What is more important to you--honoring family tradition or chosing a name you and your spouse love?
If a beloved family member had a name you just detested, would you use it, use an alternative version, or ditch it all together??
How does family fit into naming your babies?
For DH and I, finding a name we love is more important. If we like a family name, we would use it as a middle name, which is what we are currently doing. I'm sure everyone who has seen me post about this already knows that situation ;), but just incase you're a newbie:
DD has my middle name. Audrey Lynn.
This baby, if it's a boy, will be Wyatt Stacey. The Stacey comes from my father in law, who is Stacey Karl. If it is a girl, she will be Lilah Jean. Jean is my grandmother's middle name - Phyllis Jean.
I chose Jean over my middle name of Lynn or my mil's middle name of Gail because I want to break the family tradition in my husbands family. My family has no tradition with names. :)
I think it would really depend on the name all in all.. I would possibly put my own spin on it. But in the end I will only give my child a name that my SO and I love.
So we decided we would give them their name in the middle.
With the twins at the time we did not know if it was b/g b/b or g/g.
So if b/g we decided on Annora (Ann + Nora) for both g-ma's we talked about if g/g Helenne (Helen + Jeanne), that one did not go over as well. So we went Carys Ann and Rhiannon Nora for middles.
When having our 3rd we decided to use our g-pa's names for the middle. Which worked for either sex ... Both were John so that was it if a boy. For a girl my g-pa was John Mary and dh's John Sidney. We went with Bridget Mary. If we have another we will use John as part of the fn or Jeanne for the middle.
I think its a nice honor for a loved one ... My g-ma and g-pa were still living at the time of the name picks and they were both thrilled we picked them to honor in the most precious way.
We don't have any family traditions... so it's not really an issue. But if for whatever reason we felt we needed to honor someone and we didn't like their name we would either use it in the middle name spot or use a variation of the name (probably both... use a variation in the middle name spot)
With our son we used my Dh's middle name... and I guess there is a tradition of using the middle name Edward and it goes back at least 6 generations (possibly more)... but we both liked the name so it worked well.
For our daughter who will be born in September.... we are using a variation of our mom's names Lori. We don't feel an obligation to honor them... we just want to, but neither of us are terribly fond of the name Lori so we are using Lorelei.
Our only family tradition was passing down my husband's middle name which I was happy to do.
First and foremost, we must love the names!
We named the boys after my DH and their grandfather (my husband is the III and didn't want to have the IV, so we used their names for middle names). I felt that naming our DD after a relative was less important and we didn't have a family name that sounded right with our other kids names.... but I do have a little regret about that. I sort of wish I gave her my middle name.. even though, I don't love it... (now that it's too late,) I think that would have been special.
Love Wyatt Stacey and Lilah Jean!! Very sweet.
Quoting Vashtiruescode3:For DH and I, finding a name we love is more important. If we like a family name, we would use it as a middle name, which is what we are currently doing. I'm sure everyone who has seen me post about this already knows that situation ;), but just incase you're a newbie:
DD has my middle name. Audrey Lynn.
This baby, if it's a boy, will be Wyatt Stacey. The Stacey comes from my father in law, who is Stacey Karl. If it is a girl, she will be Lilah Jean. Jean is my grandmother's middle name - Phyllis Jean.
I chose Jean over my middle name of Lynn or my mil's middle name of Gail because I want to break the family tradition in my husbands family. My family has no tradition with names. :)
Generally speaking, we like to use the middle name spot to honor family and pick a first name that we just really like.
That being said, because I love some family members so much their names because beautiful (and thus totally usable) to me.
Some examples: Marian, Elaine, Cynthia, Imogene, Betty, Robert, Alice, Angela, Charlotte.
This or That, Under the Radar
- Lapis_Lazuli
on Jul. 22, 2012 at 5:24 PM