to not want to name new baby after dh's grandad who has just died?

[Egypt]

i feel cruel, but i just can't do it. dh has just lost his grandad, whom he was very close to. he desperately wants to use his name as a middle name if this baby - due end of march, turns out to be a boy. i feel emotionally blackmailed and that its not fair to impose a name on someone for the rest of their lives for the sake of the memory of someone else, if the name isn't.....nice. its not like we are going to ever forget him. i want my only son to have a name i am actually proud of and wont be totally embarrassed of forever. i'd feel i'd have to tell everyone who asked his name WHY we'd called him that. ok, so its a middle name, but ....am i being unreasonable?

...the name is .... Maurice

I dont agree with naming children after someone. They are people in their own right not a memorial!
Thats just my opinion and I respect others might want their children to carry on a name!

Wait until about 3 minutes after the birth and say "oh dh, is it ok if we don't name him Maurice after all?". If he says no, bite him while they're stitching you up.

I think if it means so much to your DH then you should use it as a middle name, after all it is his child too and he has as much right to choose names as you do.
DS1 has the middle name Dennis, after his great great uncle, and he is extreamley proud of it.

But the alternative to having a second name in someones memory is to have a second name that means nothing and is just another name that you like.

I feel second names should have a significance to them.

My poor dd has a second name that is my mothers first name. It must be the worst female name ever. However, I'm so glad I went with it and didn't bottle out.

I like having my grandmother's name as a middle name, and have given it to dd as her middle name. I hugely regret not giving ds a family name. I think the 'Who Do You Think You Are' programme shows how strong the pull of your family history is. History is what we are.

Hi Egypt - tricky one!

Sounds like you could get away with Stephen as a middle name, especially if you've just remembered grandad saying he wanted you to call ds Stephen...would that be bearable? Do you have an agreed first name? You could always try the "do you really think he looks like a...........?" tactic when he's born.
Don't see the point of using a different spelling or shortened version of Maurice, although I like Morris - he could be Morris Minor

ds has dh's grandfather's name as a middle name, as grandfather died not long before ds was born. It's not a name I would have chosen otherwise, only because it's John, which strikes me as "middle name you give when you can't think of anything else".

Could you vary the spelling to Morris? Maurice always makes me think of the American More-reece, hideous.

Stephen would be infinitely preferable.

i hate the name stephen much perfer maurice
like the idea george maurice as middle names

i was quite lucky me thinks
ds,dh, fil, his dad etc etc all have the same name Chris which is cool

we called ds1 Chris Ryan
then we had another son so decided as dh didnt like my dads name for a first name we would use ds middle name and my dads name so ds2 is Ryan James

My brother has Maurice as a middle name, I have Marjorie after my late nan, i never knew her.My DH has middle names after family members too. Maybe it was a 'done thing' in the 70's.

My ds1 has two middle names, the last being my grandads name, Gordon. He passed away while I was pregnant and because we were very close I wanted to use his name somehow, a bit like a tribute to him. As it was I wasnt so keen on using it next to ds'1 first name as it rhymed and also was a bit old fashioned so I used James Gordon instead. Ds1 knows all about his great grandad and is proud that he shares a name with him but where it is his third name he doesnt often use it.

Why dont you think of a name you like that you can put in front of Maurice, that was you keep dh happy and you can conveniently forget the name is there. I dont often use my middle name even though i quite like it so using the name Maurice wont really make much difference in the long run except your dh will be extremely happy that you allowed him to use it.

Plus your LO may suprise you and turn out to be a girl so you could get away with not using it anyway

How did you go with dh on reminding him about Stephen as a preference of Maurice's?

One of our children has a first name for one of dh's grandparents, another a middle name for one of my grandparebts. Dh didn't care for 'my' one, hence it being the middle name. Doing this gave huge pleasure to both our families, and we agreed that any future child would not be named for either family. All parties concerned contented.

It's a middle name! How many people actually use theirs or know other people's?

Middle names are for honouring people, well, they certainly are in any circles I run in. Maybe it's an Irish thing but I think you're being VERY unreasonable to not give your son his grandfathers name, it's not like its a first name.

My daughter is 6 months old and has 2 middle names, no-one has asked what they are, the only people who know are close family, not because we didn't want to tell, just nobody asks these things!

Zombie 🙈.

Christ, little Maurice is nearly my age now 😆

Not another zombie thread. What's going on?

Maurice is a little old fashioned, reminds me of 1920’s film stars with brilliantine’d hair and smoking jackets, like on the Orient Express.

Maurice is about to start University.
ZOMBIE.

Ack, it's not a hill to die on, op. It's a middle name after all. Go for two middle names as suggested and help your DH through his grief. It means a lot to him.

Bollocks.

How about Morry, the short version. It's quite cute.