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?

[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!

[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

[edam]

It's a bit boring.

[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.

[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!!!!!

[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!

[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.

[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?

[downanddowner]

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

[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.

[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