Ways to honour people called....

[ncforbabynames]

• Ian
• Margaret
• Doreen
• Maureen
• Ethel
• Carol
• Marlon

Creating my first names list in preparation for ttc this year. We thought it was important for us to have family names, but then please don't be offended realised we didn't actually like any family names. So we're looking for any variations, similar names etc that have some kind of link (even if it's a bit tenuous). For either gender for any name, whatever you can come up with! Thank you!

Also if any of you have named a child after someone but not actually used their name, how did it go down?

DD has Ina after an Ian in the family. We pronounce it Eye-na

I really can't see how calling a boy Evan is in honour of Ian. If you aren't going to use the actual name (as middle name?) then it's really not worth it.

If you want to use family names with your DC that's totally up to you and completely fine. My DD is called Elsie after my wonderful grandmother and she is 12, it was not popular back then but suddenly babies with the name are popping up everywhere! My grandmother was horrified at first and thought it was too old fashioned a name so suggested Elise, same letters but more modern. I stuck with Elsie and now have some treasured photos of them walking together, my grandmother definitely had a soft spot for her little mini me!

Anyways, off on a tangent there. I really like Maura, very unique! You could also use Iona which contains the name Ian or Sian?

Maureen comes from the Irish - Máirín which means little Mary.
So you could use Mary which is a classic and unusual now unlike years ago.

Doreen - could be called Doria- Meghan Markle's Mum's name. Heard a lot in 2018 and with little Sussex due soon will be heard a lot in 2019

Caroline.
Cassie
Carri
Callie
Cora
Coral
Renee
Megan
Peggy
Martha
Marisa
Martin
Marlee
Marley
Marlow
Marla
Marlene
Marlena.
Ellie
Esther
Elise
Eleri
Evie
John
Sean
Evan
Alan
Neil

Is Doreen not short for Dorothy?

Maura
Moira

Just use the name as a middle name.
Some of the names are nice but they're not currently
I wouldn't use a name that was a tenuous link, but something like naming a child Janet Elizabeth in honour of her nan, Betty, or Janet Charlotte after her grandad Charles is fine.

currently fashionable. Ian and Maureen are both nice.

As other posters said Maureen literally means little Mary. So any other forms of Mary like Marie or Maria would work.

• Ian: Iona, Ianthe
• Margaret: Maggie, Meg, Peggy
• Doreen: Dotty, Dora
• Maureen: Mo
• Ethel: Effie
• Carol: Caroline
• Marlon: stumped on this one!

However, I would personally just go with one of the names as a middle name.

I think you should either use the actual name (perhaps as a middle name?) or not at all.

Otherwise, it's like saying "Your name is ugly" to the person in question.

That said, using an opposite-gender version of the name could be find. "Michaela" for grandad Michael, that kind of thing.

“I read a story once where the name of the baby was created by taking the first letter of each relatives name to make a new name. That would please everyone.”

Oh, how lovely. And how pleased they would all be, especially the child, on the birth of baby Grop or Slurb or Kawtramp.

• Ian = Euan / Ivan / Eoin

• Margaret = Mairead / Margot / Margarita / Marguerite / Rita / Greta / Pearl

• Doreen = Dora / Theodora / Dorothy / Dorothea / Isadora / Dorinda

• Maureen = Moya / Mary / Maria / Marie / Marianne / Marianna / Maia / May

• Ethel = middle name potential?

• Carol = Caroline / Carolina / Charlotte / Carly / Carla

• Marlon = middle name again?

(To the PP baffled about Evan - Evan is a version of John, which is what Ian is too).

I agree - pick a first name you love then use a second / third name to honour family members

It's not really naming Baby John after his grandad if his grandad is actually called Ian

Just to complicate the John/Ian thing - I know a number of Ians who are John on their birth certificate. It was common where sons were named after fathers to use the alternate so you knew which was which, but they were all officially named John. A Scottish thing obviously!

I also don't get 'honouring' people by not using their name. Surely the whole point is that it's about your love for that person, not your love (or lack thereof) for their name?

You might as well not bother, tbh. Which is fine.

Dorian - Doreen combined with Ian. 2 birds, one stone!

well, that's better than Renesmee!

My boys are both named after family members. We had a similar issue in that I really didn't want to name my child Walter but did want a name linked to him so my eldest has his great great grandfather's surname, and my youngest is named after the town his great grandfather is from.

The boys love that there's a link to two important men from DH and my life, but also that their names are their own, if that makes sense?

Eoin or Eoghain is the gaelic form of John in Northern Scotland Iain is the anglicised version of Eoin
60+ years ago they frowned on gaelic names on birth certificates so even if you said your boy was Calum Iain or girl was Maighread Catriona the registrar would write Malcolm John or Margaret Catherine on the birth certificate; so in official records he would be Malcolm John Macleod the everyday he would be Calum Iain, so in the Isle of Lewis someone age 10 called Calum is almost certainly Calum on birth certificate if he is 60+ he is almost certainly Malcolm

I can see calling someone William to honour grandfather William even if he was always called Billy, I can also see calling him Billy but calling him Wilfred as it starts with "Wi" wouldn't really work

Ian - Julian, Gillian lianne

• Margaret - Megan, siobhan

• Doreen , Renee, reene

• Maureen, as above

• Ethel - Thelma

• Carol - Caroline, Carolyn, carys,

• Marlon, Martin,