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.

Glad my username is finally being appreciated!

My Dad is known as Big Xxxx, my brother is Wee Xxxx andthe baby is known as Baby Xxxy.

One good thing about same named ones is that you can holler one name and half the household turns up.

I agree that it's tradition. I am in Scotland and my DP has his grandfathers' names as middle names.

In Germany it was usual to give the godparents names as middle names when my mother was born.

I wouldn't want to continue giving children names from family members to be honest, unless I really like them. I would not give a child a name just because it's a family name, I would have to like it, too. I find it a bit boring to give everyone the same first name somehow, I would at least 'spice it up' b mixing with middle names.

My son has same name as his dad, hid dad sister husband also has the same name as does their son, my sons first cousin. Confused. When we all eat together we always say " could the real (name) please stand up"

It's a rather old-fashioned tradition and I have to say it never occurred to me to name ds1 after his father, nor his father to want him named after him. DP was very fortunate to have a father who decided, back when the practice was much more customary, that he wasn't burdening his first born son with the name of either Walter or Alfred. DP's father being a Walter but known by his middle name of Alfred since it was confusing to have two Walters in the family.

We chose to use family names as middle names so they were kept in the family but didn't result in (what I think is) the ludicrous situation of everyone having the same first name.

But then I'm a bit particular about first names anyway - I've always cringed at families where all the children have to have a first name beginning with the same initial. Regardless of how quickly you run out of halfway sensible names and thus end up with a brood of Jaydens, Jaydeys and Jayenettas.

My sister went to school with a boy called John Smith. He was the sixth in his family. John Smith the sixth.

Did they differentiate from each other by Roman numerals after their names, Bertie? Like royalty? Only John Smith VI is quite an impressive handle!

My uncle recently gave me a copy of the family tree he had traced and all the first born sons going back 8 generations were called James. He decided not to name his son James, however his daughter (first born) named her first son James so the tradition sort of continued I guess.

My Dad was the third son, so got a random name that my Nan liked and there was no naming tradition on my Mum's side. I seem to have accidentally started one off for my family though. DS2 has both his grandfather's names as his middle names, as they were both seriously ill when I was pregnant and I thought it was a nice way to ensure they lived on. My Dad has since died, his other Grandfather is still alive. I am now pregnant with DS3 (different father) and he will have the same middle name as DP and DP's father, as DP's Dad died just before I found out I was pregnant so again, it was a way of making his name live on. There is no way we would give DS3 his Grandad's first name as any of his names though, it is a shocker and DFIL hated it his whole life to the extent that I only knew the shortened version of it until I saw the order of service for his funeral, as he wouldn't allow it to be uttered in his hearing.

Thinking about it, DFIL was a 'victim' of the traidtion for naming children for relatives, albeit an outdated version, as his name was actually a surname for a famous Admiral that there was some tenuous link to way back when, so using that name was a way of boasting about being related to someone a bit 'famous'. I believe FIL was named for a relative who had it as his first name, but it still originated from pompous showing off way back in the dim and distant.

I never understand this, there are millions and millions of names in the world so why repeat names and make for confusing conversations.

Why do they not just pick something completely new, different and fresh.

I don't understand this either.

Although the few families that I know who have done this have usually then called the son by the middle name, which again I find a bit hard to understand because it makes more sense to me to use the middle name to honour someone else with if the person being honoured is still alive and give the baby it's own first name.

And I say this as someone who named my LO after my grandad, but my grandad has passed away and so isn't hear for the names to cause confusion, which makes it alright (to me).

My DH though, has his father's name as his middle name and he wanted LO to have it as a middle name too. It's a fairly popular name that I do not like, and it's been mentioned on this thread so I can't share it, but thankfully DH's brother had used it for his eldest sons middle name and so I managed to convince DH it was 'taken'

So then he wanted to use his own first name as a middle name, but that would have meant an unfortunate set of initials, even if we had tried to find a further middle name for LO, so I refused to consider it. DH threw a bit of a strop and I insisted that since LO was getting DH's last name it was only fair to go double-barrelled with my maiden name, to avoid the terrible initials and get a bit of me in there somewhere.

DH hated that idea so the argument was resolved and LO has a perfectly ordinary set of names and initials and no double-barrelled surname.

I suppose it's as someone else has said, each to their own.

Well, I'm named after mum, DB1 is named after dad, DB2 is named after our surname and DB3 is named after a Cockney secondhand car salesman!

My parents are decent people, but had some strange notions Very strange ...

tartan "DB2 is named after our surname"

So, John Johnson or something like that?

my dad and his sister are called after their mum and dad (my gps)... exactly the same names.. i guess they just used 'wee x' when they were young.

oh and obviously we're scottish.

takethis, yes something very similar, but with a Mc in the middle. Poor DB3 hates it!

fluffles that's what we did: big X and wee X. Worked fine until DB1 grew taller than Dad, then it became old X and young X.

As are we fluffles

DS has my Scottish grandfather's name (Alexander). As does my uncle, my cousin, two of my counsin's children. Also a few second cousins & thier children. It's a family tradition, traced back a couple of hundred years. It helps that it's a great name, still very much in use and has lots of good nick name options.

My grandmother's line also had the tradition with the name Prudence...not so good! We don't have any girls in this generation yet, so no-one has had to make the call to break it yet

My OH has the same name as his dad and uncle,my OH gets called his middle name by his family but by his proper 1st name at work,so it can be confusing if i see anyone from OH s work and they ask how he is and i say who? it also caused problems for us when we applied for a morgage as they came back sayin we already had one ! it was my ILs morgage

my MIL pulled me when i was due DS and asked if its a boy will you be calling him after OH and FIL and i said NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO it wasnt even a possible name as my OH hates it

from what my OH has told me its caused other problems too like his dad opening his post thinkin it was his,my BIL also gets called by his middle name by his family but by his 1st name at work as he has the same name as his cousin

very confusing !

We have Granville the elder and Granville the younger in my family........

Definitely common in Ireland!! Sometime they have the trade/job tacked on as a distinguishing mechanism i.e Paddy the Plasterer. Or young Joe, old Joe and baby Joe - I almost fell over to be introduced to 6 foot 4 baby Joe and his fiancee