Family stealing names

Hmm I don’t know on one hand you don’t “own” a name but I think I’d be a bit cheesed off that of all the names there are out there a close family member couldn’t think of one my child didn’t already have

Well the point about my big fat Greek wedding is that it’s tradition to make after the grandparents. I have 4 cousins on my mums side with the same name. It’s great fun at family gatherings when the name gets called & all 4 answer! It’s really no big deal. The big deal would be not to name after the parents!

I wouldn't use the same first name, but my son and two of my cousins children have middle names in honour of our grandad. One is X Charles, one X Charlie and one X Charlotte.

If it's a name that is used to remember a family member I don't think it's an issue, but I'd still probably be annoyed at someone in the family using the same first name as me!

My sister and cousin have the same name, only 3 yrs apart. I’ve never thought of it as strange, it’s just what they’re called. We call them Our Lucy and Their Lucy or use surnames to differentiate.

(Lucy isn’t actually the name)

I know someone who was pregnant, didn’t know what she was having but wanted the name Roisin for a girl. Her SIL who wasn’t even pregnant burst into tears when she told her the planned name, and said she had always had her heart set on it. My friend had a girl and didn’t use the name out of respect for her SIL who was sstc. Her SIL then had a daughter, then a second daughter and called neither of them Roisin. My friend then also had a second DD so used the name.
The moral of the tale is use the name you like.

Spelling it differently doesn't make much of a difference imho so Jackson v Jaxon etc would still end up being pronounced the same so I would say to your sil that if she doesn't mind her child being called either Jaxon 2 or Jaxon with an X all his life then crack on. Think she'll soon come round to the idea her child would get the raw deal.

I have a cousin with the same name and my brother has an uncle and cousin with the same name. No one was offended and no one is ever confused!

I knew three siblings once...Paul, Paula and Pauline

I did too and I definitely knew them. Not a friend of a friend of a friend type of thing. They were kids in a town beginning with F in the 70's 👀

Our family (including cousins) is very boy heavy, and we have three boys ourselves. When we were picking a name for our littlest, we had lots of names on the list that were names of brothers/nephews/cousins/friend’s boys, or slight variations. That’s what happens when you know lots of boys! We wanted a name that we liked and if it happened that we knew someone else with the same name, well so be it. One of our older boys has the same name as my cousin, they love having that special connection. In the end we chose a name for our youngest that was not in the family, but not because we didn’t want to double up, just because it was our favourite. I see it as a form of flattery of someone else chooses the same name...better than everyone hating a made up stupid name!

I knew three siblings once...Paul, Paula and Pauline.

It wouldn't bother me if it was a common name and I don't think it would be confusing. DHs family reuse name a lot. It doesn't cause any problems.

I did a variation on this by naming my first born after my aunties cat 😉

My great grandad was one of 13. Children commonly died in infancy then and the next baby to be born would often be given the same name as the most recently deceased one. There were 3 Johns amongst his siblings.

I am expecting DC2 next month, if we have a boy it will be named after DHs grandad who passed away a few years ago. My cousins boy already has this name but we rarely see them so feel we just need to have it for our reasons. My auntie and grandma will probably be unhappy tho. It's a popular top 20 name anyway

Depends how popular the name is tbh. If it’s William or Oliver I don’t think you can really warn her off it.

That's really annoying and I'd be peed off too! I love one of my SIL's kids' names but would never dream of giving my baby the same name as its cousin – different spelling doesn't make it any better! Can you subtly suggest they use it as a middle name rather than a first name to avoid family confusion, etc.?

I have a nephew a few weeks younger than one of my sons, when my DB asked what names we'd picked I said "xxxxx".
A while after that he said they were going to call their baby (if a boy) the same name.. tbh I was a bit but kept schtum and prayed my baby would be born first!
He was and we named him "xxxxx". My DB was disappointed we'd used "xxxxx" but insisted their baby would still be called the same first name (despite the fact the 2 boys would see each other a lot and go to the same school, etc) as they'd have different surnames!

Anyway, their baby was born and my SIL refused to use "xxxxx" and called him a different name. Think my DB was most put out!

I would be so annoyed! There are enough lovely names to avoid doing this. I would never use the name of a friend's or family member's children, no matter how much I loved the name. Hopefully they choose another name, OP!

My DH is called James. My sister's hubbie is called James. Oops!

I dunno. My sister married into a big Irish family where a B-i-L and her F-i-L happen to have the same nme as my brother and father. She then went on to name her own children by those names so at any given gathering there are three people by that name. Quite common in lots of families. And then DH married me, with same name as his sister, and DC have three other uncles also with same name through marriage.

Don't worry - she will look like she copied you!!

MN posters love to tell you that you don't own a name / there is nowt wrong with cousins sharing the same name / It's fine to copy names from family members etc.... it's complete bollocks.

It is weird for first cousins to have the same name, it is very unoriginal and a bit lazy to use the same name as close family or friends and it is fucking cheeky to use the name you know someone in your close family is going to use.

It's bizarre. As Ada has said, it's likely that one will be known as the 'other' or 1 and 2 which is not nice.

Children need their own identities.

I have a younger cousin with the same quite unusual name as me. Within the family she is known as The Other *, so it isn't a situation I would want to inflict on a child at all.

My cousin did the same with a name. We had a girl named a traditionally male name. A few months later she did the very same and changed one letter.

We're no longer close for it to be an issue, but there was an eye roll moment.

To be fair our family is full of kids named after parents and grandparents, I was lumped with my mums and my bro got my dads.

Annoying. Just so annoying. I'm so glad people don't do that as much anymore.

I have several cousins with the same name as does DH. My sister called her eldest after our dad. If my youngest had been another boy, I think I'd have done the same.