UO Thursday

catem07

I don't know if this is unpopular, but I think it's dumb when people give their kid a first name and plan to call it by their middle name. I know some people do it to memorialize a loved one, but is it any less special to use the loved ones name as the middle name instead? Just setting your kid up for a lifetime of aggravation. 

Dannylion24

Thanks for the input @belocin when you've done 9 cruises they should give you the 10th for free

STM2017

@catem07, I hate that too. And yet, I'm guilty of it. I had no choice of DS's first name. DH insisted (our DS is 5th generation) but I really didn't want 2 people in the house with the same name. So he goes by his middle name. I hate it. I hate that I've set him up to deal with this his whole life. But it was our compromise. 

catem07

@stm2017 yeah I get that with junior, third, etc. not much you can do there unless there's a good nickname with the first name. 

NurseLaLa

Isn't that a Catholic thing? 

catem07

@nursejoc the people who prompted this post aren't Catholic, but I think in some catholic communities it was common to name your daughter Mary _ and call her the middle name (I had a Filipina friend and every woman in the family had Mary or Maria as part of her name). Don't think that's that popular anymore though.  

STM2017

@catem07, funny story. My FIL is Bill. Which made my husband Bill Junior. FIL decided he should go by BJ. So until high school, my poor DH was BJ. You can imagine the dirty jokes he got. 

marshmallowmadness

@Breesy14 we can't be friends. 

hollyh98

@catem07 I can't stand that either! My husband is Melvin III but goes by his middle name. When we found out we were having a boy last time we got in some pretty bad arguments over whether to name DS after him. I was really against it, mainly because I didn't want DS to have to go by his middle name and deal with always being confused with his dad, etc. Not to mention I really wasn't crazy about the name Melvin (no offense to anyone here, just not my style). I stood my ground and everyone got over it. I hope DS thanks me one day!

Breesy14

@Tinkerbell413 nah - we can! I love other people's announcements and all the cute things. It just feels weird when I do stuff like that.  When all my friends bought Kendra Scott earrings, I couldn't bring myself to to do it despite really liking the style. I think it's because I have a strong urge to be against the grain - a little rebellious.  I love Disney world though!   

KirstinH88

@Hollyh98 DH's name is Edgar and I honestly am really happy that he had a boy before me. My oldest DSS is named Edgar, but goes by a really embarrassing nickname around family. At school and sports he goes by his first name. I'm just not a fan of the name Edgar. And glad I didn't have to go through that pressure of whether or not to name DS Edgar. 

mrsstuessy

I am so happy that neither DH or myself have ever once considered naming a child after him. I would consider his middle name though, but that is because I like it and consider middle names perfect for naming after people. 

hollyh98

@mrsstuessy DS's middle name is the same as his dad and grandpa (and both dad and grandpa actually go by the name) I am glad we could at least carry on some part of the name. I really like using family names as middle names too.

clover28

I'm a huge fan of family names if they aren't ridiculous.  My son is named after my dad and his middle name is my husbands middle name.  I think its cool to keep names in the family and an honor for the older person with that name to see younger generations of their family be named because of them.  However, I can definitely see the other side of this if the family names are not desirable to the new parents.

catem07

In my DHs family they have a skip generation thing with DHs name. He has the same name as his grandfather and great-great grandfather. So if we have a son and he has a son, there would be pressure to give our hypothetical grandson DH's name.

KirstinH88

DS has two middle names (we couldn't agree on one) and both of them are named after his great grandpa on either side.

ashleym112

clover28 said:

I'm a huge fan of family names if they aren't ridiculous.  My son is named after my dad and his middle name is my husbands middle name.  I think its cool to keep names in the family and an honor for the older person with that name to see younger generations of their family be named because of them.  However, I can definitely see the other side of this if the family names are not desirable to the new parents.

My stepdad goes by his middle name bc his first name is a family name...Kermit. Not even kidding. When him and my mom got married, he was like it's ending with me don't worry bc she did not want to name my little brother with that as a first name!

I'm ok with family names but I think it depends on the significance of the name and how rigid families are with the traditions. No one knows why Kermit is a thing in his family so he's ok with it ending, but on my mom's side it's tradition that the middle names have to be a family name (just any name of someone in the family). This made naming DS really hard bc we couldn't agree on a middle name we liked that wouldn't piss off my family, plus there's not a lot of male names we liked in the first place. If this new one is a boy, it's going to take the entire pregnancy to pick a middle name again haha. 

@catem07 that's interesting, I've never head of every other generation with a name before. That's not too bad, as long as you like the name of course!