My DS's name honors both father and FIL. Now I am having another boy and I have no idea what to name him. I feel like with such weight put on DS1's name we should have a meaning behind naming DS2. If we were having a girl we would have used the first letter of MIL and Mom's name but with a boy I am stuck.
So the question is was the name you picked for your child random of did was there a meaning/reason?
Re: Random or is there a meaning behind the name
I don't think our name was "random", but it's a mix between obvious meaning (his mn is a family name) and personal preference (I wanted his fn to sound distinguished, traditional, intelligent and masculine - which is generally the style of male names on my side of the family). I also wanted his name to have some kind of Christian connection, and it worked out that we chose a biblical name.
All this to say, there are many ways to make a name meaningful without simply giving your child the same name as a family member. You can find inspiration from favorite authors, artists, poets or other interests. You can decide on a "style" kind of like we did. You can seek out a religious connection or use a relative's initials as a jumping off point. Or you can pick a special meaning (Like "grace" or "happiness") and research all the names that share that meaning.
For first name, we picked a name that was individual to him - a name we both love that he doesn't share with any friends, family members, etc.
His middle name is a family name, named for my father who passed away a couple years ago. It gives him a connection to an important person he'll never know, and I hope he'll grow to be proud of the connection.
His last name is our last name (I took DH's last name) which ties him to a history, a family, a people.
For his first name, we picked a name that we just really liked, and which also represents a set of admirable qualities to us (Atticus).
His middle name is a family name.
We plan on one more: if it's a girl, again the first name is just something we like, and her middle name would again be a family name. For another boy, though, we'd be totally stuck.
Maybe you can find another name that has the same meaning as a family member, or a name that has some of the same sounds.
I think middle names are great for honoring family because they are not used as much so a child can have their own name while still having a name that honors family.
DD's first name, Elizabeth, is technically a family name, but it doesn't honor anyone in particular (we each have multiple family members with Elizabeth as a fn or mn). We mainly chose it because we knew we wanted to call her Betsy.
Her middle name is my MIL's maiden name and my DH's middle name.
My DH name is Jonathan and all 3 of the SIL's names are John so John/Jonathan is out. Also DH hates his middle name so that is out.
I think I need to just stop thinking about it so much for the next couple of weeks and let some inspiration come to us.
We picked DD1's name because we loved it and we loved the meaning.
LO2's first name will be picked the same way, but his/her middle name will be after my mil who passed away last month.
Good luck!
Could you still use the first letter of your MIL & Mom's name even though it's a boy? I mean, why should the fact it's a boy matter if you want to honor someone?
First names for DD1 & DD2 were just names we loved. MN for DD1 is my middle name as well as part of my mom's first name. MN for DD2 is honor of my friend who passed from cancer not soon after we discovered I was PG. As for DD3, we were stuck on two M first names. My FIL is deceased and his name was Earl, often nicknamed Earl the Pearl. When we found that the meaning of Margo is french for Pearl it was perfect! Her MN was chosen because with thought it sounded lovely with Margo.
My daddy would probably have a fit about the middle name because he didn't care for his name but oh well lol
Make a pregnancy ticker
The name we are most likely going to use for our son is in honor of family members and our cultural/religious roots. The first name is modified from DH's grandmother's name. The middle name is DH's grandfather's name. They were both very loved by their kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids and lived very long, productive, and happy lives, which we wish for our son as well. I really like the meanings of both names too.
The first name is also of Hebrew origin and the original version/pronunciation of it will be his Hebrew name for use in religious ceremonies like his Bar Mitzvah, chuppah, etc (assuming he'll want to have these). I like that aspect of it, because my and DH's Hebrew names are very different from our secular names and we don't really identify with them on the rare occasion that they are used. The middle name is of German origin since it comes from DH's German side of the family. If we have another child, we might chose a Scandinavian or Russian name in the mix to honor his other side of the family and mine, respectively.
On my side of the family, everyone is named after everyone else....even middle names. It sucks. Especially when we are all together and there are two Mike's, Sarah's, Tiffany's, etc.
so when it comes to our kids, I have rules.
1. The baby cannot share a first name after anyone living.
2. IF the baby is named after someone living, we will us the person's first name as the child's middle name....or the person's middle name as baby's first OR middle name.
my daughter's first name is one we both liked. Her middle name is after SO's deceased grandmother. If she was a boy, we wanted to name her after SO's grandfather (who is still alive)....his name is Edward Oskar. All of my male cousins have the middle name Michael, John or Edward....so Edward was overdone. Our son's first name would have been Oskar and the middle name would have been one we both liked.
So it worked out that her first and middle name she doesn't share with anyone. The boy name, Oskar would have been shared but grandpa is only called Edward so we wouldn't have had to yell "big Edward! Little Edward!" All of the time (like what happens in my family)
You know when a guy places his jacket on a puddle, so you don't get wet walking over it? Well, oranges don't have coats, so they offer their skin in umbrella form.