4 names - too many?

[Teeste]

I'm 35 weeks pregnant. We decided months ago to call our impending son after DH's grandad who died in January, DH's dad who died 20 years ago and my grandad who died in October last year.

My other grandad died a week ago and DH has asked if we shouldn't give him his name too as a sign of respect.

I never got on particularly well with that grandad and I'm thinking 3 names are plenty anyway - 4 is bordering on sounding like a royal. DH is a born diplomat, though, and may have a point. I don't want to come across to the family as deliberately leaving this grandad out for spite or anything.

What do you think?

It's up to you, of course, but beware: we gave DS1 2 middle names and by the time we had DS4 we a. ran out of names we liked and b. I now cannot remember all of my children's names… which is awkward at times

We never wanted to use family names, so did not have the same considerations as you have.

I'd say it's fine but I am from a culture where children have family names as Middle names so most people have 3 names and 4 isn't unusual

DS has 3 names and I regret I didn't give him 4 esp because 2 are really surnames.

Do what feels right.

4 names is fine if you really want to use them all but I don't think you should feel obliged.

We used 5.

My DS1 has 2 middle names. This week he did his SATs tests and had to write his full name on the front of each of the papers. He did ask me why I gave him so many names... (to be fair they are all quite long names so probably did take a while to write out!) LOL!

Depends if you're likely to have another child - if so, you might keep two of the names back for him/her. Can any of the names be feminised if you had a girl next? Or would you feel obliged to start on the grandmothers' names? Slippery slope!

Maybe save at least one name for any future boy(s) especially if you give DS1 3/4 names you're going to have to continue that tradition and it would be nice for your other DC to have a family connection too

There is nothing wrong with four names as not many people are going to know the full name but like cece says it's a total PITA on forms, takes forever to write out etc. Also it might be wise to save up one for future children, so you don't run out.

DS has two middles names but all three names are not very long.

It's a lot of names. I don't think it matters overly, but I'd stick at 3.

I'd use 4 for the sake of family peace. Nobody will ever use them all anyway. It's different to using 4 for no reason.

Are any of them short names?
Eg - Daniel John James Patrick would fit on a passport form etc much more easily that Sebastian Frederick William Anthony!

Thanks for all the replies!

Without wanting to out myself, the names are 5, 4, 5 letters long to go with our 6-letter surname. So nothing too elaborate. The name in question is another 4 letters and yes, could easily be feminised for a girl.

It's not that we set out to use family names, but we really liked the first one anyway (DH's grandad's official name, except he used a variant in practice) and the others just seemed to follow on naturally. I absolutely don't want to get into some sort of obligatory family naming thing.

I do want DC2 eventually (although at 35 weeks pg I'm questioning the wisdom of this!), DH is not sure whether he might want to stick at one. So I think he might be feeling a wee bit of pressure to get all the names in in one go.

I think cece and swimmer are right - what a palaver on forms, and what about the celebrant when/if he gets married? It'll be all 4 Weddings!