Is it tacky for the whole family to have the same initials?

[PringleWingle]

Been wondering so I thought I'd ask some baby naming experts. 😉

Both mine and DH's names begin with the letter L. We're currently pregnant with our first and we both fell in love with the name Lydia, but I'm worried it might be tacky (and weirdly 'cultish' haha) if we all have the same initials. I took DH's last name as well if that's relevant so we'll all be L [surname].

I don't know if it's tacky but my Dad and Grandad had the same and my Dad said it was annoying as they didn't know who the post was for. Not all post has Miss/Mrs on.

Like the Duggars? Not tacky at all 😉

Yes. I know a family where all the kids (many!) have names beginning with the same letter. It's tacky. And odd.

Maybe a teeny bit tacky but if you like it then it doesn't matter. Lydia is a lovely name.
Two people in my family have the same initials of their first and last name but not their middle name and im suprised that it has caused issues from time to time. Mostly with post.

At least they have a different middle name initial.

If you’re not bending yourself out of shape to make all the initials the same I think it’s fine, go for the name you like.

I worked in the 'Poll Tax' office in the 1990s where everyone over 18 in the same house got an individual bill- I had 6 members of the same family phone up as they had 6 bills to Mr D Smith. Some of them got a discount- some didn't (depended on income) was an interesting and confusing hour that day.
I get family names but please give them all a 2nd name with a different initial.

Hmmmm, back in the late 1970s, one of my older cousins (called Paul,) married a lady called Pearl, and they had 5 children. They called their children Pamela, Peter, Penelope, Patrick, and Petra. Everyone in the wider family, and the neighbourhood, and the workplace, took the piss behind their back, because everyone thought it was so naff.

Wouldn't do it myself. If you both begin with L, then I guess one child beginning with L is OK, but multiples with the same letter (that's the same letter as you and your DH) is pretty naff sorry @PringleWingle. It's a bit Kardashian! 😬

nb; the names of my cousin and his wife and their children are fake, but you get the idea!

Is that the Royal We?

We're James, Jenny, Jessica, Jayden, Jerald and Jorja. We love having the same initials.

That was DH's hard rule for naming bairns: no shared initials. Makes sense for post etc.

Gloriously tacky. Makes me think of the Kardashians and the Rooneys.

One kid the same letter as you is fine, sounds more coincidental than picked specifically for the initial letter.

How much post (especially for kids) are people receiving these days for this to be a big concern? Not trying to sound snarky - genuine question. Our family gets very little post (except online shopping). All bills but one come via email. Birthday cards aside - which are fairly obvious who they're for due to when they arrive - it's not like every week or even month we'd need to have confusion over multiple items of post if we had the same initial.

aside from that, yes I think it's naff when it's multiple kids. One child fine - and Lydia is lovely. Just maybe don't have further kids called Liam, Lila etc!

I have same initial as DH. Would never occurred to me that naming a child with that initial would be 'tacky'

We had family friends like that. It was fine until the children were old enough to be getting important or private letters by post. None of them have done the same for their children! It might not be an issue nowadays, when post is less relevant. As for tacky, who knows? Anyway who cares ?Nonetheless, give them all different middle initials - shipping often arrives by post or courier.

All kids with the same initial is tacky. One kid is fine but I'd avoid a second kid with the same initial.

We have half our family with the same initials. Coincidence, not deliberately done. It works out just fine. No confusion with mail or anything. It's been a total non-issue for us.

Are you intending to have other children OP because then you have the decision of making number 2 different to everyone else in the family or you need to use an 'L' again.

I think I would use Lydia as a middle name but use it as a first name if you know what I mean.

So she could be Mary Lydia but you call her Lydia.

It is very important that every individual has their own special initial in a family

Did you deliberately misspell Gerald and Georgia in order to maintain the matching initials?

I dislike siblings sharing initials but I don't think your situation is naff as it's a coincidence you and her Dad share an initial and you're choosing a name you love (which is a lovely name by the way) which, coincidentally, also starts with the same letter.

If you were actively looking for an L name to match your names or went on to give your next child an L name too, that would be naff. I do think you can get away with this one though.

My self and my sibling shared initials and now so do me and my husband . I made sure my dc didn't though, It just felt a bit matchy matchy

Mightn't a subsequent child feel like "odd one out" if they had a different initial?

If it's done like this in the 'kardashian style', where you purposely misspell a name just to have the same letter, then it's incredibly tacky.

But the way you describe it, no problem at all.

I think it’s a bit tacky, but then I’m also searching for matching outfits me and my toddler can wear, sooooo 🤷🏻‍♀️

I wouldn't see any issue at all. It's a perfectly standard name. I do think that if you then had 20 children and had to go to great lengths to keep the initial it would be a bit odd. I am thinking of the Duggar's and Jinger there.

@BetteDavisChin my siblings have the same initial and I have a different one. Never even noticed as a child and certainly didn't feel left out.