- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Baby Names
Need your thoughts on "Juniors"
My husband wants to name our son after himself. I love my husband's first name, but am not a fan of calling DS Junior, JR, "little NAME", by his initials, etc.
I'm also not a big fan of naming DS after my DH but calling him by his middle name. If that's the case, why not just name him the middle name in the first place?
We'd agreed on a name and planned to use DH's first name as DS middle name. But over the last few weeks DH has consistently brought up how he wants to name his son after himself, and that it's a cultural thing. I'm Irish, DH is Mexican.
I feel like DS should have his own identity, and that DH's family has multiple people with the same names, which I'm just not a fan of. Am I being hormonal or unreasonable?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Need your thoughts on "Juniors"
I agree with you. However, I think it might be a cultural thing for your DH like you mentioned. I think there's value in that also.
This is my situation, except I have already agreed to it. DH is from South America, it is a HUGE deal where he's from that the first son have the father's first name.
Every single first born son in DH's extended family is named after his father. They go by their middle names, though. This was crucial to me agreeing to it.
I figure it won't be TOO annoying, he'll explain to his teachers on the first day of school that he goes by his middle name, and that will be that. To everyone else, he'll introduce himself as his middle name.
I HATE 'junior', and nobody better even try it. I will kill them, haha. I like my DH's first name, too, but likewise, no one had better call my son that. He will be known by his middle name only.
I am not a huge fan of it, but I understand what a big deal it is to DH and his family, and like your DH, a cultural difference.
Honestly, I'd rather do it than listen to what my MIL will have to say about it if we don't.
My H was the third and is known by the same nickname as his father (let's say it's John). When he was small, FIL was John and H was Johnny. As H grew into a teen, he shortened it to John and if there was a phone call you'd just ask for "big" or "little". The mail doesn't get mixed up too much in their house because they have different middle initials.
I don't even like H's name that much, but I still agreed to name a boy FIL's name (so H and son would have different middle initials too). It was important to him and his culture, so I agreed. I got lucky and had 2 girls so the naming thing wasn't an issue.
I think that there needs to be a compromise on this issue, and you both have to give a little bit. If it were me, I'd give in to the first name and call them by their middle name. It's a cultural thing that has been around for many, many generations, and IMO that trumps the fact that you "just don't like it."
You have to consider that it may sound like a strange/unpleasant thing for you to give your son his father's name based on your upbringing, but your H feels it's strange/unpleasant to NOT have a legacy son. Right? 2 sides of the coin. Just talk about it some more, and see who feels more strongly on the subject.
I hate juniors, and I come from a big Hispanic family with lots of them running around, so I feel like I am justified in my annoyance over juniors. My brother and my father get confused for each other all the time now that they are both adults and work in similar fields in the same city. As a nearly 50-year-old man, my brother still has to be referred to as "Jaimito" for clarification. How humiliating is that? And other people in the family go by middle names instead of first names so not to be confused with their own fathers. What is the point of that? Just name your child what you're going to call him. I feel like this is a battle worth fighting.
I know this is very common in many cultures, and a lot of men just like having a junior.
DH is a Junior, and something to consider for the future, it really screws up the Junior's credit (as in lots of errors). DH has tons of stuff on his credit that was his father's debt (he died about 6 years ago) that he is still fighting to get off, because he doesn't consistently use the Jr, and therefore there was confusion as to who the debt belonged to.
It's also a "cultural thing" that Latin men don't change diapers or do housework and I see plenty of women in my generation challenging this with their Hispanic husbands. Maybe one feels more comfortable making this challenge if you're from the same culture, but I hate it when "it's a cultural thing" is used as an excuse to negate a woman's input on something important, like naming your child.
This
Thank you! Thanks for all the input everyone.
Another thing to consider is that down the line, their credit reports will become intertwined. That happened to my exFIL and exBIL -- there were actually FOUR males with the same name (Sr, Jr, III, and IV), and my exFIL was denied a car loan because his credit report had too high an income-to-debt ratio -- it showed him as owning three homes in three different states.
The mix-up was eventually straightened out, but that wasn't the first time something like that had happened.
THIS THIS THIS THIS A MILLION TIMES THIS.
Give your child their own name. My H has a different middle initial and crap like this still happens. Also, take it from someone that goes by their middle name, it's a pain in the arse so huge, you can't even begin to understand the stress of it that I go through on a regular basis.
Francesca Pearl is here! Josephine Hope is almost 3!
My DS is a junior - a compromise after we couldn't agree on anything else! Anyway I think it is unavoidable if it means that much to your husband. I think you have to respect that. But with that being said I let hubby know - I get the next final say!
My son is NEVER called Junior. I hate that. He is called the same name as his father - Brian. Usually I call DH Bri so it's usually not very confusing. Good Luck!
Not a fan.
DH is a Junior and while we both really like his first name, we both dislike his middle name. He flat-out refused a junior were we having a boy (which is good, because I didn't want one) because he thinks it's narcissistic and the kid should have their own name.
He and his dad both went by the same nickname, so it's confusing. It's also a pain because they get things confused with phone calls. DH is a teacher and he's had kids prank call his dad before!
Not a fan, at all. MH wasn't a Jr, but he and his Dad (and his grandpa) had the same first name. Eventually his parents realized how confusing it could be, so from a very young age they called him by his middle name. It wasn't really a big deal until he came to the US, when it became a total PITA. When he was naturalized he had the opportunity to change his name, so he reversed the order of his first and middle name.
By complete coincidence, my Mom and her MIL have the same first name. Over the weekend my step-family had a gathering, and I couldn't get over how confusing it was! Maybe it's different if you hear it all the time... to me it just seems like it would be a pain.
H is a junior and it's been a total PITA for us - everything from credit reports to insurance claims (he forgets to stress the Jr part so insurance will deny) and even his driving record had wrecks or issues his dad had on our insurance and we were paying more for it and didn't even know it until we switched insurance and our new agent realized H couldn't have had a DWI in 1995 since he wasn't of legal age yet so she investigated and got it straightened out. It's been a huge hassle.
DS has H's first name as a MN but H goes by his MN and his dad goes by his FN so the nickname portion isn't bad but H has insisted we won't name a child and call them by another name. He hated that and still does - so we will pick a name and call this baby by that name, not by a nickname or another name like his sister wanted us to do to carry on the tradition and name our first boy III and call him Trey - which is nowhere near either of the names we would be carrying on. Really dumb and annoying.