to think it's a bit weird to call a father and son by the same name?

[MardyBra]

And refuse to give them different nns?

I know it's traditional in some families in Victorian times or maybe if you're an aristocrat, but surely a bit odd, not to mention confusing, especially when it's not even an old family name.

My French cousin and his son are known as Grand Pierre and Petit Pierre.

Unfortunately 'petit' Pierre is about 6ft 5 and massive, so it's a bit of a joke now.

I went to school with two brothers. The elder was called Frederick John after their father, and the younger John Frederick *.

It did seem a bit unimaginative.

• names have been changed.

FIL is John, eldest son was 'Johnjohn' [boak]

I think its really odd and don't closely know any families that do it. However I do live on the south coast so don't bump into too many Irish/Scottish people.

I really don't get it when the boys/men just get called by their middle names instead - why not name them that as their first name and use the family name as a middle name then - saves confusion later!

It's not about lack of imagination though. I would imagine that anyone that does this does it to continue a tradition. Do you really think someone has a baby and says "hell, I can't be fagged to think of a name for this child, lets call him John Smith same as you".

The real eejits are the couple I know that called their son Séamus James. I'll never understand that one :o

I know several Sean Johns, too.

Sigh.

As long as there is a way to differentiate them no problem. My dad and grandad have the same name, both known by the same nn - one spells it with a ie the other with a y.

Don't see any problem with it for grandparents and grandchildren though

On my mum's side of the family, most of the men seem to be called Bill or Billy, distinguished by qualifiers such as Old Billy, Young Bill, Big Bill, Mary's Billy etc. I guess they were probably all William's really. My dad has the same name as his dad (though he was known by a nickname), and my brother also has it as a middle name. Both parents are from Ireland, if that makes a difference.

It's not a bad traditions, but I think it does make more sense to pass on first name as middle name though, less confusing in day to day life. Especially these days as teenage/adult 'children' are more likely to be living in the parental home for longer (so potential confusion over post etc) and people live longer generally so the father will likely be around for more of his son's lifetime.

Interesting it seems to be less usual to do this with mother and daughter's names.

My DF is named after his father, who sadly passed away before he was born. I've never asked, but always assumed that if his dad had lived then he'd have been called something different.

My DS and DD both have mine and my DF's middle names as their middle names. I like the idea of passing on a name, but not necessarily first names.

DP, his dad, dad's dad and God knows how many of them all have the same firstname. But they are known by their middle names and it drives DP nuts. Causes no end of problems when he's booking flights, etc as the name on his passport is different to his everyday name. Even when I book flights and know I've done it right, I get really paranoid and have to go back and check a million times.

DS has that same name as his middle name which we are both happy with - as practically, every second generation gets known by the middle name so as not to have two people with the same name in the same house...

Afternoon I have an Uncle Junior - well, he's in his 70's now - but that's what everyone calls him as he had the same name as his father. Just seems so weird calling an old man 'Junior' . His son does not have the same name so we have no Junior Juniors...

We have the same father/son names here following the Scottish tradition. The first name has been used for generations and the middle names are usually that of the maternal grandfathers so my two sons share the same middle name. (It is also a factor in which type of tartan you are able to wear).
The various men in the family would be known as eg Jim Mhor or Jim Beag.

It is not an unimaginative way of naming a child, just a tradition which is adhered to.

You'd hate my family. My dad, his son (my bro) and his son all have the same name

I love your user name though HowToLookGoodGlaikit so maybe that makes up for it

I'm also married to a Portuguese man, and his family keeps the firstborn tradition - so he, his father and his grandfather etc etc all have the same name. They have different middle names and if things get confusing (which isn't actually very often) then they refer to middle names too. We don't have kids yet but if we do i will consider giving our son the same name - my husband actually doesn't really care either way, but i know it would mean a lot to his grandmother since his grandad died a few years ago. In fact, the more I think about it the nicer I think the tradition is!

Whilst pregnant with DC my MiL "told" me that if it was a boy it must be called John after my husband!
Husband, FiL, Grandfather all called John, really imaginative in Sunderland!

I think it's a very Northern pastime.

To those who find it unimaginative or lazy to give a baby the name of a parent or grandparent, couldn't you say much the same thing about naming your baby one of the popular names of the moment, like Jack/Charlie/Oliver/Sophie/Emily etc etc? They're very nice names, but the chances are there'll be dozens of other children with the same name in their school year from Kindergarten onward - is that really so different from having two Thomas HardCheeses under the same roof? I think originality in baby-naming is pretty illusory, unless you do actually call it Moon Unit.

I know a family where every male of every generation has the same first name, Usually brothers in this family will end up with different nn or use their middle names, seems very odd to me.

I don't "hate" your family Glaikit. I would just be a little .

By the way, I like your user name now since you explained it to me...

It was very much the traditional way of naming sons back in the early 20th century. The firstborn son would be named after his father. The second son would have his Mothers maiden name. That is how many surnames came to be first names.

I wonder if this is a regional thing? I don't find it weird at all - a bit unimaginative yes, but not weird or unusual. However, I do know a family where the DS is named after the father and the DD named after the mother and they have "fifties " names, so Dad is say, "Keith" and son is" Keith", Mum is "Pam" and daughter is "Pam", which does rather make the kids (in their early teens) rather stand out from the crowd....

And you don't think that is more imaginative than yet another Ben and Olivia? Think they've got the right idea personally.

Yes I think it is common ir Ireland. Although in our case its a name with diff derivations so all 3 generations are called something slightly different.

Really common till quite recently in Scotland.

And I know a John Johnson called after his father John Johnson. Quite often one of the Johns is called Jack.

My mum is called after her mum my aunt after her mum's sister.

We are an unimaginative people.

Did I ever tell you that Mrs McCave, had 23 sons and she named them all Dave?