Last names as first names.

Sxia · February 2009

Do you think this got started as women's lib -- women wanting to keep their family names alive as well as their husbands?

Or maybe 'cause guys get called by their last names a lot anyway?

jenerally · February 2009

interesting.

I think women's lib probably had a LOT to do with it ...

ara4488 · February 2009

Umm, sorry, what are you asking exactly?

blondie42107 · February 2009

My friend and her hubby used her maiden name as the baby's middle name. It wouldn't work for every name but it did for them.

newportbride715 · February 2009

I am guessing it started in more upper class/society families whose surnames were important, or at least important to them, to carry on. People started using them as middle names, then first names. Then, as with everything eventually, it trickled down to the masses.

sophie080208 · February 2009

This is probably more information then you wanted but I thought I would share what I found on the internet:

The 17th century, in Scotland, a new custom arose: the practice of giving surnames for first names, usually only among those belonging to the Protestant faith. The pressure to name one?s children only after saints was gone, and parents were free to experiment with ?new? names.

The practice of giving surnames for first names often began when boys (often firstborns) were given their mother?s maiden name, either as a first or as a middle name, in order to honor the mother?s family. When John Fox married Mary Kyle, their son might be named John Kyle Fox, for example. Often, to distinguish one John from another, he would be called Kyle Fox, and so on.

Giving a child a surname-for-a-first-name was originally a practice of the aristocrats, the people most concerned with family ties and legacies. For generations, these kinds of names only existed in families connected with the original surnames (Percy Bysse Shelley was a cousin of the Percy family, for example).

Gradually, the practice would spread. Indeed, 19th-century American upper classes took to it so readily that it filtered down through the middle classes to the lower classes. And the idea of surnames-for-first-names passed from relative?s surnames to anyone?s surnames.

Other times, children would receive the surname of of popular hero. Many American children, for example, were christened after Revolutionary War figures (Washington, Jefferson, Warren, Elmer). Later, many Southern children were called Lee, after Robert E. Lee. British military heroes, like Nelson, were similarly honored. Religious parents began giving reformers? last names to their children, such as Luther, Calvin, and Wesley.

Traditionally, this practice was usually (though not always) limited to sons. In the 20th century, however, many girl children were bestowed with surnames as well.

Currently popular for boys are English Occupational surnames such as Tyler, Hunter, Tanner, Spencer, Carter, Parker, Cooper, Chandler, Tucker, Walker, Sawyer, Porter, Turner, Dexter.

For girls, parents seem to prefer English Place Names, especially those that end with the ?ley? (meaning ?meadow?). These names include: Ashley, Hailey, Bailey, Riley, Kimberly, Kayley, Harley, Ainsley, Leslie/Lesley, Hadley.

mickey84 · February 2009

hmmm.. i dont know why. I love last names as first names though - Larsen, Kennedy, ect. Our girl's middle name is probley going to be Macrae (long time family name from the 1800s)

EmmaRain · February 2009

This is an old, old tradition in the South, where we grew up. A lot of people ues the mother's maiden name somehow in their child's name. Probably about 80% or more of the people I grew up with had their mom's maiden name as either a first or middle name.

I'm not sure what started it, but we've always said it was to incorporate both sides of the family into the name.