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AIBU?

to think it is odd to call your children your name

102 replies

CheeseEloise1 · 12/06/2016 01:10

Found it very strange when my brother and his wife named their daughter after wife's name. She is Mexican so put it down to tradition. They are about to have a second child and are going to call it my brother's name.
I can't say anything to them but find it very odd that daughter has mother's name and so has father's name. What would a third child be called? AIBU to find the whole thing a bit odd?

OP posts:
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Beepbopboop · 12/06/2016 01:16

Yanbu.

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VestalVirgin · 12/06/2016 01:19

Odd? No, not at all. Isn't it an English tradition, too, to call boys Fathersname Junior?

I think it is terribly impractical and really not a good idea, because the children will forever have to add a "junior" to their names.

But not odd. Perhaps I read too much Austen. That may be the reason.

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GiddyOnZackHunt · 12/06/2016 01:20

Go back a generation or two and it was the norm. Family history is littered with four, five or six generations of oldest children carrying on parental name, grandparent names plus brothers and sister,'s names.

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clarrrp · 12/06/2016 01:21

It's really common here - irish - where pretty much every one is called after someone.

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fatmomma99 · 12/06/2016 01:22

My DD is named after her great grandmother. My DM and Daunt adore it, and I love the name (also the name of the most popular and beautiful girl I went to school with - I'm hoping it will rub off).

I like the memorial.

And it's none of our business, what people name their children, is it.

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FinnegansCake · 12/06/2016 01:29

My DF was named after his father, according to family tradition. DF was known within the family by a diminutive of the name. If I had been a boy, I would have been called a longer version of the name.

I have a friend who named her son after her husband. The son is known as "little X" and her DH is "big X". This always makes me smile because the son is now several inches taller than his short fatherGrin

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GiddyOnZackHunt · 12/06/2016 01:31

Oh yes momma my DD has my great granny's name because she was lovely and it's a do anything name. DS has the family name as his middle name. The oldest living holder of the name gave his blessing for DS to carry it on. DS is the person who takes it into its third century :)

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FuzzyOwl · 12/06/2016 01:39

I think it is really normal and what lots of parents do, although I really don't like it. I think children should have their own names and identities but understand that other people have a different view.

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trafalgargal · 12/06/2016 01:53

My first husband had his Father's name but they used different versions of it Dad was Ted and son was Eddie . My ex was very proud to have his father's name.

My OH also has his father's name (clearly I only marry men named after their fathers - none of my boyfriends inbetween had their Father's names) and there are still people who refer to him as "Little Jimmy" which is a bit odd sounding for a man in in his fifties - but that's just family he doesn't use that version of James otherwise ....so to me it doesn't seem odd at all especially as I'm named after my grandmother -but that is slightly different as that side of the family is Jewish and there is a convention that children are never named after living relatives just dead ones !

From a practical point of view having the same name is a bit of a pain as the child gets older but has not left home as it is very easy to open each other's post by mistake.......something a lot of people are going to discover with the current fashion of giving all your kids names starting with the same letter.

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Liiinooo · 12/06/2016 01:55

This seems so normal I am not sure I have fully understood the question. Is it that the daughter and mum both have the same forename - like Maria or Susan or Hyacinth?

If that's the case, I cannot see the issue at all. On both sides of my family, one English, one not, every generation has named childten after their same sex parent, and by extension, often a same sex grandparent or aunt or uncle. And the same for my DH.

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Rockelburger · 12/06/2016 02:01

It seems a bit unimaginative to name both children after both parents. As you say what will they name a 3rd or 4th?

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EverySongbirdSays · 12/06/2016 02:03

Irish here and in a wider sense the Catholic Community, so plenty of saints names going on but a LOT of boys with same name as Dad know loads, less so daughters sharing name with Mum. I do know one my own age. But to call your first girl Mary was a big deal for a while so loads of those.

As was said by Lorelei Gilmore on Gilmore Girls why are sons often named after fathers but never daughters after mothers?

It is unusual that they've done it for TWO/both kids BUT look at Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith and their children Willow and Jayden Smith

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missingmumxox · 12/06/2016 02:05

My son is named for his father, my husband also... So with grandad that's three of them with the same name... Still not sure about it's reasonableness Smile

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AStreetcarNamedBob · 12/06/2016 02:07

I know a couple David and Christine who have 2 children called David and Christina (so one letter different for the daughter) I just think it's WEIRD.

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Bogeyface · 12/06/2016 02:08

Its not so common anymore, but used to be the done thing.

John Paston, for reasons of his own, named both of his sons John, both living to adulthood so there was John II and John III growing up together!

www.galbithink.org/names.htm The charts in this are very interesting,

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VioletBam · 12/06/2016 02:12

If I ever have a boy, I'm naming him after my Dad.

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CodyKing · 12/06/2016 02:18

No one said about the third child though? Which was the question

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LauderSyme · 12/06/2016 02:18

I totally get that it could be traditional but I would find the father-son, mother-daughter thing odd too.
I've always somehow felt it is a bit weird to give your own name to your child; maybe I secretly think the parents are raging egoists wanting to project themselves by creating mini-mes?! I have heard of a couple of men who have named multiple children after themselves - surely pathological?
Apologies to the traditionalists for the possibly absurd over-analysis!
I know someone who believes that by naming a child after another person you are burdening them with some of that person's psychic baggage. Not sure I have an opinion on that though...

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LauderSyme · 12/06/2016 02:24

Maybe their third child will have bestowed some combination of their various names, like people do with houses. Or be named after the place of conception.

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Baconyum · 12/06/2016 02:26

It's very recent NOT to do this. In my family (and culture? Other scots need to let me know) to do so but with middle names.

My dd is 5th generation with same middle name as 1st dd to 1st dd. my father 7th generation wrt sons. In addition with sons the clan name if not the legal surname is often used as a middle name. (Hence loads of scots lads with middle name Stewart)

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MitzyLeFrouf · 12/06/2016 02:30

It's egotistical and unimaginative. Bad combination.

YANBU.

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MitzyLeFrouf · 12/06/2016 02:31

Isn't it an English tradition, too, to call boys Fathersname Junior?

Er, no. That's an American tradition if anything.

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MitzyLeFrouf · 12/06/2016 02:34

My DD is named after her great grandmother. My DM and Daunt adore it

Completely different thing though isn't it? Would you have been tempted to give your daughter your own name?

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TheDowagerCuntess · 12/06/2016 02:35

Lots of people willfully(?) missing the point.

I'm named after both my grandmothers, DD is named after both hers - we're not talking about naming children after ancestors, but of a son and daughter named after the mum and dad.

Odd. YANBU.

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MitzyLeFrouf · 12/06/2016 02:39

Exactly Dowager, it's about having a household consisting of two people called Peter and two people called Jane.

Weird as hell.

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