Sister in law using same baby name

One of my kids has a name shared by, his dad, his uncle on my side, his great uncle on dads side, a grandfather, a cousin and going back to greats and great greats on both sides..his father and mine. Also with in laws, 3 of.
The dog shares a name with my nephew and my husbands uncle. Another of my sons shares a name with a cousin and a couple of uncles and great uncles. No big deal.

Sorry this is ridiculous. Up until about the 1960s most families had pleny of cousins, uncles etc. with the same name because they were named after aunts, grandparents, mothers etc. Family names were normal and they still are in many families.

It isn't at all strange.

I considered naming my daughter after one of my aunts and the only reason I didn't is because I thought one of my other aunts might be hurt that she wasn't chosen. I didn't like her name as much though.

It is absolutely normal to have the same names in the same family. I find it completely bizarre that people are annoyed by it. If anything it's a compliment to name your baby after someone else. But most of the time it's just that people like the name, it's not a big deal.

You're obviously not Irish. I know a family where all of the children called the first born son after the grandfather, so there was a plethora of James, Jamies, Jims and Jimmys and it was almost impossible to distinguish between them in conversation. Each person was an individual though, and their identical names didn't matter much.

I have two nephews with the same name. My sisters both liked it an used it. It doesn't feel weird or strange, definitely not something to worked up over.

Because the whole point of a name is to mark your unique identity within your family (where duplicates can easily be avoided) and your wider social/community circle in life as it expands (where duplicates are very likely and can't possibly be avoided).

Taking it to extremes, we could do away with names altogether and just call every child 'Girl' or 'Boy' - or just 'Child' for all of them. But if we did do that, somebody would come up with the idea of giving babies individual names to make things much less confusing, then the circle could start all over again!

My niece has a similar name to my daughter, but it's never been an issue.

I agree with this: it really depends on the exact name and how close it is. Eg Jim and James I would consider different names (unless the James was called Jim as a Nn).

Is it Tilly and Matilda!? 🙂

In reality, many, many children can end up going right through school with someone of the same name ( or even several) in their class and they actually spend far more time with those children than their cousins.

In any case, I don’t think you can get them to change it so you have to find a way if coming to peace with it.

I totally get where you’re coming from, my BIL did the same thing! I found it weird too. BIL said it didn’t occur to him until a while after - we’re not hugely close to them so I’ve gotten over it but imagine it would be weird for the kids if they’re all together frequently.

You’re unreasonable at putting SIL in your title. It’s as much your brother’s choice!

I think you’ve just got to get over it. As they grow up they’ll get nicknames. I’ve got 2 nephews called Caleb. (My brother’s son and husband’s sister’s son). They’ve never met and are unlikely to. We work it out.

My sister and my step sister have the exact same name. We all grew up together and it was fine, it didn't get confusing or anything. It ended up being a funny family quirk.

I have a daughter named Tiegan my younger sister named her daughter Teagan my older sister has a son named Levi our younger sister also named one of her sons Levi 🙄 l mean she ended up with 7 kids in the end so I’m sure she was struggling to find names 😂😂 we just find it funny she even tried to blame it on the kids dad for naming them !

No, I would be heavy handed as fuck and tell people to use the name I've given them, because its their name. Millions of people have the same name, even in classrooms, its not impossible to have two Jeffs.

It really depends on what the names are. I don't see Leo and Theo and Cleo as being variations of the same name - ditto Louise/Lois, Alexa/Alexandra, Clara/Zara/Tara etc etc. Sophie/Sophia would be pushing it more, as would Grace/Gracie - and yeah that would be a bit annoying but there's quite a big age gap and it's unlikely they'll ever get mixed up. Now I'm just really curious about what the actual names are though!

I don't see an issue.
I did have a wobble when the name I liked for my 3rd son was similar to that of my nephew (on DH's side - whom we don't see often. )
But then I realised my DH has a very similar name to his cousin on his Dad's side.
So in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter.

It’s possible it genuinely didn’t occur to them. I had a name on my list that was very similar to DC’s cousin (think Luke/Lucas) and when my DH saw my list he said: er, no… too close to nephew! But if he hadn’t pointed it out I might not have thought of the connection because to me they just seemed like different names.

We have multiple or similar of a lot of names in our family - no one cares.

Nothing you can do, and nothing you should do.

Its a name, why shouldnt they use a name they like?

I think they could have picked any other name in the world.

I understand why you're a bit bothered by it. Unless it was a family name or some very specific reason they could have simply picked another name. Very few people have only one name in the world they like. It’s unfair to their kiddo too because your daughter is older so they’re daughter will probably have some modifier like baby Ella or little Ella. Weird they didn’t say it to you either. My kids have cousins they don’t really see that much and who have different surnames. I still would not choose essentially the same name.

complete non event. My DC have two cousins with exactly the same name but pronounced differently (think Lisa being Leesa or Lysa). One of my DC has exactly the same name, including surname, as her dad's cousin's dc. I have the same name as my mum's best friend's daughter, they always said I was named after her because she was so lovely.

Famously, nothing rhymes with "orange".

Everyone will get used to it. Just let it go.

One of my nephews has the exact same name as my partner, and none of us care.

?? Sorry, I don't understand this comment.

I've also said that the whole thing would not bother me, so not concerned about anything. 🫤