Any Greeks around?

calex33

If so, I'm wondering if you will follow the tradition of naming your first son (if you have one) after the paternal grandfather. ?DH is Greek, I am not. ?However, I did agree to the tradition so, if we have a boy, he will be Sam ______ (we will use my maiden name for his middle name). ?DH is pushing for his mother's name (Maria) to be used for a girl, but I refuse to have 2 children (if we have a boy and a girl down the road) named after DH's parents. ?However, I have agreed to use Maria as a middle name. ?Just curious how other Greeks are handling the naming situation...

KoCoLoCo

Ok, we are not Greek, so this might not work for you...but I told my DH that since our imaginary baby would automatically get his family's last name, we will use my family's names for middle names.  This might seem a little bratty, but whatever.

nire99

Ditto PP.

cvincent0423

i'm not greek but DH and i agreed to use a family name for DS from his side. ?if he had been a DD (or if we have a DD in the future) we would have used a family name from my side. ?i think using the name for a middle name if you have a second child is a good solution.

LoriFalce

My husband is Italian, and they have kind of the same thing going.

We had planned to name a daughter Marianna after his late mother. Then my husband wanted a son named after him, which I fought for much the same reason. I felt like I was being pushed out of the naming of our child. After some crying and talking, we agreed to name a boy after my late father. I think my husband was okay with this mostly because he really wanted a girl.

illinigal

KoCoLoCo:

Ok, we are not Greek, so this might not work for you...but I told my DH that since our imaginary baby would automatically get his family's last name, we will use my family's names for middle names.  This might seem a little bratty, but whatever.

I never thought of it that way before... I like that.

Erin Mary Ackerman

I just want to point out that there is no law, nor is it "automatic" that a child gets his/her father's last name.

Sure it's custom and over 90% of Americans do just that, but it is not automatic.

/indignant rant over

Glendi2.0

I guess I'm a bad Greek, then. Neither of my daughters was named after my mother, though I did give DD#2 my mother's name as a middle name. I  think there are other ways to honor the tradition of "passing on" a parent's name to the child than just giving them the same first name, which is what we ended up doing- DD #1 has MIL's maiden name for her middle name, and DD#2 has my mom's greek name as her middle name. Everyone's happy!

sablesmum

A late reply, but I wanted to share. DH is Greek, I am not. We had many arguments with tears shed and everything. If we have a son he will have a first name that we both like and his middle name will be DH's fathers name. The reasons I put forward for the change of tradition:

I don't like the thought of naming a child after a dead person (FIL passed away 5 years ago) I believe they need their own identity.

DH gets the surname and religion, unfair to have first name that I don't agree with.

I am not comfortable calling my son that name, it doesn't feel right.

In the end, DH conceded and we have agreed that first son will be First Name Dimitrios H_________________. As it turned out we had a girl first, which we did not name after anyone. I only agreed to boys middle name because it is a way of remembering his father, his mother is still with us (glad of that) and therefore does not get a child named for her.

This was all discussed about 6 months before we started TTC #1 because I knew it would be a big thing and I didn't want to do it when I was pg and hormonal. Good luck with your compromising, I'm sure you'll come to an agreement before long.

Crissyjo30

Another super late reply.  I am Greek, DH is not.  My family is very much into the naming-after everyone's parents thing.  I was not.  I chose to give my daughter my Mom's middle name (and the name she goes by - Renee) as her middle name, because I love my Mom and would love my daughter to be a strong woman like her!

Just an FYI - lots of people in my family have ended up going by their middle names to avoid confusion - lots of people end up with the same names

Valentine99

I am Greek, but DH is not. Our daughter was named after my mother-in-law because we wanted to honor her. She is no longer with us after fighting a long battle with cancer. We named our baby girl Jacquelyn Ruby. Neither her first name or her middle name are Greek. However, in order to be baptized in the Greek Orthodox church, she needs a Greek name. We decided to name her Vasiliki which is the female version of my husbands name Bill. So she has an American name and a Greek name.