why did you choose dcs middle names?

one from each side of the family- seems to be a bit of a tradition in my family

to us, being part of a family is not irrelevant or uninteresting, especially as dcs have dual nationalities; and using middle names from dead relatives also results in them sharing names with cousins who have been named after the same relative- it's something that ties us together

it's not about labelling someone with somebody else's grief: dd has the name of the grandmother whose songs I used to sing when she was little, whose jokes we still tell in the family, whose cake recipes I get out for Christmas: it's about happy memories

not to mention that a lot of the names born by our grandparents' generation are very fashionable now- far better than naming them after living aunts and uncles, whose names would be hopelessly out of fashion

My dd loves that she is named after two of her great-grandmothers. Mind you we'd not have done it if we didn't actually like the names. Nothing to do with grief for us, dh just liked the idea of using his nan's name, and it sounded good with my grandmothers name so that's what we chose.

ds is named after the greatest king of England, and he likes that too. His middle name was just one we liked that sounded right together.

all of my DCs middle names are names from various members of the family, except DC3 who got one of his middle names because I liked it (and I needed to make up the numbers so it would be the same as the others)

how does having the name of someone you have never met create an affinity?

My brother's middle name is our grandfathers dead twins name.

But he never met him, he means nothing to my brother its just an old fashioned name labeling him with other peoples grief.

I think its very unfair.

Sorry I should have said, that was a response to PaWithABra

I think that's a bit of an odd comment tbh (and quite mean actually)

I think it's lovely to have meaning behind your name. When DS is older we will tell him about his Granddad, who was a good man, and I hope their shared name might help him feels an affinity with him.

My DS's middle name was my maiden name, and since i use my maiden name along with my husbands surname (like maiden-married) i thought it would be nice for him to have my name too, plus we weren't married when he was born, so it was nice he took my name along with his dad's!! :)

thing is its the name THEY have to live with not a vehicle for you remember dead people your children will never know.

We gave DS DP's Dad's name, so as to honour his Grandfather who died many years ago.

Also, I wanted DS to have a traditional type name which gives him another choice if he doesn't like the beautiful but really quite unusual first name we gave him.

My dd was born on 8 July 2006. A good friend of mine died on 7/7, a year and a day earlier (she was on the bus ) and I had considered giving dd her name as a middle name, but my aunt died shortly before dd was born, and I decided to use her name instead. Now I wish I'd used both - it would have been lovely to remember my friend as well as my aunt in dd's name.

Blinkin heck,

whats with all this honoring the dead !

my brother hates his middle name .. after some dead old person he never knew.

i follow the spanish tradition of giving the children the their mothers sir name as their middle name.

DD1 has my maternal nan's name as a middle name - my nan was there when she was born and cut the cord as DH didn't get there in time

DS has my paternal grandad's middle name (would have been DD1's if she had been a boy) and DS was born on my grandad's birthday

DD2 has two middle names which are my mum and MIL's middle names

Our DS has two middle names, after two of his great-grandfathers. I like to think they'll remind him of his very mixed European heritage, since both me and DH are only half English.

Enlgishmummy and rhinestone - we have done the same with our children. DD especially has unusual first name and Katherine as middle name, DS has Alexander as middle name and DC3 will have Jennifer.

my dcs middle names some were after well loved relatives ,some names we liked but weren't brave enough to use as a first name . also in one case we both loved 2 names so we put both on the birth cert some because we liked the meaning eg pascal because ds2 was born at easter ,or samara (meaning watched over or protected by god ) we'd nearly lost dd1 at birth so it seemed apt.
dh second name was chosen because pils thought the initials would look good on a cheque book .

I hoped DD1's name would be used with her first name as a double barreled name; didn't happen in childhood, but she started using it a year or so before she left for college, so that worked out. Both names were family names, both French names (though we're not French).
DS: Both family names from my side of the family, names after his grandfather and great grandfather. Sounded good too.
DD2: Both names came from my side of the family, though one was also a distant rellie from exH's side. The middle name 'went' well with the short first name.
DD3: Name from my side of the family/ trendy name though I didn't realise just how popular for first name; name I always loved that was also my confirmation name for mn. I thought they sounded nice together.
DD4: another family name combo from my side of the family; named after her grandmother and mn was the family mn from my family. Again, nice sound when put together.

My DD1 has my maternal grandmothers name, Agnes and my husbands middle name (which is actually a girls name but has a very long story to it!), his DS1 from previous relationship also has his girls middle name and our DD2 has DH's maternal grandmothers name, Esther and DH's girls middle name. I don't have a middle name but my DD1 is very proud of her middle names and I hope DD2 is equally as proud :)

RhinestoneCowgirl - we did exactly the same. The DSs have quite unusual first names, which I love and quite standard middle names (James and Daniel), which I also like very much. I would have liked to honour my grandparents or parents, particularly as my Grandad died only a month before DS2 was born, but honestly, there's some shocking names in my family and I couldn't bear to burden my children with them! I don't have a middle name because it would have been expected that it was after one of two people, so I would have been xxxx Gertrude or xxxx Irene and I am eternally grateful that I got neither! (No offence to anyone if you have a daughter with that name!!)

dd1 - has the same middle name as me, but is also a name that has been used for many generations on my side.

DD2 - has a family name from DH side, but also goes with her first name very well.

DS - First name was always going to be named after FIL (he lost both parents by 18yrs and had no other family). He was was also going to have the same middle as DH (which was his Mother maiden name which died out with her generation). But unfortunley my dad died 8 weeks before I had ds so we decided add his name as well. So DS has ended up with 2 middle names.

DS has my Dad's name as his middle. Since he got his surname from DH's side, I wanted something from my side!

I see my DC's middle names as 'spares', they both have reasonably unusual first names so we gave them middle names (James and Katherine) that were a bit more standard. My parents did the same thing, but I've always loved my unusual first name and often forget that I have a middle name.

Did go to school with a girl who exclusively used her middle name, only found out when her 'official' name was down on exam lists.

DS has my Dads name
DD has my Nans name

It's not v interesting, btw.