My dad passed away last year — pretty young and pretty suddenly — and we want to honour him by naming our son after him. The only trouble is my dad and my husband had (have?) the same name… and we don’t like the idea of our son having the same name as his own father. I know the practice of having a son and father sharing a name is customary in some circles, but we don’t want people to think we’re naming our baby after my husband when it’s really our baby’s late grandfather we’re hoping to honour. ([name_m]Long[/name_m] story, sorry)
SO!!! What do people think about this… my father loved motorcycles. It was always a bit of a surprise to people, because to meet my dad he was always quite bookish looking/soft spoken/honestly a bit dweeby. But boy, did he love his bikes. He rode everywhere, and it became a true passion for him in the last 15 years of his life.
And with this, we thought about [name_m]Rider[/name_m]. (Not [name_m]Ryder[/name_m], but [name_m]Rider[/name_m]) What do you guys think of [name_m]Rider[/name_m]? Is it too close to trendy names like [name_u]Parker[/name_u], [name_u]Carter[/name_u], [name_m]Ryker[/name_m], [name_u]Harper[/name_u], etc.? Please be honest. We’re NOT at all into those kinds of names.
Options for full names might be:
[name_m]Rider[/name_m] [name_m]Joshua[/name_m]
[name_m]Rider[/name_m] [name_m]Clarke[/name_m]
[name_m]Rider[/name_m] [name_u]Michael[/name_u]
[name_m]Rider[/name_m] [name_u]Wallace[/name_u] open to others
Well there are a lot of ways to honor people, you could use a name for something someone loved/did. Much like how surnames came about. You could give your boy your father’s and husbands name as his middle along with that and honor them both. If you like your father’s middle name or your maiden name , either of those could be his middle. You could give him a name meaning son of something to do with your father, say if he loved cars, you could get away with [name_u]Carson[/name_u]. I don’t have a suggestion for bikes but possibly a name with meaning that connects to the freedom of riding or something about third since his father and grandfather have the same name like [name_m]Tripp[/name_m] and then their name? It is ok to name him for both. A name can hold a lot of meaning beyond just liking it. As far as [name_m]Rider[/name_m], it’s a surname and likely gets use. He would fit right in with the [name_u]Walker[/name_u]/ [name_u]Parker[/name_u] / [name_u]Carter[/name_u] crowd but it isn’t ultra popular like some of them. Personally I don’t love love those names either but some are just so nice. I really like [name_m]Thayer[/name_m] personally. You can always use an occupational name like that, like I said it’s a great way to honor someone. Lots of options here. Look at meaning and see what looks good on paper and sounds good and feels right.
My dad passed away suddenly last year too. I don’t particularly plan on having children, but if I did I love the idea of having a son named [name_m]David[/name_m] after my dad. However, dh’s brother & nephew are also named [name_m]David[/name_m], so it wouldn’t work. My dad was passionate about baseball all of his life, as am I and it was a special bond that we shared. So, I had thought of using the name [name_m]Gibson[/name_m] to honor him after his favorite baseball player. A super round about way, but my point is that I totally get your sentiment w/[name_m]Rider[/name_m] & think it’s very very sweet. [name_m]Rider[/name_m] is a very cool name, & maybe there’s no good reason for this, but don’t lump it in w/[name_u]Parker[/name_u], [name_u]Carter[/name_u], [name_m]Ryker[/name_m], [name_u]Harper[/name_u] at all. I’ve always liked the name ([name_m]Rider[/name_m] Strong in Boy Meets World, maybe!) . Are the mns honor names? I kind of think that [name_m]Rider[/name_m] [name_u]Wallace[/name_u] is the most interesting.
I think pulling a name from somthing you associate with your father or something he loved is a really beautiful idea. [name_m]Rider[/name_m] is a good idea although it is little trendy and in the same vain with the names you listed that you aren’t into, and I can see most people assuming it’s spelled [name_m]Ryder[/name_m]. Something you might consider is what you might name a sibling to this baby, if you want the names to go together that might effect how you feel about [name_m]Rider[/name_m].
Other ideas that fit with the motorcycle idea:
[name_m]Axel[/name_m]
[name_m]Gage[/name_m]
[name_m]Davidson[/name_m]
Other ideas to pull honor names from:
His birth month/ stone/ color/ flower
[name_m]Favorite[/name_m] author
Book he read to you as a child
An activity you enjoyed together
A word that describes him
A name that he really liked/ might have picked for you
Maybe he named one of his vehicles and you could pull insperation from that
An artist/ musician he admired
An event that sticks out in your mind
[name_m]Street[/name_m] name where he was raised
City where he was raised
Character he admired
Actor he admired
[name_m]Favorite[/name_m] song
For example I have [name_m]Wilder[/name_m] as a middle because the [name_m]Little[/name_m] house on the [name_u]Prairie[/name_u] books by [name_f]Laura[/name_f] Ingalls [name_m]Wilder[/name_m] was a huge part of my relationship with my father as a child.
I’d say [name_m]Ryder[/name_m] and [name_m]Ryker[/name_m] feel trendy, but [name_m]Rider[/name_m] not as much. I don’t love it personally, but I do love the meaning it has for you. I think the alliteration is fine—even pretty cool—with your last name as long as it’s not R-heavy. ([name_m]Rider[/name_m] [name_m]Rourke[/name_m] would take a lot of effort to say! [name_m]Rider[/name_m] [name_m]Robinson[/name_m] is a little easier.)
[name_u]Harley[/name_u] is another option (if he was a [name_u]Harley[/name_u] guy).
My father passed away a long time ago and I too spent awhile (my whole pregnancy) trying to work out how to honour him through my daughter’s name. My two nephews have his name as their middle names so I wanted something different, particularly as I was already incorporating my/his surname as one of my daughter’s surnames. Anyway, in the end I used his birth month, [name_u]June[/name_u], as my daughter’s middle name. It’s very subtle but for me it’s symbolic of a celebration of his life rather than his death.
Another idea I toyed around with was using [name_u]Phoenix[/name_u] somewhere in her, or a future son’s (I prefer it for boys) name, as it has the same meaning as my dad’s name.
Anyway, those are some others ideas for you, but I do love the sentiment behind [name_m]Rider[/name_m]. [name_m]Even[/name_m] though it’s not a name I love the meaning makes it special. I say go for it. If you are concerned about it being similar to trendy names you don’t like you could always use it as a middle name instead.
I personally don’t love [name_m]Rider[/name_m] (though I do love [name_m]Ryder[/name_m]) but I adore the personal meaning behind it for you. Another way to honour him could be [name_u]Harley[/name_u], if he liked [name_u]Harley[/name_u] Davidsons? That’s a way I personally want to honour my own father.
I am so sorry about your dad. I think [name_m]Rider[/name_m] is a lovely way to honor him and the i spelling instead of y makes it way less trendy in my eyes.
My only concern (and in light of [name_m]Rider[/name_m]'s significance, I definitely see this as a non-issue. [name_m]Just[/name_m] thought I’d bring it up in case it bothers you and your husband) is that [name_m]Rider[/name_m] middle makes [name_m]Rider[/name_m] seem like a title. Like the image in my head is a bunch of people on motorcycles and someone standing on the driveway, pointing out “Oh there’s [name_m]Rider[/name_m] 1 and [name_m]Rider[/name_m] 2. That one’s rider [name_u]Michael[/name_u].”
Granted, saying them out loud, [name_m]Rider[/name_m] [name_u]Michael[/name_u] is the only combo that brought that to mind. [name_m]Rider[/name_m] [name_m]Clarke[/name_m] feels surname-heavy and [name_u]Wallace[/name_u] isn’t my favorite, but I really do like [name_m]Rider[/name_m] [name_m]Joshua[/name_m] a lot. I think it sounds lovely when spoken and visually looks very balanced.
Alliteration isn’t my favorite, but I would not give up a name I liked just because of it, so I think it’s fine that your last name starts with R!
The previous posters have shared some great ideas…I will just add a few additional thoughts.
First of all I think honouring your dad with a name tied to his hobby/passion is a beautiful thing. [name_m]Rider[/name_m] is totally usable.
I know a little [name_m]Ryder[/name_m] well and have always thought his name was super cute (if not necessarily my style). I do see it as a bit of a dying trend which in my context is also sort of associated with working-class families. I don’t know if that is true statistically across the board, but that is the association I have.
If I met a [name_m]Rider[/name_m], I would assume the spelling was [name_m]Ryder[/name_m]. The spelling [name_m]Ryder[/name_m] feels more “like a name” to me than [name_m]Rider[/name_m], but that’s probably because I know a [name_m]Ryder[/name_m] so well.
I also am curious about how it will sound with your last name. Sometimes double letters sound great, but it really depends on the name. Could you share your last name or at least what the first sound is?
