Two sons same name

[Bloopbleep]

I'm not going to give too much detail but a neighbour has just told me both his sons are called (I'm name changing them) Bob Smith. He was married twice so first Bob is son to first wife and he's ten years older than second Bob son to the second wife. Both are alive and in contact.

Is this not a bit strange and unfair to the kids (now grown men)? I can't imagine growing up as Bob1 and feeling replaced completely by Bob2

There is a mumsnetter with a Harry and a Henry. She got all cross when people told her it was the same name and stomped off, even when offered a member of the royal family as evidence.

Is the Mary not an Italian Roman Catholic thing?

She didn't adopt her daughter, though, belle.

The Mary-something is a catholic thing- not just Italian Catholic. Lots of Irish Mary-somethings too.

I know a family where all the boys are called the same name. Every boy, every generation. So at any time you 'LL have brothers, fathers and sons, uncles and nephews etc with the same first name. They have a complicated system of who is known by which abbreviation, nickname, middle name etc. And they all live in the same small town and use the same doctor and dentist, and often get sent each other's appointments. I think there are eight of them at the moment, aged about 8 to 80.

I know a large family where the boys all have the same first name and they are all called by their middle names. So their family tree going back years is kind of hilarious to read. It's their Kernow way, apparently!

Anyway, as above, I'm happy to accept that Henry Carey may not have been the biological son of Henry VIII.

Henry VIII had three sons that he acknowledged, and named Henry. Three! The person in the OP only had two. That's one whole child with the same name more!

Lweji that happened in my family too, almost - my dad's sister died before he was born and they named the next girl (who lived) almost the same, think Paula and Paulina or Georgina and Georgette sort of thing.

I don't know that it bothers my aunt!

Same name for a child of a later partnership has happened twice in my family. Neither time did the "new" partner or child know about the existence of the "old" one. And I find it really odd. And part of me thinks, "Could you just not think of ANY OTHER NAME???"

I know two brothers called Cliff and Richard!

Their parents are not even Cliff Richard fans!

And I knew a family of five French brothers all called Jean-

Jean-Yves
Jean-Baptiste
Jean-Claude

etc

I know two boys called John and Jack. I did raise an eyebrow!

I know of a grown man who shares his name with his half brother. I wonder if it's the same one? Apparently his dad 'forgot' he'd already used the name. I think there were intoxicating substances that alter the memory involved.

My FIL and his brother had the same first name, and the same initial for the second name. So one David Andrew and one David Alec (not their actual names, just to illustrate).They had the same parents too, so it wasn't like they weren't brought up together or anything. When FIL's brother's daughter (war baby while based abroad) tried to trace him it was a bit awkward for her because she didn't know which side of the family to contact (soon sorted, both men dead anyway and we were delighted to have a new cousin).
It isn't uncommon here, I know sisters who are both called Catherine- one uses her middle name. It tends to happen when there are two rich relatives who want a child named after them and neither wants to "share"!

Henry the 8th did have loads of kids but ironically not many legitimate ones.

My brother went to school with a Wesley who's father then remarried and called his next son Wesley too. That guy must have really loved that name !

I had a colleague years ago from the Scottish islands who had 3 brothers with the same name. They had different Gaelic names, but they all translated to the same name.

I've changed the names and copied from google, but an example would be Dómhnall, Dòmhnall, Domhnull, and Dòmhnull are all different Gaelic names but translate to Donald in English. They all went by the name Donald unless they were with gaelic speakers.

They all used Donald

It was relatively common in the past that if a child died young the name would be reused for a subsequent child - it crops a few times in my family tree.

(And for the sixteenth century, Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk - Anne Boleyn's grandfather - had an heir by his first wife called Thomas and a son by his second wife also called Thomas both of whom survived infancy. All the Earls of Northumberland were called Henry and most of the sixteenth century Earls of Oxford were Johns. It makes writing about them rather challenging!)

Away, is Liam not an Irish name, nothing to do with William?
Short answer. Liam is both Irish for William and a diminutive of William.
Long answer. Liam is short for the Irish name Uilliam, which is a derivative of the German; Wilhelm or the French; Guillaume. The English name William is also a derivative of Wilhelm and Guillaume, as is the Spanish name Guillermo.

I know someone with girls called Sally and Sarah.....

Liam is the Irish word for William, Bill, Billy, Will, etc

Gaelic names can be really confusing. Not just because there are so many variations of the same English name (Seamus, Hamish and James are all used interchangeably here for example), but also because Gaelic has a vocative case and while a person's name might be Mairi (pronounced more-or-less Marry), if you were talking to her in Gaelic you would call her Mhairi (Varry).

I have taught two brothers where the younger one had a shorter version of the same name. It's wasn't a less obvious shortening like Betty and Elizabeth or Jack and John. It was a really obvious one like Timothy and Tim (not real names).
I got on well with the parents and asked them about the names.
The parents were not UK born and when the first son came along they wanted an English name, heard the name Timothy and went with that. For son number two they wanted to use her dad's name, which they anglicised as Tim.
They didn't realise they were the same name until much later.

I taught a family with sons called Jack, Sean, Ewan & Ian, & a daughter called Joanna.

Dad was called John & liked the idea of calling all his children derivatives/variations of it.

No-one had noticed until a colleague tactlessly commented at Parents' Evening that a couple of the names were quite 70s retro, whereupon the parents cheerfully explained...

I work with a lots of Muslim men (in the nhs) and lots of them are called Mohammed but use their middle name.
I know one guy who's 5 brothers are all Mohammed as is his dad.

I know two brothers called Joel and Joe. Can get confusing. Yes Liam is Irish but then over time names become international.