Not comfortable with my son being a “junior”

[TheAggravatedAlligator]

Brainstorming baby names for when my son arrives and my husband is very into him being called junior. His official government name would be John but we would call him junior at home. Thoughts?

oh this is an old tradition in many uk homes. I was know as little Jay and older generation big Jay. I'm now a grown adult known as little Jay. Don't do it

How about Jack instead- isn’t that a nn for John?

That would be a hard no for me

Yeah this. As a child I was friends with a Little John. His Dad was Big John. Little John is still known as this, in his fifties. Not good.

Signing up for a lifetime of confusion, take it from someone who did it! DH and DS1 always been known as Big Bleep and Little Bleep, so whenever someone mentions “Bleep,” Everyone just stares and asks, “What...Big Bleep or little Bleep?” “Big Bleep or little Bleep?” “Big Bleep or little Bleep?” and its been this way and will always be this way!! And don’t even get me started on the mail mix-ups! Love my son, love his name but shouldn't have given him his dad's name. I mean there are certainly worse things you could do but its a bit of a nuisance, and some might say a bit naff (My excuse is i was very young lol)

My aunts husband wanted their child named after him eg Peter or Petra. It was a boy, they are known as big Peter and little Peter, big Peter is actually 5ft 4 whereas little Peter is 5ft 11. It’s just ridiculous and my cousin hates it.

a middle name yeah but not a first name, I hate hearing children with the same first name as their parent, it’s just so unoriginal.

Junior is awful. Just give him his own name!

John is a lovely classic name, very underused these days with fantastic historical namesakes and I love the family link for your DS. But since it’s his dads name too imo you should only use it if you like the nn’s for John - Jack or Johnny. The John father/sons I know of go by one or the other to avoid confusion with each other (usually John/Johnny for the Dad and Jack for the Son). I’d also suggest giving DS his “own” middle name/s and forgetting the Junior so he has other options.

Junior is a terrible even as a family nn, sorry (and I hate to say it but imo would be considered quite downmarket in much of the UK, as it’s not used nearly as widely as in, say, the USA).

No don't do it, it's awful. Someone I knew did this and cashed her sing the same name as his dad and her son was known as Baby David. Bad enough as a baby but as he grew up... Just no. Give him a proper name of his own.

Hard no, does he think he’s in bad US 80s sitcom

John is v nice though - v underused

Barbara Kingsolver nails it - “And look, no red-blooded boy wants to be Little Anything. Advice to anybody with the plan of naming your kid Junior: going through life as mini-you will be as thrilling as finding dried-up jizz on the carpet.”

Awful.

Junior is cute. I hate John though, sounds like an 80yo man

Hmm. Only if he agrees to going the whole hog and calling him Junior the IV.

Honestly, I couldn’t countenance it myself. Sorry DH!

Awful. Just call him John.

John is sweet.
Just call him John.
Call the older John - Big John or Old John instead.

How about nick names sometimes -
Johnny or JJ or Johnikins or Jack or Jock or Little John

My DH is the 3rd John in a line of Johns. His grandad was know as Jack and he was always Johnny growing up, but introduced himself to me as John when we met so I always cause chaos at family gatherings calling both him and his dad John. They sometimes use 'John Senior' to differentiate. When I was pregnant with my son, we considered Jack in honour of his Grandad but ultimately just wanted to give him his own identity and went for something totally different.

It's worth noting DH and DFiL have had issues with things like credit checks/DBS checks etc. getting confused between the two of them in the past.

You could give your child a more usual name and then if your DH must, he could call the child junior as a nickname. If he wants a name that sounds like junior could be a reasonable nickname, you could go for Jude, Julius, Justin? Something that's actually a name.

Awful.

A friend of mine had a sister who married into a family where all the men had the same first name. Yes, really. All the brothers had the same first name. So they all had to be known by their middle names instead. It was so bloody weird.

Fathers and sons having the same name is really tacky, like you are attempting to look like some kind of aristocratic dynasty or something.

I knew an Irish family, grandad was James. Eldest son was James, known as Jim. Eldest son called his eldest son James. One of the daughters called her eldest son James known as Jimmy. To make it worse both the brother and sister had a son called John and the sister's husband was John.