to think it is odd to call your children your name

[CheeseEloise1]

Found it very strange when my brother and his wife named their daughter after wife's name. She is Mexican so put it down to tradition. They are about to have a second child and are going to call it my brother's name.
I can't say anything to them but find it very odd that daughter has mother's name and so has father's name. What would a third child be called? AIBU to find the whole thing a bit odd?

[Bogeyface]

Its origins are not egotistical at all.

When you think back into history from when surnames were common (rather than when they evolved) there were far fewer people and far less travel than there is now, surnames within a community would be concentrated. So Christian names would be needed to differentiate between all the different Smiths within a village. But there was already a Wiliam, a Henry and a Robert, but only one John. So John names his son after himself, as does William, Robert and Henry.

In the monied classes it was probably was to do with the importance of the father, but not in an egotistical way, more as a way to confirm to anyone that Sir John Smith II is the son of Sir John Smith the important and rich landowner. Kind of like a CV in a name.

[Bogeyface]

As for the third child they may choose something totally different or more likely (if they are following the family name thing) whichever of their own parents names they prefer depending on gender.

[WeAllHaveWings]

We are in Scotland. My dad was named after his dad. I have a brother named after my dad, a sister after my mum, a brother after my grandad, and I am named after my aunt.

Traditional in my dads family, a lot of my cousins are named after their parents.

[MitzyLeFrouf]

No they'll probably go for a mash-up of the two names.

Jane and Peter - Jeter
Tom and Caroline - Tomaline
Gary and Linda - Ginda

[Outfoxed]

My brother has the same name as my dad who had the same name as his dad. To avoid confusion a bit they alternate which name they go by, ie if the name is John Peter Smith, brother goes by Peter, dad goes by John, grandad goes by Peter. But it can still get confusing if everyone's together!
That being said I've always thought it was really weird that Will and Jada Smith named their kids Willow and Jaden...so maybe it is weird when it's not your family and your used to it...

[CheerfulYank]

Especially as I'm sure Will's oldest son is actually Will as well...I know they call him Trey but I think that means he's Will the third. That's fairly common in the south...a kid is Whatever Whatever the third and then called Trip or Trey.

I'm Megan and my daughter is Margaret called Maggie...I didn't really name her after myself though, we just liked it. My husband is Andrew (Andy) and I went through a stage of wanting to name a daughter Miranda or similar and call her Andi, but I think that was hormonal :o Strangely I never wanted to name one of the boys after him!

[ApostrophesMatter]

Up until around 1900 it was the norm.

•The first son was named after the father's father
•The second son was named after the mother's father
•The third son was named after the father
•The fourth son was named after the father's eldest brother
•The first daughter after the mother's mother
•The second daughter after the father's mother
•The third daughter after the mother
•The fourth daughter after the mother's eldest sister

[Afreshstartplease]

There is a case of this in my family where my grandad had a son who took his name, who then had a son who took his name who now has a son he has given said name!

I wouldn't do it myself but each to their own

[ValerieSweet]

I know a family where the mother and daughter have near-identical names with different vowel stresses; I won't give the actual names, but it's like Mary/Marie, or Sarah/Sara.

It drives me inexplicably mad. I always make an effort to pronounce them properly, inevitably fuck it up, and then go around muttering to myself like a crazy person: Sarah, Sara, Sara, Sarah, SarahSaraSarahSara...

[ValerieSweet]

ApostrophesMatter that is a curiously satisfying system, if only because I would end up with DC called Muhammet and Dorothy. I think we can all agree that would be an awesome combination [goes off to suggest it in Baby Names].

[ApostrophesMatter]

It can throw up some interesting family groups, Valerie.

My gt grandmother Elizabeth had a sister Eliza, which would probably never happen now.

[BikeRunSki]

I work with someone whose family call all the boys the same first name, say James. Every male across the wider family for generations. They then have a complicated system of deciding who will be known as James, Jim, Jimmy, Jamie, their middle name etc. My colleague has 2 sons, so there are 3 people with the same name in his house. To make things even more complicated they all live in the sand town, and all use the same gp and dentist.

[CheerfulYank]

Oooh if I went by Apostrophe's system and had 8 kids I'd have two named James. :o It's FIL and DH's eldest brother. I actually might have one named James someday; I like it. FIL is Jim and BIL is Jamey but mine would just be James.

If I went by the system I'd have James, Robert, Andrew, James, Jody, Suzanne, Megan, and...the system falls apart because I don't have a sister. :o If we used DH's eldest sister it would be Maria.

[JemimaMuddledUp]

Loving the system in Apostrophe's post - it would mean that DS1 and DS2 were both called William! That could get confusing...

[sepa]

I think it's odd but it's because my dad and brother have the same name and I hate them both so i don't like anything about them

[CheerfulYank]

X post on the Jameses, Bike. :o It's not all the male's though. Can't imagine that!

[fecketyfeck]

It's a tradition on my dads side that the first born son has this name. There are four generations now all with the same name but different variations of it so no need for a junior/senior.

[Slarti]

Our DS1 is named after his mum. How's that grab you OP?

[CheerfulYank]

There are lots of names that you could keep going for a long time with nicknames. Charles, Charlie, Chuck, Chase, Chip... :)

[MrsMook]

The tradtion probably seems more odd in an era where the majority of people have 1-3 children so very few people would get to use names further down the list. Values have moved away from family connections to greater independence which is reflected in name choices.

BiL is named after his father but known by an abbreviation of his middle name. DS1 has a Gaelic version of DH's name in the middle. His first name is after my dad (deceased). I also lumped him with my uncle's name- he'd died a couple of years before and had no descendants. I used all those significant names because I didn't know if we'd have another son, or the odds of more babies in the wider family. I like the names anyway!

When DS2 was on the way, there was a name I like, but is too similar to mine. There was a chance of me passing on my middle name to him. But he was a boy, so we named him after Granny. The masculine version of course

[Motherfuckers]

It is important to my south American family to use family names. I find it weird that you cannot recognise or accept that custom.

[MrEBear]

Their choice and possibly tradition where she is from. I think I is really only in since the 60's people have broken with the tradition of naming babies after family members parents / grandparents. I've not came across siblings with the same name but I have cousins who in turn become known by who's child they are, Lizzies George, Mary's George.

Another very old Scots tradition was to give the first son the mothers maiden name as a first name dropping the Mac / Son hence so many Scottish names can be first or surnames, Stewart, Gregor (MacGregor) etc.

[CMOTDibbler]

In my dads family, the eldest boy gets James as a name, varying between first and middle, and actually using James/Jim/Jimmy. Confusingly, some like my grandfather didn't have it as their first name, but were still known as their James version. It goes back hundreds of years

[Zoomtothespoon]

I'm not personally a fan! My family in another country have this going back quite a few generations though

[toots111]

I can't believe no one has mentioned george foreman yet (boxer/grill inventer) yet. From Wikipedia : Foreman has 12 children: five sons and seven daughters. His five sons are George Jr., George III ("Monk"), George IV ("Big Wheel"), George V ("Red"), and George VI ("Little Joey").