Would it be weird to use both your parents' names in your kids' names?

I stumbled around Google for a bit and came across this scenario, and I wanted to propose it here.

Let’s pretend that your dad’s name is [name_m]William[/name_m] and your mom’s name is [name_f]Ruth[/name_f]. Now let’s say that you have a daughter and name her [name_f]Ruth[/name_f], after mum. Everyone is happy and lovely and wonderful, and you’re now expecting a baby boy! Now, hypothetically speaking, your SO and you decide you want to honor your father, [name_m]William[/name_m]. Would it be weird to name your son [name_m]William[/name_m], after his grandfather, with his sister named after his grandmother? As in your parents were [name_m]William[/name_m] and [name_f]Ruth[/name_f]… and now your children are [name_m]William[/name_m] and [name_f]Ruth[/name_f].

Thoughts?

UPDATE:
For those of you who are saying that you don’t mind it in the middle, does that mean you don’t mind both parents’ names (of one partner) being in the middle? Say, a Theodore William and a Cordelia Ruth? Does that negate the “creepy” factor?

I don’t think it’s necessarily weird, but I prefer the honoring names in the middle spot. I would want my children to have their own name as a first. I have seen children directly named after grandparents, but they usually have a different nickname so it isn’t confusing.

See, I (if I ever have kids) was thinking of using [name_f]Margaret[/name_f] and [name_m]Felix[/name_m] as first names. These are my grandparents names and mine and my brother’s middle names. I don’t really see a problem with it though.

This is one of the reasons that the epilogue to [name_m]Harry[/name_m] [name_m]Potter[/name_m] bothers me. He calls two of his kids [name_f]Lily[/name_f] and [name_u]James[/name_u]. I find it so weird. I love my great grandparents names, [name_m]Edmond[/name_m] and [name_f]Rose[/name_f] but I’d never use them together because it’d always sound bizarre to me.

I don’t think it is weird at all especially if you love the names. However, it rather leaves the other side of the family out of the picture. In you hypothetical example, I might be more likely ton name my daughter [name_f]Willa[/name_f] [name_f]Ruth[/name_f] after both my parents and my son after someone in my SO family.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, but it would feel a bit strange for me to have two kids with the same names as my parents. Grandparent’s names not so much or if one or both of the names were in the middle spot. And as someone mentioned, what about the OH’s parent’s names and other family names?

No problem [name_f]IMO[/name_f]

I don’t think so, especially if your kids have go by nicknames, so it’s not as confusing. For example, my husband and I adore the name [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] for multiple reasons, one being that it’s my Mum’s name. If we use it for a daughter, we’d have [name_f]Ellie[/name_f] or [name_f]Elsie[/name_f] as a nickname, as to not to cause confusion :slight_smile:

[name_f]My[/name_f] thoughts EXACTLY! I always thought it was slightly strange. I love them in the mn spot though.

I dislike my dad’s name ([name_m]Brian[/name_m]) so I’d likely never do it, but I do love my mum’s name, and plan on using a variant, so they don’t have the EXACT same name. I think it’s likely best to use variants if you want both your parents names, as renrose said, it’s really bizarre for a married couple’s name to be honoured using siblings. Middle names could be ok though.

I don’t think it’s that strange. [name_m]William[/name_m] has a ton of variants though, so I’d be tempted to use one of those instead.

I don’t think it’s weird at all. It is especially not weird if you have lost both of your parents- someone mentioned how [name_m]Harry[/name_m] [name_m]Potter[/name_m] names his children after his parents. That made perfect sense to me since both of them were dead, while [name_f]Ginny[/name_f]'s parents were still living.

I mean, I still don’t think it would be weird even if both parents were living. Though I would just assume that your partner (if you had one) might want to honor his family as well. We gave our son a middle name honoring my husband’s paternal grandfather. We would like to give our next child a name honoring his maternal grandfather, but I feel like then my family is going to wonder why we are just naming kids after his side. The truth is, both of his grandfathers are just particularly amazing men who we want to honor even if they were not related to us, but I don’t think I can share that explanation with my grandfathers, you know?

It felt like he was trying to recreate his parents through his kids to me. That’s what makes it creepy in my eyes :confused:

@renrose

I just felt like he was trying to honor his memory- I don’t know, it made sense to me. I guess the kids were described as looking like his parents- [name_u]James[/name_u] had dark hair and [name_f]Lily[/name_f] had red hair, right? I could be remembering wrong. So maybe that made it weirder in the book.

I would probably name my kids after my parents had died before I had children. Also, if my husband had lost one or both parents, I would just expect that he would want to name children after them. I wouldn’t do it otherwise, just because how do you pick whose parents to name after? And my husband has four parents (two bio, two step parents who have been in his life since early childhood) so I don’t know how we could do it without slighting one side or another.

No I don’t think it would be weird at all.

The HP example is a good point, which parallels why I brought this topic up. Personally, I can handle naming a child after one parent, but when you use both parents’ names, I feel like you’re trying to recreate your parents in your children. Like naming a brother and sister [name_m]Rome[/name_m] and [name_f]Juliet[/name_f], it’s just a little creepy and seems like you’re making the world smaller than it needs to be.

For those of you who are saying that you don’t mind it in the middle, does that mean you don’t mind both parents’ names being in the middle? [name_m]Say[/name_m], a [name_m]Theodore[/name_m] [name_m]William[/name_m] and a [name_f]Cordelia[/name_f] [name_f]Ruth[/name_f]? Does that negate the “creepy” factor?

I agree. In the [name_m]Potter[/name_m] series, it was weird. And I have this thing where parents’ names can’t be a sibset. (So IF my parents were named [name_m]Robert[/name_m] and [name_f]Barbara[/name_f], there’s no way my kids would be named [name_m]Robert[/name_m] and [name_f]Barbara[/name_f] as a sibset, even if they were both in the middle.)

As far as using a parent’s name in general, I think it’s fine!

It doesn’t bother me.

not exactly what you were thinking of, but I plan to name my future son after my father and stepfather…

I know that it’s traditional in some families, but to me personally, it’s quite strange, yes. Using the names in the middle definitely negates the “creepy” factor.