More acceptable to name son after father than daughter after mother?

[Maybebaby2]

Just a thought that occurred to me. You quite often hear of a son taking their fathers name, maybe not as much as it used to happen but it still happens. I have never heard of a daughter taking the mother's name, does it ever happen?

I was pondering names, as I have done 98% of my time during this pregnancy! The thought occurred to me that I really like my own name and would love to call dd it... if it wasn't already my name! I would never actually give her the same name as me, but I've looked for similar with no joy.

I just wondered if anybody actually did name their daughter after themselves or knows of someone who has the same exact name as their mother?

[Notalitigator]

As a child I knew a few Irish girls who had the same name as their mums.

I know someone my age who named her dd the same name as herself. However, she will say that she named her dd after her dd's great grandmother (acquaintance herself being named after the said grand mother)

[SuperBeagle]

It does happen. It's quite common in some cultures.

I have my mother's name as my middle name. I think sharing a middle name is fairly common (at least, it is among people I know), and I know a few people like myself, who have their mother's first name as their middle name.

I don't like it. I'm vehemently against naming children after living relatives.

[Sugarpiehoneyeye]

If used to be quite popular, back in the day of my Grandmother, who named one of her daughters after herself. I don't see a problem personally, you could give her a nick name too.

[Glumglowworm]

I don't like it for men or women to name their children after themselves

There's thousands of lovely names out there!

[OllyBJolly]

Isn't it more that, until recently, the pool of common boys' names was much smaller, where as trends in girls' names changed more quickly?

We've had Johns and Frasers in every generation, but going back the female lineage it's Jemima, Isabella, Beatrice, Sandra, Rose and Bernadette, Mary, Frances, Pauline, Lauren. I rarely come across women with my name who weren't born in the early 60s.

I do think we're a bit more adventurous now.

[Humpsfor20yards]

I think that's true. I've never heard of a Maureen Junior or a Big Alison and little Alison...

Why? Women are culturally encouraged to be more humble/2nd place. It's quite a big-up thing to do isn't it?

[DiegoMadonna]

I don't think it's more acceptable, just more traditional and ergo more common.

[urbansprawl]

The patriarchy. Because traditionally, women were less important, so there was less of an imperative to keep women's names going. Madness.

[Foggymist]

I've the same name as my mum, but we have different surnames (she kept hers, I have my dad's). I was born when my mum was going through a very traumatic time, it was all very difficult and a bit of a blur for her so she said she literally picked the first name she could think of for a girl, which was her name. She had had a boy's name picked, was convinced she was having a boy!

Anyway nobody has ever batted an eye in social/family/friend circles, we've just always been Foggy Snr and Foggy Jnr, we were Big & Small Foggy until I got taller than her Sometimes if we're checking in somewhere or at an event or something and we both are asked names and both say Foggy they get a bit confused, particularly as we look very alike so it's clear we're mother and daughter and it isn't very common to have the same name. We did consider using the same name if we have a dd, but will most likely use it as a middle name rather than first name.

Never understood why naming after the father is more common, it's the woman that does all the work!

[Foggymist]

Oh also my/our name is a classically nice name, doesn't age and is suggested here very often, you'll meet females of all ages with it so it works well.

[PartiallyStars]

I don't know, I think it did happen just as much. Perhaps there are more nicknames for girls, so mum might be Margaret, daughter might be Meg, grand-daughter Daisy (a nickname for Margaret because Marguerite means Daisy) - as in Little Women. Or the child might use their middle name - in my family Amy is a family name, but you wouldn't know it as many of the older Amys are known by their middle name.

In the Family at One End Street, the mum (Rosie) gets two children named after her - Lily Rose (who narrowly escaped being called Carnation) and Margaret Rosie ("Margaret Rosie she's going to be after me and the little Princess mixed!). And Anne of Green Gables had a daughter Anne but she was known as Nan.

I know these are mostly fictional but it did seem to be a thing.

[TheRadiantAerynSun]

In my family there is a long tradition of naming the first born boy and girl in each family a particular name; so naturally this meant a lot of girls were had the same name as their Mum (very handy for family tree research where the women had changed surnames btw.)

In the last generation this has died for the girls, but not so much the boys, but I think it has more to do with the names being Alexander and Prudence than anything else.

I suppose it is a common thing that men like to 'claim' their sons; like a big neon sign that they made something and their proud of it.

I also think that men are encouraged see their names as a thing of honour and value in the way that women often aren't.

[NataliaOsipova]

The Queen Mother was Elizabeth, like her elder daughter the Queen. I'm surprised it didn't become more common, to be honest.

[LinaBo]

My dad wanted to name me after DM, she said no. She didn’t have a problem with my (younger) DB being named after my father though!

[LinaBo]

(38 years later and my dad is still ranting about it )

[justforthisthread101]

My daughter has my mother's name, which is also my middle name. In fact, she's the fifth generation of that name in our family. Although she's known as a derivation of it.

I'm Irish - which is interesting given the point above.

[harrietm87]

In Irish naming traditions the third daughter (I think) is called after the mother, with the first two called after the grandmothers, which might explain it. Same thing with sons.

I have the same name as my maternal aunt. My mum claims she just liked the name and didn't associate it at all with her sister, which sounds weird, though there is a 15yr age gap (big Irish family!) so they didn't really grow up together.

[justforthisthread101]

@harrietm87 I'm the eldest and the official line is that I'm named for my two grandmothers (they had two different versions of a name and I have a third), although the real reason is that it's the only name the parents could agree on!

[RaeCJ82]

My DD’s middle name is a shortened version of my first name.
I do agree that it seems much more common to at least have the father’s name as a middle name.

[horationightboy]

Used to be very traditional in Scotland too. A lot less so nowadays but it still happens. My name goes back nine generations from mother to daughter but it will end with me as I only had boys. Makes me feel a bit sad, to be honest.

[AndNoneForGretchenWieners]

DH's sister is named for her mother and grandmother, while neither he nor his brothers are named for their father.

[Mrsknackered]

I know a Mum and daughter Elisabeth.
I remember being quite surprised on an episode of OBEM when a Mum named her daughter after her, think it was Kirsten or something along those lines.

I would never do it and really dislike it when boys are named after their fathers.

[MikeUniformMike]

I think it probably is more usual. Maybe because the names that get reused tend to be traditional or ones that don't date quickly.

[DramaAlpaca]

If I'd had a DD her middle name would've been the Irish version of my first name. I wouldn't have given her exactly the same name though.

DH & one of our boys have the same middle name. I know lots of fathers & sons with the same first name here (Ireland) but I wouldn't do that personally.