Name traditions

I think this was fairly common in previous generations. In mum’s family, her sister & Mum & 2 cousins (on the same side!) are all called Margaret. It’s a tad confusing.

All my children have grandparents names but we love the names and no confusion

Eldest girl has a name used either as a first or (mainly) middle name. I continued the tradition as I love the link between us all. No-one's name is an exact repeat of a previous version so we retain our individuality. My younger dsis equally loved having the freedom to choose which ever names she wanted.

So many*

‘Sean’ (pronounced ‘Shan’ just means old. eg ‘Is seanbhean mise’ (‘I’m an old woman’).
Seán (pronounced Shawn because of the fada) is the Irish version of John, and means ‘God is gracious’ or equivalent.

Well, you learn something new every day. So man 'Sean's in the world.

On my Dad's side, the first born son is called after the father so I have a great grandad, Grandad, Dad and Brother all called John.
We carried it on so my Husbands eldest is the same as his name.
His Mother died when be was a child so his second son is the male version of their name and they both have the middle names of Grandfather's and his mum's maiden name too.

I like these traditions but it's obviously personal choice.

My husband's family is like this for the males - it was XY, YX, XY, YX for generations until my mother in law decided she was going to deviate from the tradition and used AY for my husband's name, and then we've used BY for our son's name although it was a name that was on our short list of names anyway, as it's quite a popular traditional name. The name that was dropped is more "old fashioned" and I don't know of any younger people called it in the same spelling.

I remember hearing, 'If you name your child after yourself, she will be your last!" Just a superstition/saying. Irish or Scottish I think.

I couldn't think of anything worse. I call my babies what I want to call them.

Almost every male in my maternal family has the same name - none of my kids have it though. It’s daft because they end up with really convoluted nicknames like ‘oh this is John but his nickname is Jenky-Joe’ because otherwise everyone has the same name. That or people end up being 45 and called ‘little Thomas.’

On my father's side, there are three names that are passed down , for the boys.
On my husband's side, the men have a few names that are shared.
We used one from m my husband for our son's middle name.
If our DC choose to have children, they can name them whatever they want.

In my Granny’s family her mum and dad were called (names changed to protect the guilty) Robert and Rebecca.

They had a baby girl who they named Rebecca, after her mother, but she died in babyhood. They then had a son that they named Robert, after his father. They then had another daughter, who they also named Rebecca. Their family- the two Bobs and two- well, three- Beckys was complete!

Then 20-odd years later my great-grandmother, the first Becky, thought she was having the menopause but, as used to happen a lot back then, she was pregnant. It was another girl! And having run out of names they called her Joan. Joan is now 90-odd and my granny. She said she felt very weird being the only person with a unique name. Her siblings even had the same middle names as their parents! And what was granny Joan’s middle name? Rebecca, of course!

I imagine it all got a bit confusing with post in that house!

I couldn't cope with the pressure of having to call my first born son Humphrey because that what his family had always done. I'd gladly be that tradition denying witch that brought an end to 15 generations of Humphrey.

My family tend to use family names as middle names, usually our parents or grandparents names (or derivatives of)

The only tradition both sides of my family has is that both sets of grandparents are known by totally different names to their given ones. Weird lot

The naming in my family is based on 2 separate cultural norms. Firstly, fathers initial carries through to the names of the offspring. I have the same initial as my dad, his siblings, my granddad, his siblings and so on. On my mums side of the family, it’s a different initial but the same rule applies and goes back generations. The second rule is that everyone has a nickname, which bears no relation to the actual name ie it’s not a diminutive but from a pool of common nicknames. It means I don’t know the full names of most of my cousins as they never used their proper names at home. But I know what letter it would start with!

that should say the names alternate.

all mine have middle names that are family names. Me, my mum and my granny all have same middle name. Which I love. I gave same middle name to my dd.

In dh's family, there has been a naming tradition, there are 2 names alternative for the oldest son.
One name is lovely the other is awful and very old fashioned.
Think Joshua and Clarence.

My dh has the 'Clarence' one. His father was 'Joshua'
As it happened our first child was a boy and 'Joshua' is one of my favourite names, so we used it (and made his dad extremely happy)

But I can't imagine my sone callling his kid 'Clarence'

It was very traditional in many areas to do:
First boy after paternal grandfather,
second boy after maternal grandfather
first girl after maternal grandmother
second girl after paternal grandmother

If you do any family history, you see it a lot.
Dh's family use a LOT of family names/naming after grandparents etc.

My Gran, Aunt, My Sister and 7 cousins all share the same name😂😂. It's confusing.

My family on my father's side did this. The first son was always given the same name. Traditional name like Henry. My grandmother hated it and so my dad ended up being Henry George Surname, known to everyone as George. My brother has a totally different name, so that's probably the end of it now!

Eldest son named after paternal grandfather or after both grandfathers.
Daughter named after both grandmothers.
Often father and son, and mother and daughter would have the same name.
Mother's maiden name often used as a middle name.
Other sons and daughters often named after uncles and aunts.
Cousins would often have the same first names, so would use nn.

One Margaret might be Maggie and her cousins might be Daisy and Peggy.
One John would be John and his son Jack, his cousin Johnny etc