Is it tacky to give your son their fathers name?

[SheWillBeLoved]

Everyone in my family seems to have done this at some point. Same with DP's. He was quite shocked to learn that I didn't automatically assume that the baby would take his name if it were a boy

I'm named after my mum, have a brother named after my dad, and my brothers and sisters except one have done it too. Always the boys taking the fathers name though, never girls taking their mums names. DP is also named after his dad. Seems to be sort of a family tradition but not neccessarily one I feel the need to continue.

Any opinions on this?

[Tortington]

my first born caried on the family tradition that my MIL broke when naming DH

tbh, i don't know why she bothered, its the most bland English name.

so i did it , becuase i liked the name and the throught of tradition, i dare say that if i felt compelled, i wouldnt have done it at all - which is why mil probably acted as she did.

i wouldnt want a baby being named after me, my mother joined my MIL in the "least inspired name of the 70's" competition

[HecateQueenOfGhosts]

I think middle name is better than first name. I don't necessarily think it's 'tacky', I just don't personally like it.

My youngest son has my dad's first name as his middle name. Our eldest is simply known by our surname to my husbands family, all eldest boys are. Which is confusing because my husband has 9 brothers and sisters and each firstborn male child of each of his siblings is known by the family surname, which, traditionally, should be his MIDDLE name and his surname should be his fathers middle name! So say our surname is Smith- it's not ds1 is known as Smith "How is little Smith?" but so are many of his male cousins. "How is little Smith? Smith and Smith stayed here last weekend" [boggle]

All the firstborn girls have my mils first name as their middle name and are all known - yup - as that.

And then there's a strict naming order that alternates fathers name, mothers fathers name, fathers grandfathers name, mothers....

But that's not as confusing as the fact that, traditionally speaking, I am Mrs MyhusbandsMIDDLEname, so husband is, say, X Jones Smith, I am Mrs Jones, ds1 is X Smith Jones, ds2 is X Hecate'sDAD'sname and no Smith OR Jones in it!!

I would go on, but it's not even really relevant to the conversation and I bet your heads are spinning

I can barely get my head round it enough to explain it.

And it's so irrelevent that I shouldn't really have bothered.

[downanddowner]

My eldest half-brother has his dad's name and my full-brother has his dad's name. Caused years of confusion.

[lilolilmanchester]

I don't think it's tacky, but very confusing, surely? DS has DH's name as a middle name. Might be a compromise for you?

[georgiemum]

Why tacky? My brother was named after our dad but he is called by his middle name. My son is named after my dad, mainly because he died a couple of years before he was born and I liked having the link.

Of course, both of my grandfathers had the same name, although I never met one of them (he died about 10 years before I was born). The other one was also called by his middle name (not that unusual in Scotland) and I only found out about this last year when I found his death certificate when clearing out mums house after she died. She did mention this about 3 years ago but I though she was going doo-lally (oops ).

The girls in our family got off more lightly.

[2pt4kids]

Agree with others, not tacky but very unimaginative. I also find it a bit arrogant on he part of the person passing on the name!

[CuppaTeaJanice]

The surname should provide enough of a family link, surely. Just think how confusing post, phonecalls etc will be. And the kid will be called 'Junior'.

Has everybody read the recent thread about Lee Ryan's baby, Rayn Lee Amethyst Ryan!!!!!

[devientenigma]

Hi, had a good laugh at shewillbeloved comment. Just thought I would add while I am on, daughter is Kelsey barry (barry) after her dad and son is Brynley Norman (Norman) after my dad.

[edam]

It's a bit boring.

[SheWillBeLoved]

It's not horrible Nancy, just rather plain. I'm very much into names that don't see 20 children in a shop turn around when it's shouted. Not that I make a habit of going into a shop and shouting random names at children to test it's popularity

[Nancy66]

Not 'tacky' - it's traditional in many families.

however it depends on the name. I wouldn't lumber my kid with a horrible name - no matter how many generations it had been passed down!

[load]

dildo!

[Clary]

lol at John Thomas! What are they thinking of?

Actually John kind of fits in with my "never heard for babies" category tho I do know a 4yo John.

Maybe you could go with Thomas and John as second name! Thomas very popular now but that's fine.

[lovebeingmum]

well advice on this then please - my other half's name is John Thomas (!!), so is his dad, and his dad etc. It's the tradition for the second son. I've told him not likely if we have another. Am I being mean?!

[Clary]

shewillbeloved, no, actually your mum and dad (ie children's gps) would perhaps be OK actually, wrt names I mean.

My mother's name is very popular just now in groups of 5yos, as is my dad's (tho I am older than you I am sure).

But for a name to go down the generations - well, many people my age are called Karen, Nicola, Mark, Dave, Andy, Sarah, Tracey, Paul - all fine names but maybe sounding a bit dated in the age of Georgia and Emily, William and Finlay.

lol at dildo story NA!

[SheWillBeLoved]

And if not - well ignore that last message

[nappyaddict]

oops that was meant to be a

[nappyaddict]

Clary I know someone who that happened to and their mum opened up their dildo It's all very well coming in plain brown packaging as they said on the website so no one would know who you had ordered from as long as you don't share an initial with your mother!

[SheWillBeLoved]

Oh Clary - incase you thought I meant that my sisters/brothers have named their children after my mum and dad - I meant their children are named after their partners sorry, wasn't very clear!

[Clary]

I think it can be complicated.

Dh shared an initial with his dad and his dad used to open his post (addressed to Mr W Smith y'see).

You end up with lots of "junior"s and "little"s so I think it's a bit of a pain.

Also it's very unusual to have a name that spans generations like that - I have met a lot of children but I have never come across one called by either my or DH's name.

[mazzystartled]

it isn't tacky, unless the father is unaware of his offspring until he hears the name. then it's tacky.

otherwise it just seems inconvenient

[LynetteScavo]

Confusing.

WE used to live next door to Big Neil and Little Neil. Except Little Neil wasn't that little anymore.

My family have done it with Edward as a middle name for a few generations.

[SheWillBeLoved]

Oh no HearMeROaar he is quite arrogant, don't apologize

[HearMeROaar]

I don't like it. It just seems rather arrogant for a father to name his son after himself (sorry OP's dh)

[Takver]

Totally the done thing in Spain, and it does get horribly confusing particularly given the tendency to family businesses (we had friends where grandad Maximo and dad Maximo worked together as electrician and strongly expected child Maximo to join them in the business - try getting the right person on the phone )
Even worse, we also had friends where dad was Antonio, mum Antonia, older child Antonio, uncle who worked with them on the farm also Antonio - I always felt quite sorry for their other child who was called Raquel . . .)
But on the other hand it is nice to stay with family traditions.