My husband and I need a lot of help. My husband was raised Jewish but does not practice. However he does firmly want to follow the Jewish tradition of not naming babies after someone who is living. This is a problem because my family has basically used the same 4 names (first or middle) for every male born in the last 5 generations. My grandmother, who is 86 and in failing health, is devastated that I won’t use one of these names. We have finally decided after a lot of back and forth that our sons name will be [name_m]Maddox[/name_m]. Our last name is Kauffman. The 4 family names are [name_u]James[/name_u], wilson, [name_m]Andrew[/name_m], and [name_m]Alan[/name_m]. My husband has agreed that we could do something inspired by one or more of these without using the exact name are there any suggestions or thoughas about possible options
I think that’s a good compromise. My son’s middle is [name_m]Hugh[/name_m] rather than [name_m]Huey[/name_m] (the actual family name.) Maybe [name_u]Jameson[/name_u] or [name_u]Jamie[/name_u] instead of [name_u]James[/name_u]? [name_m]Willem[/name_m] or [name_m]Will[/name_m] instead of [name_m]Wilson[/name_m]? [name_m]Andrei[/name_m], Drew, or Andrue instead of [name_m]Andrew[/name_m]? (Alt spellings are okay, right?) [name_m]Alvin[/name_m] or [name_u]Alden[/name_u] instead of [name_m]Alan[/name_m]?
[name_u]Jameson[/name_u] has been mentioned several times because it could be for [name_u]James[/name_u] and [name_m]Wilson[/name_m]. [name_u]James[/name_u] is the most used of the names however. My cousin and Uncle are [name_u]James[/name_u] [name_m]Alan[/name_m]. My brother is [name_m]Nicholas[/name_m] [name_u]James[/name_u] and my cousin has son named [name_m]Elijah[/name_m] [name_u]James[/name_u]. I debate if it is different enough
Maybe you could do a little digging around in your ancestry to find a family honor name that doesn’t belong to any living relatives? I think [name_m]Maddox[/name_m] [name_u]Jameson[/name_u] is fine, but I think I would want to use an honor name that isn’t [name_u]James[/name_u] related since it’s the most frequently used in your family
[name_m]Maddox[/name_m] [name_m]Anderson[/name_m] K
[name_m]Maddox[/name_m] [name_u]Alwin[/name_u] K
[name_m]Maddox[/name_m] Alanson K
[name_m]Maddox[/name_m] [name_m]Alexander[/name_m] K
[name_m]Maddox[/name_m] [name_m]Willard[/name_m] K
You could use a nickname for one of your family names:
[name_m]Maddox[/name_m] [name_m]Jack[/name_m]
[name_m]Maddox[/name_m] [name_u]Drew[/name_u]
Or just another name that starts with the same first letter - that is what a lot of Jewish families do to honor relatives - either an “A”, “J” or “W”
[name_m]Adrian[/name_m]
[name_m]Julian[/name_m]
[name_m]John[/name_m]
[name_m]Joseph[/name_m]
[name_m]Jacob[/name_m]
[name_m]Wyatt[/name_m]
[name_u]Wylie[/name_u]
[name_u]Love[/name_u] [name_m]Maddox[/name_m] [name_u]Drew[/name_u].
You could work with international variations of the names. You could even go for a variation that reflects your family’s heritage:
[name_m]Maddox[/name_m] [name_m]Seamus[/name_m] (Irish)
[name_m]Maddox[/name_m] [name_u]Shay[/name_u] (short for [name_m]Seamus[/name_m]…so kind of like [name_u]Jamie[/name_u]?)
[name_m]Maddox[/name_m] [name_m]Anders[/name_m] (Scandinavian)
[name_m]Maddox[/name_m] [name_m]Andreas[/name_m] ([name_m]German[/name_m], Dutch and Greek)