What are your thoughts on giving a child the same name as a parent?
I put this in the boy names category because it’s more common though I guess it could apply to girls too. [name_f]My[/name_f] husband is a fourth, honestly I didn’t even know that was possible until I met him! He seems to like it fine but I’m so glad that my name doesn’t have any roman numerals…
I don’t get it.
I understand that it used to be based on tradition, but nowadays people break away from tradition more and more. I feel like it’s constricting, a bit conceiting and just not very creative. There are thousands upon thousands of names out there, why use the same one over and over?
I understand wanting to pass down a family name, but to me that fits better in the middle with a unique first name. Giving a child a first name held by their ancestors seems really restricting and like it would put pressure on the kid to be like the other people with their name. And naming a kid directly after yourself seems a bit egotistic to me. It also has the potential to be really confusing.
There are several juniors and III’s in my family, it’s somewhat of a tradition to do this, though at least one of my relatives has broken the chain and everyone is fine with that. And yes, with one exception they’re all boys.
Our family’s first “[name_m]Junior[/name_m]” was actually so resisted by the father/Senior— it was the mother who wanted it— that they named several sons before finally doing a [name_m]Junior[/name_m]. [name_m]Just[/name_m] a fun little anecdote.
We manage the [name_m]Junior[/name_m] and III thing with nicknames mostly (J0hn, J0hnny, J3 is an example) and it has always worked for us. Our family is also really big and Irish Catholic, and there’s a limited pool of Biblical names to go off of.
I can’t say I’ll be having a little [name_m]Jack[/name_m] [name_m]Junior[/name_m] if I have a son someday— I won’t— but I like the tradition as a nod to a person’s roots/ancestry. It also feels very regal to me. So I get why people enjoy it even though it’s not for me personally.
I personally think it’s a little weird. Not something I’d do, but I don’t have issues with other people doing it!
I’m kind of secretly hoping to never have any boys to avoid having to deal with this issue. I do appreciate the tradition of it. The whole 4 generations of tradition (!)
My friend is getting a divorce and hates that she gave her son the family name (he’s actually the 5th). It was also a challenge finding a nickname for him, since not only do all the guys within the line have the name, and a variation as a nickname, other family members have also used it.
I also appreciate the tradition but… Idk, it seems to have more cons than pros.
I really dislike it. It just feels lazy and as if you’re not getting your own identity.
I’m not a fan of this tradition and I wouldn’t do it myself. [name_f]My[/name_f] partner’s name isn’t bad (I would consider using it as a middle name), but there are so many other names I would rather use as a first name for a son. Plus, I think it could be confusing to have two people in the same household with the exact same name. You would have to call one of them by a nickname all the time, and some names don’t have great nickname options.
My dad’s father was a junior who had four sons, and it’s actually the youngest one of them who is [name_m]Samuel[/name_m] III. I’ve always wondered why they waited until the last boy to give him the family name…maybe they ran out of other names they liked? [name_f]My[/name_f] uncle had a fourth [name_m]Samuel[/name_m], and literally they all go by [name_u]Sam[/name_u], which can get confusing. Part of me feels like it’s sweet to carry on those traditions, but also it can get complicated and hard to find your own identity/a nickname that distinguishes you.
I find it quite bizarre but I also don’t like the idea of honour names. Also, it also assumes your family and the person the name was originally based on has some level of importance. I highly doubt people doing it these days stem from royalty.
I feel like its weird to have a junior - but… once a name is passed throughout different generations and you get to the third or fourth then i think its kinda expected to keep passing the name.
Does your husband want his name to continue being passed down or is he OK with ending the cycle?
For me it would also depend if I liked the name or not! I personally wouldn’t do a junior. I even said no to family names with this baby. But I do have a friend whose husband was a junior and she passed the name down to her son for a III and she was happy about it. She had two other sons that she gave really unique names to though! So it worked for her and she still got to be creative with other names but she has a big family.
I’m not anticipating a big family so I feel like I may only get to name a baby once, twice at most maybe, so these choices are more precious and I personally dont want limitations to a parent name or family name. Two with the same name in one house would be confusing too I personally think. And family names are hard because I feel like you’re playing favorites and leaving someone out. I really would use my dads name since he passed away but my brother already did and my husband’s dad isn’t in the best health so I just feel its unfair personally. But to each their own.
I’m not exactly sure what his feelings are I’m guessing he would like to keep the tradition but I think he would also be OK with letting it go if I persuaded him (ha!). I’m not a person who has been dreaming of a giving a child a particular name my whole life but maybe he has! I would be sensitive to that, I hope, if the situation actually arises. I also am not anticipating a large family. If his name were passed down coming up with a reasonable nickname might be challenging but I’m not concerned about it. I do like honor names in general. [name_m]Just[/name_m] not crazy about being stuck with a particular first name.
I’m not big on naming a child with a suffix attached. I will do so if my SO strictly insists on it, but I won’t do it otherwise.
I only have one name that’s currently in use by a family member we constantly relate to that I’d consider as a first name, but only if pressed. Otherwise, we have too many with the same name and I am loathe to add to this.
This is something I’d never do. [name_f]My[/name_f] son having the same name as my husband is a fat no. Lacks creativity.I have so many wonderful names that I want to impart to my children and I can’t give that up.
I respect it in a lot of ways, but unless it’s a name I loved anyway, I likely wouldn’t. S/O’s family passes the name [name_m]John[/name_m] in some way down to every first born son on his dad’s side - it’s been going for several generations and S/O was the first to get it as a middle. We’re currently planning on using a variant, like [name_u]Jackson[/name_u] though. This way we can honour the tradition that they value, but our future son will also get a name that’s pretty much entirely his own. And, if we only have girls, then our daughter would get [name_f]Johannah[/name_f] or [name_f]Jane[/name_f] to continue the tradition, but also because I like them anyways!
I might be in the minority but I appreciate the tradition. [name_f]My[/name_f] husband does not like his name so it was not a consideration to have a jr. however we used his middle name for our sons middle name , so now there are 3 generations with [name_m]Allan[/name_m].
My dads side apparently handed down [name_m]Leroy[/name_m] in the middle name spot , which I’m not so keen to use unless I could find an amazing first name to go with it
I understand the concept of passing on a family name. In my culture, we don’t name for the living, so the “jr” or “III” doesn’t really exist.
Adding a suffix to a name doesn’t speak to me.
I love the tradition!
If you have a boy who is the fifth, [name_m]Quint[/name_m] is a fun nickname / petname option.
Its kind of cool, bc its something you cant just have. Its something that builds on the successor before you.
I have a family who has done this… and they’re on 5. The original had a son, they named him after his father, and then the original turned out to be a bad man. As in, Mr. Original left his wife and then was subsequently murdered by his mistress’ mother, and probably deserved it. The issue was that the son had the name!
[name_f]My[/name_f] family decided to reclaim the name by pretending Mr. Original didn’t exist, and so the boy who should have been junior pretended he was the first and instead named his own son with the name and the [name_m]Jr[/name_m]. I think at that point it was like trying to build a family that didn’t have this ‘single mother’ shame thing happening? (This was a fair while back.) Then there was a III and he decided (for reasons no one understands) to put Mr. Original back in line and thus named his son as V (instead of IV).
In practice, it doesn’t make forms or anything more difficult, and there have been no nickname issues. It’s a cool story too. But I think beyond the cool story there wasn’t really any reason for this name to get all the way into III, IV, V territory. I kind of suspect that V would want a VI someday too.
Anyway, I’ve seen it work, and I think in our family’s case it became this sort of point of pride, but I think the story would also be just as good without a VI. I would use a name like this if it was important to my DH (luckily there isn’t one in his family!) but I don’t think I’d like people just assuming my child was going to be a [name_m]Jr[/name_m], III, etc. I also would never be the person to suggest we start and name a our child [name_m]Jr[/name_m].
On a side note, my great grandmother, grandmother, and her first born daughter all had the same name (no numbers or [name_m]Jr[/name_m]) and I actually kind of like that one better than the male name tradition. Apparently my GGma knew she was a bada** and said she wanted her daughter to be just as bada**.