using a family last name as a first name

catwine

I\m not pregnant yet, but H and I still like to throw around baby names for hypothetical future children.  Recently he said he thinks it would be cool to use his mother's maiden name as a first name if we had a son.  His reasons for wanting to use this name are: he is his grandma's fave grandchild and its well known; his grandparents only had daughters and H is very close with his grandma and would like to keep her name alive.  I like the idea of using the name, but I'm undecided if I actually like it!  Has anyone else used a last name for a first name?

BTW, the family name is Bernat.  I would NOT allow this child to go by the name Bernie for short...ugh.

capulet

Our DD and three of DH's siblings have family surnames as FNs, so I think it's a great tradition, but some surnames work better as FNs than others.

mrshudson618

Middle name. It's an odd Ln to try and make work as a fn, especially if you won't use Bernie as a nn.

==N==

I like the idea but with a ln that isn't generally used as a fn, I'd mn it.

strawberrytree

I think some family surnames make great first names, but I don't think Bernat is one of them. 

EXL311

Depends on the name and in your case with that name I would definitely go middle name.

Alyssa7012

Definitely mn it. Is there another family name you could use that he would go for? Maybe his grandmas maiden name instead of moms?

LyndseylovesHugh

I like the idea, we are using a family surname as a first name (Bennett) but I think it really only works with certain surnames and unfortunatly I do not think Bernat is one of those names.  I think that it would be fine in the middle name spot though.

catwine

thanks for the input!  I agree that it would be fine as a MN, but not a FN.   @Alyssa7012: H's grandma's maiden name is Ivanco, and I don't like that as a FN either!

wineandcake

I'm a fan of family last names as first names (DS is McKinnon and if we have another boy he will be Hunter after my moms family), but I would choose to use that as a mn.

mommy5point0

That's our plan if we have a boy, but MIL's maiden name is Paxton--pretty cool name to begin with. I would not consider it if it weren't a name I could stomach or whose nicknames I disliked.

JMU_Bride09

I personally would not unless the last name in question was something that sounded somewhat like a first name such as Anderson or Beckett. In theory, I wouldn't side eye a name like Bernat due to the family ties, but in this age of made-up names, if I didn't know the back story, I'd probably assume that you were trying to be you-neek.

I love the idea of keeping your husband's grandma's name alive, but if it were me, I would use it as a middle name.

DawnJM25

I would use that as a middle name.  Not a great fn.

daisykittyy

My first name (Holland) was my grandmother's maiden name . It's also my father's middle name and we plan on incorporating it into a future child's name. 

Though I'm not a big fan of that name as a first name. I agree with Dawn that it would make a nice middle name, though.

526SadieSadie

strawberrytree said:

I think some family surnames make great first names, but I don't think Bernat is one of them. 

Agreed.  My friends used his grandmother's maiden name as their daughter's middle name.  What about using Grandma's actual first name instead of her last name?

catwine

thanks for the comments!  I think we could come to a compromise...If we have a son, we can give him my choice of FN and Bernat can be the MN

By the way, my choice of name is Levi. That's becoming popular, isn;t it?

Twiggymommy

We did this with our ds, granted it has been one of my favorite boy names for years (Griffin)

My so's uncle passed away a year exactly but for we found out we were pregnant so from day one we were trying to come up with a name to honor him (but I don't like either his first or middle names) after we exhausted all other options and settled on his first name being the uncles first name (kody) we were looking for a middle name and I said Griffin. He got all exited and said that was his uncles last name...

The rest is history lol

catwine

The name is pronounced "Ber-nat". I don't hate it, but now I'm worried it might sounds like I'm trying to be you-neek if we chose that name.  

Dr.Loretta

A surname like Miles, Jackson, Campbell, Miller, etc? Sure. But Bernat? Not for a FN. Definitely MN territory

catwine

bromios said:

christinafromflanders said:

The name is pronounced "Ber-nat". I don't hate it, but now I'm worried it might sounds like I'm trying to be you-neek if we chose that name.  

Okay, is that closer to Bear-naht or burr-gnat? The former is great (and closer to the proper pronunciation), the latter is bad. 

Bear-naht.  It's a polish last name.

anfranklin2

What about using it as a middle name? My moms maiden name is my brothers middle name

ETA: words