Would you use a surname as a first name of your surname can also be used as a first name?

[ineedamoreadultieradult]

If your surname was a name that gets used as a first name such as Harrison or Spencer etc would you use another surname as a first name or would that be a bit odd. So for example Taylor Harrison or Spencer Carter?

I used to work with a Gordon Graham and a Graham Gordon.

Mmmm, Golden Grahams

My maiden name is a popular girls first name, my middle name is a surname traditionally used as a middle name in my family. Until I got married very little post, work emails etc used to be addressed correctly and people would constantly assume I was filling in forms wrongly. It is irritating. My first name was ignored completely for some reason.

Ha people are so dramatic. It's totally fine. No more of an issue than Henry James / Rhys David / James Gordon. I mean people may need to clarify sometimes, but I wouldn't call that a 'problem' in the great scheme of things. It wouldn't stop me using a name I love.

Both my sons have surnames for first names and in the 14 years my eldest has been alive we have never had any issues. Where do you all live where people get confused? Is it something in the water?

We struggled finding a name for our son for this very reason! Our surname is a (now not so common) boys' name and DH often gets called by his surname even though his first name ISN'T really used as a surname!
It drives him mad. The problem is that so many boys' names are actually surnames as well... we found one eventually. Although it's the diminutive form of a name that is a surname. It's a minefield!

DH and DS both have names which could work either way around. It's fine.

Stroke The same middle name repeated twice?

My DS first name is my maiden name and surname is exh. My maiden name is commonly used as a first name too.

Joseph but is your surname one that is commonly used as a first name too?

Jackson Greenfield clearly has firstname Jackson.

Jackson Harrison is confusing.

If you've gone fourteen years with a Jackson Harrison equivalent and no one has got confused that's good going!

I have several colleagues whose names are like this. Our email system puts surnames first and even though it does it with a comma (Meggie, Purple) the people with two surname-type names are forever being called the wrong thing. The one that particularly sticks in my mind is a woman whose surname is a common men's first name (think Leigh Andrew) and people always assume she is a man called Andrew.

No I wouldn't as I work in a job calling people's names out ie a hospital and this confused me no eyn

It hasn't held Jamie Oliver back...

I knew people with the surname Kenny and they felt they struggled to find a name that went well with it, although their issue was more about avoiding a repeat of the 'y' sound.

I also know a William Williams. You do wonder why...

I really like those kind of surnames as first names, and vice versa, but I'm not sure I would but them together.

I used to work with 2 guys called Douglas Robb and Rob Douglas. People were always confusing them and sending emails to the wrong person. They hated it, and each other!

I work at a place now where we have this problem - David George and George David working in the same department (not those actual names). And for extra confusion our email system shows up the sender as a "Surname, firstname" format so initially you'll read it as being from the other person.

I know a couple of people who have first names as surnames (e.g. Matthew Thomas) and both say that they have about a 50% hit rate as to whether emails are addressed to "Dear Thomas" or "Dear Matthew".
Howeve,r there is not much you can do about it where you have that type of surname.

I do think having 2 names which are both more commonly used as surnames (e.g. Harrison Taylor) is less confusing than having a surname as a first name and a first name as a surname (e.g. Harrison Thomas)

I used to work with someone called a name like Harrison Henry (i.e. the first name was more commonly a surname, the surname more commonly a first name). There was at least one call a day asking for Henry Harrison.

Come to Wales, you'll be fine!
Top 10 surnames below , 9 of which it is easy to spot the identical or very close Christian name!
Jones ...?
Williams...William
Davies ...David/Dafydd etc
Evans ...Evan
Thomas ...Thomas/Tomos etc
Roberts ...Robert
Lewis...Lewis
Hughes ....Hugh/Huw
Morgan..Morgan
Griffiths ...Gruffudd/Griff etc

On the otherhand seeing as first name and surnames matching also occurs you won't ever get a mix-up. David Davis, William Williams, Llewelyn Llewelyn, John John just to name the ones I know closely.

No, I wouldn't.

I don't really like surnames-as-first-names anyway, but especially not if you've got a surname which can also be a first name.

I wouldn't but I don't particularly like surnames as first names.

I knew a boy who had the same name twice, as in James James or Harrison Harrison. Whatever were his parents thinking?

No - awful.

Fine if more common as a first name - James, Henry, Craig, Andrew etc.

However - Connor, Jordan, Brodie, Harrison, Mason -awful chavvy names as first name.

I would, depending on the sound of a particular pairing.

I'm struggling to think of any people I know who have surname-surname (weird as I'm a teacher so know an awful lot of names). Can think of a few first-name, first-names (one confusing one was a girl who was virtue-name, flower-name (eg Faith Rose but not) but the others are more your standard Matthew James, Chris Ryan type names which my brain copes with fine).

I have a friend who refused to consider calling his child any name which has ever (to his knowledge of course) been used as a surname. Made their boy choices quite limited! They had a girl though.

If I were writing a novel and wanted to create a pompous, wealthy American character, I'd probably call him Surname Surname. So that's what it conjures up to me and not in a good way. I think Firstname Firstname is different as most people don't really choose their baby's surname; they follow social convention by using one of the parent's surname usually the father. So it isn't as discretionary a choice.

It does depend on the specific names though. Something almost exclusively surname like the examples you gave, definitely not. Something almost equally common as first or surname like Martin, then that's probably fine as most people would expect "Martin Harrison" to have it in that order.

I don't particularly like the surname-as-first-name trend anyway so that could be colouring my view. I really dislike names ending in -son being used as first names - the logical part of my brain is going "but you aren't Jack's son"...

If you absolutely adore the name and have no other possible choices that you like, then it isn't the worst thing in the world but if there were any other names that you like at all, I'd choose those first.

It's a long tradition in Scotland, a necessarily short one in the USA but in England tends to indicate lower status. I say that not as someone who endorses any concept of class determination but as a barrister who has worked with underprivileged people for 30 years and has observed the striking difference between colleagues and clients in this regard.