bun.in.the.oven

My mom told me it was bad luck to name a child after a living relative (she's Jewish), but I was planning on giving my son (if it's a boy ) a version of my husband's name, which is John. So not John, but one of the variants, like Sean, Ian, Johan, etc.

MommyDearest

In our family it's been a long tradition to name the first son after the father. Of course, it can be confusing at times when mom calls the youngster to come get his tea and both males in the house come running!

DaisyJo

I'm not a big fan of giving names to honor family members as first names. Middle names are fine, but I think that a new individual needs a new name. He is his own person, he needs his own name. I don't have any superstition about it though. Just how I feel.

Cheeks

My husband does not like the idea either, but he really does have a great name, so we decided to use it as a second name, which we did. Follow your heart.

Seattle_mom

My husband is Arab, and it's tradition that all the children take their father's name as their middle name.

We broke with tradition and gave my daughter her own middle name (Rose). But we did give my son his name as a middle name.

ayan

Totally agree. My son has his dad's name as a middle name but it wasn't my idea. It is nice to have a child named after you but a new life needs a new name and identity

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He might outgrow my lap but never my heart...

ayan

My significant other is also Arab and I'm just afraid of having a girl with a boy name...Traditions are the hardest to break but I'm glad you chose to do so

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He might outgrow my lap but never my heart...

Raisana

I don't see how having someone else's name is any hindrance to developing a new identity. I wasn't really named after anyone (my mom had me when she was 17 and picked my name from a TV show she liked!), but my sister's middle names came from a grandmother on either side, and she is very proud of those names. For her, those grandmothers are very kind and loving women, and though my sister is very headstrong and ... ok, controlling () it is helpful to her to sometimes think of what our mom hoped for her when she was born, and sometimes to curb her first instinct.

Though I'm not pregnant yet (fingers crossed!), my husband and I have agreed to name a son Inge Bjorn, after his grandfather. I resisted a little at first, because I wanted something a little more anglophone, but it's grown on me, and his grandfather is a wonderful man who became greatly successful after moving to Canada when he was young and has in turn built bridges (literally, he's an engineer), taught new engineers, wrote textbooks and now has an award named after him. Also DH wants to be able to call his son "Bear" A girl's name has yet to present itself to us.

mama.waddle

Both my kids are named after relatives. My son, Jason, is named after my husband's brother, who died in Afghanistan right before we got pregnant; he is very much like his namesake. Nobel, brave, stubborn, and charismatic. Rosie is named for my grandmother, who passed away when I was a teenager. I don't think Rosie is much like my Grandmother, but I knew her when she was an old lady.

This baby will be getting his own name, because we ran out of relatives that we like enough to honor. Except my dad, but his name is Stanley and I just couldn't do that to my boy.

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-Becca
mom to Jason (1/03), Rosie (6/05), and baby blue due in August!

Mommy2Five

My oldest is a Jr. So he has the same name as his dad, which is Michael. His dad goes by Mike, so my son has always been Mikie. Now he is 15 and he is still Mikie. He probably always will be. Sad, huh. He went through a phase of "don't call me Mikie." But he either got over it or gave up because he doesn't care now. Even some of his friends call him that. He enjoys having his dad's name and intends to make his first born son a Mike III.

My 5th child has a different father and his middle name is his dad's first name. My husband's middle name is a masculine form of his grandmother's first name.