I’ve never been one for direct honoring, but honoring certain people is very important to me. But I don’t want the names to be too much of a stretch.
So two questions - What do you think of indirect honor names?
2 - Would these work as honor names? Which one do you prefer?
Francesca - the person who i’d be honoring was in a production of Alice in Wonderland with me, her favorite character was the Cheshire cat, hence Chessa. A full name for Chessa is Francesca, hence the name. I feel like it works but it also seems very out there.
Ira - Her favorite name was Aira, and since I can’t use Aira and I love Ira, I guess it’s a win-win? For some reason it seems way too far to be an honor name, although it works.
Ellis - This would be the most direct honor. Elyse → Ellis.
Oceana - Her name was Bree. Bree → Breeze → Ocean → Oceana? We also used to go to the beach a lot, we were both swimmers. Does it work?
Which one makes the most sense? I’ve been stuck on this for the last couple months because I’m very indecisive with this
I like indirect honour names - it’s a subtle way to honour someone special to you while still giving your child a name that’s unique to them, rather than repeating family names, etc.
[name_u]Ellis[/name_u] & [name_u]Ira[/name_u] make the most sense to me, but all of these work just fine.
[name_f]Oceana[/name_f] from [name_f]Bree[/name_f] is the one that sounds most convoluted to me but if the honour makes sense to you then I think that’s all that matters! In my opinion, if you’ve chosen a name in honour of someone then it honours that person, no matter how complicated the connection is.
I think there is a very fine line with indirect honor names and, with exception of [name_u]Ellis[/name_u] to honor [name_f]Elyse[/name_f], I wouldn’t think these honoring. To me, they’re more “inspired by” and a bit contrived. But the key thing is whether you think the person you’re honoring would feel honored by the name.
I agree! To me indirect honors are more like what was their favorite color, flower, literary character, street name, birth stone etc and could those be utilized in the name somehow. What you’ve come up with are not what Inwould see as any sort of indirect honor but as @otri said these are more “inspired by” names.
There are all nice name stories and I guess if you explained them to the person they are connected with they may feel honored that you were thinking of them when you named your baby, However, I would not consider them honor names as no one else would ever make the connection and hence they aren’t really demonstrating to the world that you honor or respect those individuals.
That said, none of your choices are to much of stretch unless the individual you wish to acknowledge feels that it is.
I don’t think there’s any type of “rules” to honor names. No matter how you arrive at a name, if it is in honor of a special person, it IS an honor name. I see some people saying these are “inspired by” names, but, in my opinion, ALL honor names are inspired by the person.
I personally love indirect honor names. I never, ever wanted to give my kids honor names until my mom died. Now, I’m kind of obsessed with the idea of finding some way to honor her in their names since she won’t get to be here with them. My mom did not like her name and would be so mad at me if I named one of her grandkids directly after her. haha. So I have been searching for indirect honor names. I am considering using a name that starts with the same letter or is related to the meaning of her name, something she loved, our family heritage from her side, or a memory she and I shared. I feel no pressure for it to be a direct link to her actual name because she and our relationship were so much more than her name!
So, that being said, I think any of your ideas would be just fine as honor names. My personal favorites are Francesca and Ellis, but that’s more personal preference than a judgement on the meanings.
As a concept I like indirect honour names, however I do find that there’s a lot of latitude across people in terms of whether they “count” as honour names.
Of your examples, I would echo some previous posts that most of these feel “inspired by” rather than honour names, with the exception of [name_f]Elyse[/name_f] → [name_u]Ellis[/name_u]. So as I define indirect honour names, most of these feel like a stretch to me. One question that might be useful to ask yourself is how prominent you want the honour name to be to the general public - for some people it would be enough for the honouree to know that the name is an honour name, while for others it wouldn’t feel like a direct enough reference to the honouree if others they’re close to couldn’t look at/hear the name and understand where it came from right away.
I also feel like there has to be a more direct way to honour [name_f]Bree[/name_f] than [name_f]Oceana[/name_f] - Breagh or [name_f]Bria[/name_f], for example? Gabrielle? [name_u]Briar[/name_u] (not the same pronunciation but visually closer)?
See, to me honor names are for me. I’m iffy on Ellis because it’s still very direct. Even if I did use the girl’s name directly, nobody’s going to know that it was after her. I don’t know, I feel like names with memories behind them have more meaning than just naming a child after someone.
I think if they work for you that’s fine. I think of indirect honor names more like this:
1 Grandma’s favorite color was purple so I like [name_f]Violet[/name_f], [name_f]Lavender[/name_f], [name_f]Lilac[/name_f], or [name_f]Mauve[/name_f]
2 I have a lot of family and friends who are in the ministry so maybe [name_m]Parson[/name_m], [name_m]Deacon[/name_m], or [name_m]Fisher[/name_m]
3 [name_f]My[/name_f] maiden name was Wahl so instead how about [name_m]Walter[/name_m]
4 Grandpa’s name was [name_m]Richard[/name_m] so how about [name_m]Dixon[/name_m] or Grandpa’s name was [name_m]John[/name_m] so how about [name_m]Ivan[/name_m]
5 You have an Aunt who was [name_f]Margaret[/name_f] so what about using the name [name_f]Daisy[/name_f]
If the names that you suggested make you think of the people you mentioned than they are honor names. if it seems like a bit of stretch maybe go back to the drawing board.