Is using relatives’ names ever acceptable?

It’s only acceptable if the relative is deceased imo.

Martha is a great name and if Auntie Martha is happy why not?

I might be inclined (personally) to go with Márta or Marthe to save written confusion. (Also because I think those spellings are lovely!)

I'd be delighted to have a niece named after me! But as an alternative to Martha how about Magda?

Martha Olive

I like Martha and if it's fine with dh's sister than that's great. However wouldn't it be weird for your dh? I can't imagine having a child wih the same name as my sister.

I can't see a problem with Martha or Elizabeth
Or you could do Elizabeth Martha and call her Beth or Lizzie or Eliza

I think those are all fine except Martha, although since she's said she'd be okay with it, that's fine too.

Other similar names:
Miriam
Matilda
Margaret
Bertha

I personally wouldn’t do it. Just don’t like the idea of being named after someone else in the family.

In my family growing up we had names used in various generations. Grandmother was Elizabeth. Known to everyone as grandma. Aunt also Elizabeth but called aunt Betty. My sister Elizabeth but called Liz

Grandfather Stanley, called grandpa. Uncle Stan, who has a son Stanley, called Stan. My father James, clearly called Dad, uncle Jim to test of family. My brother is James, known as jamie. Uncle named James, known as uncle jimmy B (he loved his last name, very distinctive last name that he embraced, was the name of a cartoon character). He had a son named James, known as Jimmy. No one got confused.

Now I have cousins, brother and sister, Michael and Suzanne. Michael (Mike) married a Susan (Sue) and Suzanne (Suzie) married a Michael (Michael). No one gets confused.

All of above my dad’s side of the family.
Cousin Mike has a daughter Victoria. Never even entered my thoughts when we named our daughter Victoria (Torie). Never had any confusion.

My mother and grandmother had the same name too as did her dad and brother.

Martha, as an aunt I'd be flattered to have a niece named after me.
Olive, lovely to remember Grandma.
Avoid all the others, lovely names but cousins close in age could be confusing.

I would go with Martha if DH's sister is fine with it- you won't be muddled. I'd have liked to have used an aunt's name if I'd had another child, I have lovely positive associations with it and hope she wouldn't have minded.

I have the same (common) name as my only aunt, but spelled differently. It wasn't really a problem for me because we lived in different cities and so only saw her occasionally, plus she had a different surname and we had different shortenings within the family, although both used the full name for friends/school/work. Also as PPs have said, being a different generation meant the confusion was less.

If you're closer, may cause a few more minor practical difficulties, but if your DH's sister is happy with you using Martha, sounds like that's the biggest potential issue sorted. With both Elizabeth and Eleanor, if you're planning on using different shortenings for every day, that could be a clear way to differentiate?

My cousin named her son the same as her (cousins) brother, I’m not close enough to know if it was after him or after someone else. They’re just “little tom” and “big tom” or “tom” and “Lucy’s Tom”

I have tons of cousins, most of us aren’t close. One cousin has the same name as the daughter of another cousin, the girls hardly ever see each other but like that they share a name.

Our DS shares a name with my uncle.
They are known as Big [name] and Wee [name].
Personally I don't think it's a problem but I think in a lot of Scottish family's there's a tradition of using a smallish pool of names.
We had about five David's at one point.

I think immediate family is not good, but once you get to cousins it's fine. But then I'm in Ireland and loads of cousins here are called the same name.

Don't use the same name as a child you actually see (it wouldn't matter if it was a cousin's child you'd never met).

If you use the name of an adult people will think you're naming the baby "after" that relative. Most people will think that's a lovely thing and a huge compliment. For that reason don't use the name of a relative you have an awkward relationship with, or don't respect... Even though the use of the same name is coincidental, people will choose to believe that it isn't.

It's lovely to name a child after a much loved role model type relative though.

I really like Olive, Edith and Beatrice from your list. Martha is nice but if you are always seeing the other Martha it may get a bit much. It's fine though if that's your favourite!

I was named after my auntie and I absolutely hate it also hate being in the same room as when our name is called we never know which one is actually being called my daughter has my Nan (passed away) name (as a middle name) though

I think if the child won't always be around then you could get away with it but I wouldn't name after a close relative

Oh and now little Tom is bigger than big Tom to make it worse lol

We have in my family
4 toms
3 Stephens
The toms are cousins and named after grandads and dads
I think it’s ridiculous personally and because some have the last surname too we have to say ‘big tom’ ‘Little tom’ ‘Tom tom’ And ‘tom a’

No, should say dh's uncles stepson is also Daniel. Dh and I only have our son with each other, no other children.

Our ds is Daniel. Dh's stepson is also Daniel.

I was going to suggest Mattie as a nickname for Martha! It's not contrived really, if you have a non-rhotic accent then the "r" in Martha isn't really audible anyway. I really didn't think naming after an aunt or uncle was odd at all, it's fairly common where I am (my brother is named after my mum's brother and they're close)