General Chat

Summer,

OH, although the eldest didn't get Reuben the second son did :-)))

I am shocked you have a Menel (mine has one n) where did they get these names from?

Sue

Sue M. I too have a Mennel and Reuben (although I quite like the latter name). If I had been a boy I was going to be named after my dad's uncle.... Herbert *shudder* can you IMAGINE what school would have been like in the 80s? It was bad enough with the surname I have and my mum's name and I'm totally NOT explaining that. But just that my mum had a full name in common with a woman who was quite a big deal in the 80s and not really in the best ways.

My first name comes from my mum's middle name (which came from her grandmother's first name) and my middle name was my nanna's on the same side.

My eldest brother, his first name was made up LOL. His middle name was after our dad's dad (it was his middle name but as per that whole damn family he was called by it)

Second brother is named after great uncle for his first name and our dad for his middle name.

Eldest brother kept tradition somewhat, his son shares his middle name and his daughter shares my middle name (and so her great grandma's first name).

However, my second brother hasn't kept tradition at all and as far as I know the two children aren't named after anyone.

I would love to have a daughter that I could call Hannah as this is the first generation of our family in over a hundred years that hasn't had a Hannah. In hindsight, I would rather have had Hannah as a middle name (same middle name as nanna and her cousin, grandma, ggrandma etc). Maybe I'll just add it in there LOL. It's such a pretty name too and quite timeless I think, unlike some names. Nanna's first name had not history to it, so we're slowly building our own.

I was named after my Grandmother's second name.

My daughter was named after nobody and son has OH's Father's name as a third name and my Mother's favourite boys name as a second name (which he hates and never uses. (Paul), His first name is his own!!! All daughter's boys have either their Dad's or one of their Grandad's or my Dad's names as second names. Son's children have no family names but Granddaughter has her Godmother's name as a second name. (which suits me as it is Angela and Anjie was what OH used to call me in our younger and dafter days.

Ann
Glos

My OH`s middle name is the maiden name of his mother, and he absolutely hates it, although I had some fun guessing when he just gave me the initial. I didnt guess right though, I never would have done.

Marilyn

My sisters middle name is Elspeth which I like so I gave it as my daughters middle name.Both of them absolutely hate it,and feel really hard done by!!!

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
x

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!!!

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

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

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

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.

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

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 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
x

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

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

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.

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

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