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Fathers name

74 replies

thekatswhiskers · 06/05/2020 15:05

Afternoon all! Hope the sun is shining where you are.. I am looking for a bit of advice regarding DS1's middle name. We've chosen two names that we love for a first name and will decide for sure when we see his little face! I am hoping to use my fathers name, Andrew, as a middle name. Mostly because my dad only had daughters and hasn't been fortunate enough to pass on his surname and I feel it would be really lovely to honour him that way. It's also such a lovely name. DH is concerned that our children won't have any names from anyone in his family... I have already said that we all have his family surname and that would still be the case but I think he's foreseeing his family being a little jealous and possibly saying that we've only used my dads name. Do you think I would be unfair to use my dads name? I really want to use it by DH has planted a seed of doubt regarding family friction I'd want to avoid.

OP posts:
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peperethecat · 07/05/2020 10:11

And it's none of his family's business what you name your child. They've already had or will have the opportunity to name their own children.

emilybrontescorsett · 07/05/2020 10:15

I agree with pepperthecat

FizzyGreenWater · 07/05/2020 13:28

I have already said that we all have his family surname

YES EXACTLY.

I wouldn't be having a bar of all this nonsense.

Tell him

a. to tell his family to keep their beaks OUT

b. that he is very, very lucky to have you take his family name and for his children to also carry it and THAT IS QUITE ENOUGH THANKS

c. that you'll be choosing the other names, or you'll go back to your surname, the baby will be double-barelled, and then (once you're back on equal footing) you can discuss other names together.

peperethecat · 07/05/2020 13:57

You could always suggest an alternative, which is that he picks a middle name from his side of the family and your son has your birth name (sorry, hate the term "maiden name") as his surname.

See how he likes that.

thekatswhiskers · 07/05/2020 14:50

We've discussed this again this morning and DH is still being resistant. He thinks it's opening a can of worms for his family to want names included but I don't see it that way at all. They've had their moment and this is ours. It's the part of me I am wanting to include it's not necessarily about individuals.

DH said let's not have any middle names. I feel a bit dismissed about it all and I'm hoping his mind will change. Really disappointed in him.

I'm not giving up on this though. Thanks for the support!

OP posts:
NameChange30 · 07/05/2020 14:52

Funny how name discussions often turn men into entitled idiots. Patriarchy runs deep.

thekatswhiskers · 07/05/2020 14:58

@NameChange30 totally! He's the most laid back person and would always let me make the decisions....... but names?! Nope! He is officially an asshole about them! I'm not going to give up though, I'm carrying the child so I'm having my input.

OP posts:
Peonyonpoint · 07/05/2020 15:00

Well just say airily do you know what darling this whole thing has made me think about names and identity so much, you know in the way that you say how much a name means to your family and ive realised i absolutely agree with you and so I’m going to readopt my maiden name for everything. I also think, as I so often do, that you’re 100% right about him having a middle name, so we’ll just give him both our surnames, unhyphenated, like the Spanish do in such a beautiful old tradition, and then everyone is happy. Aren’t they?

I bet he backtracks like anything.

Peonyonpoint · 07/05/2020 15:03

Also, just remember that when the baby is known he/she will immediately be known as baby yoursurname . You actually have to use the registration as an opportunity to change to his/add his. So you hold all the cards, if you’re prepared to use them.

Peonyonpoint · 07/05/2020 15:06

Born not known bonkers autocorrect

peperethecat · 07/05/2020 15:08

Don't give in on this one, OP.

You are growing this baby in your body and giving birth to him, and he will have your husband's surname.

There is literally no good reason for your husband not to let you have your choice of middle name.

Tell him that if he doesn't let you have this then your son's surname will be double barrelled.

LeafTea · 07/05/2020 15:11

It's outrageous that he'd rather the baby had no middle name at all than the middle name you, the baby's mother, wants.

I'd be agog at this.

Who cares if it opens a can of worms for people in his over-involved family to 'want names included'. This is your son, not a litter of puppies where everyone gets their say.

pinkpinecone · 07/05/2020 15:17

Op I think your husband is being unreasonable on this if your child is getting his surname. Namechange30 is right, the patriarchy runs deep. It's a lovely idea to include your dad's name or your maiden name.

Maybe give him a chance to calm down before you bring it up again it sounds like he's getting unnecessary worked up over it.

Also you could always tell him that you now want a double barrelled surname for your child and he may then back down about the middle name.

BeingATwatItsABingThing · 07/05/2020 15:19

Whilst expecting DD1, DH and I were discussing names. Before we knew she was a girl, we’d happily decided on a girl’s name but were bickering about boy’s names. He wanted his dad’s name as the middle name. I hated that name. I wanted my grandad’s name as the middle name and he hated that name. The only compromise for us both was to move away completely from both names and find a name we both liked.

I really hate when baby’s names are used to get one up on the other parent. Children shouldn’t be used as pawns in this way. It never ends at the name and continues into petty squabbles about other stuff. The only people who get to decide the name are the parents (not extended family!) but it should be a decision both are happy with. I’m now pregnant with our second DD and we’ve agreed a name together again. Yes, I’m carrying the baby but I expect my DH to be an equal parent in this so he gets an equal say.

OP, your H is being unreasonable to shoehorn in a name to ‘make it fair’ if you’re not happy with that. YWBU to use a name he doesn’t like. Please don’t stoop to the level other posters are suggesting of using the surname as leverage. If it’s important to you that your DS has your surname too, double barrel it.

whatausername · 07/05/2020 15:30

I'm with @LeafTea

Totally agog.

chunkycoke · 07/05/2020 15:40

Don’t back down, use Andrew as a middle name.

peperethecat · 07/05/2020 15:59

OP, I don't know if this perspective might help, but a few months before I got married my grandmother died. I started to feel this massive regret about all the questions I'd never asked her while she was still alive, and I signed up to Ancestry UK and started researching my family tree. It was a much harder job than it would have been if she'd still been alive and I'd been able to ask her things.

One thing that struck me was that it was so much harder to trace my female ancestors than the male ones. If you have someone's name and you know when they died then their death record will say how old they are when they died and from that you can usually find their birth record and then you've got the names of their parents and can find the previous generation. But this doesn't work for women because their death record was always in their married name and so if I wasn't able to track down a marriage record to find their previous name I wouldn't be able to find the birth record and the trail would go cold.

In some family lines I was able to go back a really long way, but in some female lines I just got completely stuck and wasn't able to go back any further because I couldn't find their birth name.

I think this experience directly influenced my decision not to change my name when I got married, because I felt sad that so many of my female ancestors' histories have been lost, and I started to feel that changing my name would be like erasing the whole identity I had before I got married. I don't believe that my life began when I got married. I had a whole life and many achievements before that. And I also married a man from another country, so taking his name would also have felt like erasing my national identity, not just my personal one.

I know there's more of a trend for double barrelled surnames these days, but even if you do that, you can't just keep double barrelling and end up with a million surnames. We can't bear all the surnames of all our ancestors, so some selectivity is necessary. But I really do feel that if a baby is going to have his father's surname, it's really important for the mother to be able to include a given name from her family if she wants to, to preserve some of her own heritage.

My mum changed her name on marriage and thinks it's weird that I haven't. She also thinks "feminist" is a dirty word. But she also recently told me that when she and my dad got married she wanted to double barrel their surnames but my dad said no, and that when my brother was born she wanted to give him a second middle name from her side of the family and my dad said no. (For context, my brother's middle name is my dad's middle name and my paternal grandfather's first name, and the other name my mum wanted to use was her mother's maiden name and all the other boys on her side of the family have this as one of their middle names.) But for some reason, my dad just didn't want to and said no.

When we had this conversation, I asked her why on earth she just let him have his way. (My dad can be quite stubborn but he is generally a mild-mannered man and not scary or controlling.) She says she doesn't know. 32 years later and she still regrets it and doesn't know why she didn't stand her ground.

I think you need to very gently explain to your husband why this is so important to you. It's not even as if he has his heart set on a different middle name. Your son has his surname and you are entitled to have a name from your side of the family in there too.

GemmeFatale · 07/05/2020 16:28

Tell him he’s right. Middle names as so silly and unnecessary. Baby will be first-name your-surname.

pinkpinecone · 07/05/2020 16:48

@peperethecat really well put. So important both sides are represented especially when it's clear how much female history just got erased before.

FrancisCrawford · 07/05/2020 18:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

peperethecat · 07/05/2020 18:11

Marriage is a legally binding document and thereafter (should you sign that with DH's surname) that is your name legally for all intents and purposes

This comment is nonsense. You sign the marriage register in your birth name.

Marriage is a legal contract which establishes a legal relationship between you and your spouse. It has no direct bearing on your name. It does not, in itself, change your name. The only thing it does is give you the right to begin using your spouse's surname as your own legal surname - if you want to - without needing to change your name by deed poll.

If you then change the name on your passport or other official ID documents then it becomes your legal name and I think you would either need to do a deed poll (which is easily done) or show your decree absolute after a divorce in order to change your legal name on your passport back to your birth name at a later date.

peperethecat · 07/05/2020 18:11

Also, in Scotland women do not lose their surname upon marriage. Legally, we always retain our maiden names, so that Ann Brown marrying John Jones becomes Ann Brown or Jones.

Same in France.

daisypond · 07/05/2020 18:11

Here in Scotland, brides sign the register with their maiden name.
It’s the same all over the UK. No one loses or changes their surname automatically on marriage.

ElectricTonight · 07/05/2020 18:57

My eldest son has both mine and DH dads names as middle names and DHs surname.

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