Husband's cousin has called their son the same name as our son.

Completely depends on the size of the family. I have two cousins and only one of them has DC, so yes I would raise an eyebrow (and indeed I avoided her children's names and the opposite sex versions).

DH on the other hand has literally scores of cousins and he couldn't name all of them never mind their children. Some of them may well have DC with the same names as ours but we wouldn't know or care.

I thought this happened in most families, you get big Freddie and little Freddie etc... 🤷🏻‍♀️

@shoulde are you going to answer how close you are to his cousin? Like do you see them regularly?

Also you haven’t said how common the name is?

And? Did you pay for sole use?

I don’t think YABU but I can see I’m in the minority. I guess I can sympathise though. Let’s say I called my daughter May because she was born in May. My sister called her daughter June. She wasn’t born in June. It really grated on me but obviously couldn’t say anything. Honestly, when we are on the playground calling for May and June to hurry up I still want the ground to swallow me up years later.

Complete non issue. How many people across the country and the world have exactly the same name as each other ffs. Yes, I agree it shows a lack of imagination but it really shouldn’t be something you are mad about.

How close are you with your husband's cousin and how popular is the name? If his name is Harry and you last saw them at a family wedding several years ago, that's different to his name being Aloysius and you all live together. Personally I wouldn't name my baby the name of my cousin's child, but no-one owns a name and everyone has a different attitude to reusing names in the family.

I think it's a bit odd that they chose your son's name. It happened to us, but accidentally. My son was in school when another kid with the same name started there who turned out to be his (more distant) cousin.

I didn't like it, I had chosen unusual first names for my kids because their last name is very common where we live. It's a huge family. But has the issue affected our lives in any way? No. My boy doesn't care so why should I?

I promise you this will matter far less in years to come.

I’ve never met any of my dad’s cousins. Don’t know their names, let alone the names of any of their offspring. There could be dozens of tangentially related people running about with the same name as me.

How will I sleep tonight? 😄

Yanbu. They're odd for sticking with a name that is already in the family. There's thousands of other names.

It's perfectly normal in my mums family. First born boys named after dad, first born girls named for the mum. Then subsequent children are named for aunts/uncles/godparents. So every family's first boy is John Smith and first girl is Mary Smith. It can get a bit confusing and there are many nicknames and abbreviations but so far so-one has taken the wrong child home!

YABU.

Wrong. Your first cousin's child is your first cousin once removed. OP's son and this other child are second cousins. I think it's weird they're called the same name.

I called my son the same name as my cousin’s son (with her blessing). The children have never met and are teenagers now. I only see my cousin at very infrequent weddings/funerals. We are a large family. I think it depends on the family dynamics.

Europe (but not UK).
The father and son name I understand (kind of). But giving the same name to both the sons, that's what I find really weird!

My brother has exactly the same name as his uncle and cousin. It has never caused any problems or confusion.

George Foreman heard that story and said 'Hold my beer'

Are you in the North East?

It's his cousins child, if it was his brothers I could understand but cousins..nah. Ridiculous.

YABU. Second cousins don't tend to spend much time together, this is very unlikely to affect their lives.
I've come across several people in life with my same first and last name (neither of them is unusual but also not extremely common, it's not like Sarah Jones or something!) and currently work with one, it's really not a big deal.

I would state with 99.99% certainty that no one, other than DC and me have our surname. Because we made it up and changed by deed-poll.
And depending on if they have children/what surname they chose we might always be the only 3 of us.

If they were first cousins, I'd find it a bit odd. Second cousins less so but then I barely know my second cousins. If you're close to them and see them regularly then it's an unusual choice. But at least everyone in the family knows that your DC was the first to have that name.

In the Us? They do that a lot Tom senior, junior etc. In Europe it's quite rare.

Surely you have bigger things to worry about? I couldn't even tell you the names of any of my second cousins.