Baby Names
Tradition of fathers's first name for son's middle name?
Anyone know if this has a cultural link, or is just something some families do? DH suggested this since his family did it, but in my family, it was not common. Thoughts ?
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Re: Tradition of fathers's first name for son's middle name?
DH's family doesn't do this, my family doesn't either. However, I think the gesture is nice. However, what if you have two or more sons? Does his family give the fathers first name to both/all sons?
Just the first son has the fathers's name as his middle name. Other sons have different middle names.
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We live in a patriarchal society, so it is far more common for fathers to pass on their names to sons than it is for mothers to pass names on to daughters. My father was a III, and DH's older brother has his father's name for a middle while DH has his grandfather's, but we chose not to continue this [mainly bc DH does not wish to honour his family this way]. If both parents agree I think it can be a nice thing to do.
Different families have different traditions. To me, that doesn't mean you "'have" to do it - clearly this is your child too and you should have a say.
But - talk to your DH about it and see how important it is to him, and work it out.
I personally have issue w/ any naming tradition that is passed down through the fathers side of the family- chances are the child is already getting that family's surname. The child also gets a first or middle name from that side? What about honoring YOUR side (if you want to do this, that is...)?
If you don't care, that's one thing. But I really hate to see women railroaded into naming their child almost entirely after their DH's side all in the name of "tradition".
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My brother has my father's name as his middle. I don't know if it's a tradition, or if my mom just couldn't think of any other names to use.
I think it a nice compromise, if say, you are not keen on having a Jr.
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My father's side did this and it stopped with my dad because he only had 2 girls. I wanted to keep this going with our little boy*, so DH was on board with this.
* Turns out, the little weenie was actually a vagina, so this will have to wait until next time! Grandpa-to-be wasn't bummed about this, at all.
*
One unique thing about my dads first name is that it was my grandma's maiden name (scott), so my father's whole name is something exclusively from my grandma (first name), something exclusively from my grandpa (middle name), and their family last name.
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I totally agree with this. My kids and I all have my husband's last name, and he agreed with me that middle names could come from my side of the family. So my 3 kids all have middle names after someone in my family my grandmother, my dad, and a variation of my mom's first name / my middle name.
Taking your father's name as a middle name is a Russian and/or Ukranian tradition. Traditionally, you tack on -evich or -ovich if the child is a boy or -evna or -ovna if the child is a girl. So a man named Sergey might have a son with the middle name Sergeyevich or a daughter with the middle name Sergeyevna.
If your husband is not of Russian descent, then it's possible it's just a tradition within his own family specifically, and there's nothing wrong with that either.
It's up to you though whether you like it and want to carry on the tradition. I think both parents should have equal say in any naming decisions. GL!
A friend of mine did this. Her husbands family had a tradition of giving the father's first name as the son's middle name. They have two son's, and they both have their dad's FN as their MN.
We do not have any naming traditions on either side of our families.