Choosing a name similar(ish) to your own

[3isamagicnumber]

What do people feel about giving your baby a name which is similar - either in spelling and/or pronuctiation - to your own?
Not because you want to necessarily but because the names you like just happen to be like that!

For instance, could you get away with calling your son Joseph if your name is Joanne?

Other examples include:
(your name) Anna - (baby's name) Andrew
Lisa - Leon
Beth - Ben

Hmmmm I don't know.

I love the name cara if I ever have a girl. But my name is c a r l y. So don't know if I could get away with it!

I also love the name Victoria, nn Tor but it's my middle name so I would probably come across as horrendously narcassistic if I ever had twin girls

I have the female version of my DFs name (I think they just liked the female name rather than me being named after him, if you know what I mean). To be honest I am quite resentful of being given "his" name, and I wish they had chosen something more individual to me. Coupled with a fairly poor relationship with him now, I do think about changing it.

Having said that, I think the examples you give are dissimilar enough. In my case it is more like Alexander & Alexandra.

I should add, no one has ever commented to me that me and my DF have similar names. I'm not sure if relatives or anyone found it odd when they named me.

I think it's fine as long as they are actually different names.

But then our DS shares his fathers middle name, and DD has my first name as her middle name. So I obviously don't mind sharing names!

It doesn't really run in parents in my family but my bro and cousin have similar names. My cousins name is a female variation. I did go to school with a Rachel whose mum was called Rochelle though

DD3's name has the same first 2 letters as my name. It never even occurred to me at the time, I was too busy making sure the DC's names were ok together.

I was in hospital with a rhyming family. Mum (Randy - American) was married to Andy, baby was Sandy.

Common here to give daughters their Dad's name e.g. Dean becomes Deana, Angus becomes Angusina. I know a family of Robert (dad) and children Robert and Roberta.

I also have a cousin who is a J, his wife is a J, both children named with J names

However, names which are similar as above look fine to me.

I've ruled out one of my favourite names because of this. I love Talitha but my sister's nn is Tally & I'm Lisa. I'm hoping to use it as a mn though.

What about, say, Jennifer and Genevieve?

I decided no to this. I like a name that rhymes with mine- think Gemma and my name is Emma, although they're no the real names- and I just thought it was too weird.

That said my mums name is the female derivative of my grandads- like Nigel and Nigella.

My name is my mum's name with 2 extra letters at the end which make it different enough and the pronunciation different so it's fine. I rarely meet people with the same name as me.

My Mum and I have the same name. It's been difficult! I am known by my middle name but I have endless conversations about why I'm not called by my first name every time I have to put it on a form or fill in something official. At school there were always teachers who refused to accept that I was not called by my first name and persisted in calling me by my Mum's name.

Also, my parents had not anticipated the introduction of 'Ms' which made it impossible to tell which of us letters were for before I got married (we have the same initials as well.). Inevitably the letters addressed to 'Ms' in my late teens would be of a medical or other confidential matter...

To be honest I would never do it to my children. We all have different initials as well so there can never be any confusion.

We are Emma and Emily. The similarity didn't seem a big deal when I named her but people do muddle us up! But the older she gets the more independent so I say if you like a name go for it...

I know a Terry who has a sister Theresa. Not sure the similarity occurred to the mum!

DD's name is the same as her Nana's but with a letter added at the start eg, Lise/Elise. MIL thinks DD is named after her, but she's not! I'm named after my Dad, eg Alex/Alexa. It was a bit iffy when we both had gmail accounts with only the one letter to differentiate them and my Dad got invited to three hen parties!

Can't believe I nearly forgot - DS is the 5th generation of a name, my uncle and my brother have the same name and so far, it's a bit confusing between DS and my brother, but we'll figure it out!

My cousin, his dad, his dad and his dad all have the same name so 4 generations. My cousins wife had a girl though and it's nowhere near the males names

Both my sister and i have a part of my mother in our names my older sister has my mothers first name as her mn and i have my mums mn as my mn. I think its lovely

Oh god, I have a friend called Abi and her daughter is called Amy - the number of times I have muddled them up - in person, by text, in cards - everything! And I'm not the only one! So as long as you don't mind that and think your kid won;t either...

DD1 and I have names that sound alike but they are different names entirely, one Irish and one French name. It has never raised an eyebrow.

I am a G e m m a and get G e m. My dd is the reverse, M e g. Genuinely didnt realise til about two weeks in.