General Chat

Is anyone else like me and wish the old way of naming children was used more often these days giving an opportunity for 'all' to have their first name at least somewhere in the names of Grandchildren?.

Perhaps someone else could add the ways of the Scots Irish and English Welsh/other countries…they differ slightly but at least they gave names of parents, Grandparents/GGrandparents etc of both sides in some sort of order. My children have named theirs after their oh’s family’s and never from mine :-(

My first name is everywhere in my family... but not used by either of my sons for their daughters, although one of my granddaughters was almost called Annamaria, as both granny's are called Ann(e). Didn't happen though!

Still, I love the name she has, so that's ok!!

I wouldn't wish my middle names on any baby... although I do like them now!

Love

Daff xxx

I don't think the tradition has eally gone Susan......well certainly not in my family anyway.

My eldest has my paternal grandmothers first name as her middle name.My son has my maternal g.grandfathers name as his middle one.Third child has oh nans name as her middle and my youngest has my middle name for her maiddle name.......lol

My grandson has his two grandfathers first names as first and middle and granddaughter ( who was born a few weeks after my Dad passed away ) has part of his name weaved into her first name........lol

Gawd , I hope all that makes sense.........lol

Amanda

i named my first son simon james ,james after my OH and his dad simon well there is no simon in the family second son richard steven after no one in the family , how i wished i had named richard ,thomas after my dad ,i think when you're young you just pick names you like the sound of not giving enough thought to them ,my son simon has two sons of his own now middle names of both of them are after my OH and my sons father in law . as i have gone way way back on my tree i have come across a couple of richards so thats something i suppose

~~~ to Daff~~~

But I want one named after 'me' and 'before' I leave this world Winnie witch and Maiden names have been used too....just none of my side.....I have even tried to bribe them with leaving my estate to whoever names a child after me, or at least one of mine.....hasn't worked though :-(

Sorry...didn't see you there Amanda and Ann. I named my children after my parents and and My Oh's side with their unusual Middle names.

My kids all had the middle names from members of the family and my eldest has carried on the tradition with her daughter whos middle names are after my mum and her dad gran.

I dont think id want any of the poor little mites to have to suffer my name lol

Well I'm quite glad that my mum managed to talk my dad out of naming me after his mother - as much as I loved my grandma I really wouldn't have wanted to have gone through school with an unusual name like Frossoulla LOL!

When my grandaughter was born last year my daughter gave her my first name as one of the middle names - better than nothing, I guess. It's a strange thing because when you have a grandchild you kind of hope that they will get your name (or one of the family names) somewhere in there!

Athena

my sisters middle name is after my mum her mum and her mum i have'nt even got a middle name sob sob!!and my sister named me ann after the annex hospital my mum had to stay in for 3 months after i was born as she was so ill ,but i've had the last laugh as there are lots of anns in my tree and no patricia's which is my sisters first name

Athena.....well yes I suppose there are limits lol

I agree Jax, it seems the only way round it if the name is not exactly one you would like a child to be landed with for eternity.

In Italy, the first child if a boy is named after the father's father, if a girl the father's , mother, next child if another boy after the mother's father,and so on.

In my family, my maternal great grandfather named his first daughter after his mother, and second daughter after his stepmother, as his mother had died and his father married again.
He also married twice and named his first daughter after his sister and his first wife. Mind boggles.

My mother was also named after her mother's step mother.

My mother's brothers were named after their grandfathers.

I was the first one in the family to have my own name, and not be named after anyone.

Mo

My second daughter's middle name is Ruth for her grandmother on one side and her great great great grandmother on the other. I'd discovered family history by then.

My first daughter was named for two school friends.

My grandmother was called Emma, like her mother, her grandmother and her great grandmother!

S

My older daughter has the same middle name as me which also happened to be my mother-in-law's first (but not used name).

My younger daughter has my mother-in-law's used name as a middle name.

Both are fairly common names used throughout the trees on both sides of the family.

My own mother's names were not really ones I'd wish on a child! She didn't like them herself. If we'd had a boy though I'd have given him my maternal grandfather's name with my husband's name as a middle one.

It's interesting going back through the generations to see how names sometimes reappear. We chose first names for our girls which we just liked but discovered later that one of them has a great grandmother's name.

Sue
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My middle name was my nan's first name, Mary. Hubby's grandfather was called Ronald Phillips (middle name Gilbert) and when he was born his parents swapped the 2 names round and his name is Philip Ronald ( but it has to be Philip with 1 L), he's known as Phil and only get's called Philip when he's in trouble.
Eldest daughter doesn't have any names from the family, but youngest daughter's middle names are a mixture of my middle name and Mil's name that we call her. MaryAnne.

my grandaughter has her great grama's first name (my mum's) its hyphenated with her great grama's first name on her daddies side and she has got her great grama's first name as her middle name (my oh mum) and she also has our surname in with her own.
grandson has 2x great grandad's name on my side.

carol

One fo the twins has his gt granfathers name as his second name other twins has his paternal gt grandfathers name second for their thrid name they have Allen, las their Dad has this as a second name and so did his dad. So a new tradition in our family but one which we've continue. Esp as youngest son has his dads name as his second name and of course he also has Allen.

As much as I found it rather difficult growing up with a Welsh name in Hampshire, I think it's preferable to my grandmothers' Ada or Minnie.

When choosing names for our children, we tried to stay away from family names, only to find that our 2nd daughter has the same name as OH's aunt. We had no idea because gt. aunt is known by a different name than her true given name.
Now, with a bit more knowledge of ancestors names, I would be more inclined to include some of them.

Gwyn

Are you nuts!!!!!....lol

If I had lumbered my kids with grandpa/grandmas' names they would have disowned me.

Albert
Reuben
Doris
Kathleen (OK not too bad) but the others!

I could go back and give them a Menel, Bateman, Japeth, Japheth, Ebenezer, Olinezer.

If I had I bet the home they choose to put me in would be much worse than they have in mind now
:-)))

Sue xx

I got an Aunts Middle name and all my siblings got family middle names. I didn't call my boys after any one. Just liked the names.
My niece has just had a baby girl and my nieces name is Allison Lee. She named the baby Aleeya a combination of both her names I love it. Oh and her sisters name is Kelly so it's Aleeya Kelly
Regards
Jackie

My father-in-law, brother-in-law and nephew all have the same name which is very confusing at family gatherings.

My own children are each named after nobody and, although their names are not at all unusual, they are not family names. They are unique!

My mother, father and uncle all came from families that repeated Christian names through the generations but were themselves given non-family names, which I think may have been unusual in the 30's.

It does make me wonder, sometimes, who were the two men that my Gran named her sons after??? Certainly not their father!!!

Wouldn't it be good to be able to ask some ancestors why they chose the names they did for their kids!

I had a great aunt called Auntie Effie. I remember meeting her a few times and I knew that her real name was something odd. I'd got it down wrongly spelled on rough tree notes then when I got round to finding her actual birth details I discovered she was named Eflina.

I cannot find anyone else anywhere with that name and I wish I'd asked an older relation years ago where that came from. Her siblings had fairly normal names.

There is a family rumour saying that particular branch may have had gypsy ancestry and I wondered if, as the oldest girl, Eflina was named after an ancestor.........but I've not found one. All the research I've done into Romany names hasn't thrown up that particular one.

So it's a mystery.

Sue
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