I was just wondering, have any of you named your child after someone who is special or who you admire and without realising, kinda thought that you kid will grow up to be like the other person?? We’re u disappointed when your child was the complete opposite or was it fine because they are their own person?x
I haven’t and I don’t plan to. I think each person should have their own name and personality. Naming your kid after someone just takes the specialness away from the name imo. They might feel as if their name isn’t truly theirs, but a hand-me-down.
My daughter has 2 middle names- one is someone who meant a lot to my husband & one is someone who meant a lot to me. [name]Both[/name] are very different extraordinary people who have passed away. I know my daughter will be an extraordinary person in her own right & I wont be disappointed if she doesn’t have the qualities & gifts of her namesakes.
My daughter’s middle name is after my grandfather. It would never have occurred to me to expect her to have any of his qualities just because her name is in honor of my special relationship with him, or to feel let down if it didn’t happen. My grandfather is an amazing person, but not because of his name. My daughter is delightful but not because her middle name has family meaning.
Not at all!
I’m very set on naming my first child after my grandmother (will carry on the MN [name]Grace[/name]), and my grandmother means the whole world to me and she’s my hero in every way, but just because I name my daughter after my grandma, that doesn’t mean I want her to be my grandma. In fact, I think I would positively die if my daughter turned out to be my grandma, lol. Much as I adore her, some of her quirks just drive me crazy. Sure, yeah, I would love my daughter to have some of the better characteristics of my grandma, but I just want her to be her own person. She’ll be fabulous in her own way.
Besides, I plan to adopt the majority of my children, so the likelihood that her personality will in any way mirror my grandmother’s seems like a one-in-a-million shot. They could, but would they? Probably not. [name]Isabelle[/name] will be her own little person, just like my grandma is her own person. 
I hope the same for all my future hypothetical children. I hope to have around 5 kids, and I definitely want them all to be named after family, either mine or my future husband’s. But I never would expect or hope that my children would somehow be little clones of the people I love and respect. Our diversity is what makes us so amazing, I think.
All five of my children have a family middle name and [name]Emeline[/name] [name]Beckie[/name] is named after [name]Emmeline[/name] B. [name]Wells[/name], a famous suffragist, and [name]Harriet[/name] Franceszka is named after [name]Harriet[/name] Tubman. Your question is interesting. Yes, I would be disappointed if my daughters turn out to be weak-willed women who don’t understand their own power and capacity. I purposefully pick powerful sounding, yet feminine, names that emphasize that women are strong as women and don’t need to be anything but themselves to claim and use their own power. My daughters’ names are [name]Miriam[/name], [name]Emeline[/name], and [name]Harriet[/name]. I think I nailed the feeling I wanted the names to have with all three. In fact, my husband wanted [name]Adelaide[/name] for the last girl and while I think it is a lovely name–it didn’t sound strong enough for me.
That isn’t the whole story though. My darling little blond [name]Harriet[/name] will never have to fight slavery so to say I want her to be like [name]Harriet[/name] Tubman is sort of misleading. I want her to never let anyone else decide her fate for her. So yes, I do want her to be like [name]Harriet[/name] Tubman in that sense.
As for the family names for middle names, it is a way to honor a family member and remind the child of good characteristics to have at the same time–definitely. It is also a reminder to family members (my oldest girl has my middle name) to be worthy of having someone named after you!
All names that you pick send a message to your child about the expectations you have for the child and you are fooling yourself if you think differently.