Siblings names

[fedupwithbeinghot]

Not a criticism but I'm actually very curious. Why do people care about what names go with other names? As in "my son is called John, what shall we call his brother?"

It doesn't happen in my country so it has never occurred to me that there needs to be any correlation between sibling's names. I rarely speak to my sister, and I'm sure if family speak about us, they just say our names without further thought.

What's the reason behind this custom?

Probably so they don't end up sounding weird when referring to multiple children?

"Come on Augustine, leave your brother, Stu alone" or similar.

I remember the midwife asking me what I planned to call my daughter and then she had the cheek to say “but that won’t go with your other kids names” 😳 who chooses a name to match?!

I definitely think about this and it bothers me when other people’s children’s names don’t ‘go’. I’m aware this is ridiculous, and my perception of what ‘goes’ is totally baseless. However, there are definitely times where you’d need to think about sibling names. Joseph couldn’t have a sister called Mary. Jack and Russell would raise a few eyebrows. Myra and Ian would probably cause a stir…

You see? To me that doesn't sound weird at all. 🙂 They are just names

Oh yes! That makes sense. Tom and Jerry, or William and Kate

I always wonder that, too. It's like you're bringing up your kids to be one unit, rather than individuals. Give them their own identity, don't start your next child's life to simply fit with their older sibling.

I think it’s natural (not good, but natural) that new parents over-focus on the early years of their child’s life when making decisions. So they think “well, we’re a family of four, baby’s older sibling is called x, what name do we give the baby to fit into this unit”? It’s the same instinct that makes people pick “cute” names that work well for children but not adults. As you say OP, the child will carry the name for 18 years of childhood and (hopefully) 60+ years of adulthood when few of their acquaintances will have any idea what their siblings or parents are called, so really it’s irrelevant. But new parents aren’t thinking about the distant future, they’re thinking about the here and now when the baby will often be presented alongside their siblings.

Suspect that often when asking for name suggestions it's simply to give the reader an idea of the sorts of names the parents like, for example a parent with children with very traditional names is unlikely to want suggestions of more out there style names for their next.

I didn't realise this until one of my own kids pointed it out. But I have 4 dc, two have named starting with A and the other two with names beginning K.

There is an A...n, K...n and a A...a and K...a in each pair.

I honestly didn't even notice, we just liked the names. we

My name doesn't remotely match my brother's names. They have very normal run of the mill Scottish/UK names, mine is a made up blend.