’s just a middle name. I don’t think it’s showing off at all. Showing off, to me, is calling your kid something like Kllooee, Aubergine, Tampax or something equally ridiculous that they’ll probably hate you for. I reckon slipping in a family name or a different version of a family name that means something to you can be better than an out of the blue name that doesn’t have any connection to anything.
Saying that, I don’t really like it when you get kids that have their names completely honouring family members without any originality. I have a friend called [name]William[/name] [name]John[/name]. His dad is [name]William[/name] [name]John[/name] too, his grandad is [name]John[/name] and they’re all either [name]Williams[/name] or Johns right back to the Conqueror! I get that they’re family names, but they could’ve mixed it up a bit!
Personally, I would like my kids’ middle names to honor family. That means I basically have a pool of [name]Maria[/name], [name]Anastasia[/name], [name]Jesse[/name], [name]Natalie[/name]/[name]Nathaniel[/name], and [name]Michael[/name]/[name]Michaela[/name] to choose from, depening on the first name
I am not interested at all in honoring family members with names myself. My son’s middle name is [name]Tomas[/name], and my dad is [name]Thomas[/name], but I didn’t name him after him at all. I just really like the name [name]Tomas[/name] with his FN. I think, in most cases, honoring family with names is also fairly boring.
I also think about my kids naming any of their future children after me and the idea doesn’t sit well with me. It’s like, too much of an honor or something. I wonder if the (living) people who are being “honored” are always comfortable with it.
We certainly haven’t gone out of our way to do that. [name]One[/name] exception is our third son, who was born 10 months after my sister’s husband had passed away in an accident. He had been around our family since I was 11, and was like an extra brother to me. As soon as I knew we were having a boy, I knew his middle name would be after my brother in law, if it was ok with my sister. I think we have talked about him more because that name is there. He was just one of the best men/husbands/fathers ever.
Another was our fourth son, whose middle name is after my father in law who also passed away shortly before our boy was born. Though I may have used his name anyway because it’s just a good name. I like the idea of honouring someone, but as others have said, I won’t use a name I dislike to do that, and I don’t feel like it’s something we are compelled to do.
I think if it is something that fits, and you love it, then great. But sometimes people are stretching way too much, like “oh, he has the same initials as so and so” well, to me, that’s so much of a stretch you aren’t honoring anyone with it. But I don’t think there should be pressure to name your child after someone. It should be strictly based on preference, not ‘family tradition’.
It’s not important to me, and I’d rather not do it.
In any event, the one person I would seriously consider honoring (my mom) is vocal about disliking the idea of honoring names. Ignoring her feelings would be a lousy way to show my respect. 
Edited for privacy.