First and second names which mean the same thing

[Minesril]

I really like Jacob James. But a quick google revealed that James is the English version of Jacob. How much of a problem is this? Has anyone done similar?

No one will really give a shiny shit.

Go for it.

Lovely combo.
Approved :) !

I know a Jacob James and nobody has ever commented to my knowledge.
Tbh, he just gets called Jake most of the time.

It doesn't matter at all no-one will even realise.
My dd3 has 3 names (first and 2 middle) and all three mean "god loving" just coincidence I didn't even know until I looked them up and I'd already decided! And I'm not even religious any way.

I know a family with a John, Ian, Sean and Jack. That's all the same name. I don't think people notice.

Seriously, do you expect they will be introduced as xyz and someone immediately starts googling the meaning of their name?

Lovely combo @Minesril

Mumsnet approves 😃

I'd notice & would think it a bit odd. Sorry.

My DH wanted to do this with our eldest. We chose an anglicised version of a name from his culture, he wanted the original name as the middle name, but I vetoed. Somehow we ended up with the original name as a middle name for our second child, which I still find odd but whatever...

Put it this way it is not Jamie-James which I once was baffled by in a Baby Name section of a paper

I was this before I got married, nobody noticed but me.

I know someone with 2 dd called Erin and Tara. I do think it's a bit odd but also appreciate that its her decision and probably a lot of people wouldn't even notice.

How are John, Ian, Sean and Jack the same name?

Erin and tara?
I think I need to get googling

If DS2 had been a girl, he was due to be Isabel. I had always wanted to use Elizabeth as a middle name but then realised that Isabel is the Spanish form of Elizabeth, so I was put off.
However everyone else thought I was mad, so the consensus is to go for it.
My brother is Sean, my dad is John. It wasn't until he was about 5 that anyone clicked that they were the 'same'. Because they're names in their own right.

Jack is a NN of John hence John F Kennedy often referred to as "Jack"

Sean is the Irish form of John

Is Ian the welsh?

Iain is the Scots Gaelic version of John

Personally I wouldn't have linked Jacob and James. It sounds like a lovely name OP. I do think it depends on origins though and people's familiarity I. E. I'm Scottish and if I heard a Hamish James it would be..

I'd notice & would think it a bit odd. Sorry.

Me too.
I think it’s fairly well known that James is derived from Jacob, as in Jacobean relating to the time of King James 1st of England /6th of Scotland.

They're different enough that most people won't notice or if they do will be polite enough not to comment.

I do know someone who named her son Billy with a middle name of William - which seemed sort of pointless. And went to school with a David Davidson - which was either really mean or really lazy of his parents.

Do you mean James is the surname? In that case I think it's fine.

Or is it first name and middle name? If so, I can see both sides to it. Although it definitely isn't as noticeably odd as the Billy William mentioned above!

I think most people wouldn't know that they were versions of the same name, and anyway middle names are almost never used so it wouldn't matter.

No, James would be the middle name. I guess nobody does give their middle name so no-one would know! We were going to call him JJ for short (or he can use that with his friends).
To a previous pp, funnily enough we were considering Elizabeth Isabelle had it been a girl!

It's not that they mean the same thing, it's that they literally are versions of the same name. I would think it a bit weird, tbh, but it's not a big deal.

I would notice. But I wouldn't say anything.
I'm still curious why some ancestors called their only two daughters Elizabeth and Eliza (2 years apart both survived to adulthood, no indication of ill health in either).