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Are you a Junior fan?
I know some people aren't big fans of naming their son after the father, while some are 100% for it. Just curious to hear your opinions on the subject. Pros and cons of being a Junior.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Are you a Junior fan?
Angel Baby: 5/29/08
I'm against Jr- children should have their own name. My brother is a Jr and he HATES it.
Besides being confusing, it can cause problems: I have a cousin who has the same first and last name as his biological father, but a different middle name, which is what he goes by... well a few years ago, they started garnishing his wages for the child support his deadbeat dad owed him, and it took several months to straighten out, despite the fact that they had different middle names, dob, ssn, etc... what a nightmare!
It depends on the name. I'm a big fan of nicknames, so if it's a name with a good nn to differentiate the son from the father, it's good with me. Or if the middle name works on it's own--also good.
If DD had been a boy, she would have likely been a junior and called by her middle name.
I am not a fan.
DH isn't a junior as he has a different middle name than his father, but this still applies. When his father passed away DH started getting mail, bills, etc for his father even though we live 200 miles from where his father did. In the past his medical records have been messed up with his fathers, and some random credit issues have been mixed up. We have spent countless hours on the phone rectifying these issues and I will not do that to my child.
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
Hmm...
Fan of Robert Glenn Johnson, Jr. (aka "Junior Johnson") = YES!
Fan of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (aka just "Junior") = meh..
Fan of naming my son his father's exact name = NO!
Eh, I think it's a little pretensious, but I don't hate it. I really dislike the NN Junior.
I think it works best if the "junior" goes by his MN, or a NN that his father doesn't use (i.e. Jack when his father goes by John).
I guess ultimately I just don't see the point of doing a junior. It just looks really egocentric, even if there are legitimate reasons for doing so.
Married since 06/19/2004|Anna born 11/19/2006|Charles born 11/1/11
Double undergrad graduation May 2011| Me: Psychology, DH: Communication| A long journey!
<a href="http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b268/gussiebutt/?action=view
Every time this topic comes up, and someone uses "legal problems" as a reason to not like the junior thing, I have to wonder -- how many of you are procreating with deadbeat criminals who you are going to name your child after and thus doom them to lifelong legal issues? For your child to have a legal issue because he was named after his father, it will require his father to be IN LEGAL TROUBLE.
No one gets their "own name." You can't even FIND my husband on Google searches because he has the same name as thousands of other people who AREN'T related to him. That's why I find it tough to believe all these stories of people having their wages garnished or being arrested due to mistaken identity with their apparently criminal fathers (that still managed to get children named after them!). My husband has THOUSANDS of people with his EXACT SAME NAME and he's never been mistaken for them or arrested on their behalf.
I am not "pro" Junior in that I have no particular interest in naming my child after either me or my husband, but I don't understand the animosity toward it.
I agree.
Same here. It also seems like just a really outdated patriarchal tradition to me.
True, true. There are hundreds of people with my name. Just do a Facebook search.
Married since 06/19/2004|Anna born 11/19/2006|Charles born 11/1/11
Double undergrad graduation May 2011| Me: Psychology, DH: Communication| A long journey!
<a href="http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b268/gussiebutt/?action=view
It's more than just the legal aspects. I've got a friend who had lots of issues with student loans, etc, because her mom has the exact same name(friend goes by MN). Even simple things like getting a library card can be troublesome. Most people aren't considered deadbeats or jailbirds for not returning library books, yet it's not exactly hard to rack up hundreds of dollars in fines for this. Granted, this is easier to clear up than "parent opened a card in kid's name, checked out tons of stuff when child was 6, and now child is 18+ and can't get a new card" but still a hassle. I've had to put notes on people's records before saying "please check DOB and/or phone # when checking out" because of similar names, related or not. There are also potential medical issues, as a PP pointed out (and having had to sit through more than one "class" on identity theft, medical issues ARE one of the major problems you can run into). Drivers' licenses and other forms of ID don't always include a suffix, etc.
Back to the legal thing, though...unfortunately the majority(not ALL, but a LOT) of people who go with Jr, II, III, IV, etc. when naming their kids tend to either have a long-standing family tradition, or be EXACTLY the sort of people who do end up dealing with nice Mr. Policeman a little too often, owing back-child support, etc. Or, y'know...they skip out on jury duty. Or stop making payments on a loan. Or any number of other things.
Aside from all that, though, as PPs have mentioned, it's awfully egotistical to name your kid completely after yourself. Even having a more common name and NOT being a Jr, II, III, etc. you're at least not living under the same roof as another person with the Exact. Same. Name. Not to mention how boring it makes your choices look to everyone else...I mean, you have HOW MANY thousands of names you could choose from, and you named your child the exact same thing as your parents named you?
This, 100%. As to the "no one would do this to a daughter," I do know at least one female friend who was named entirely after her mother, and have met a little girl who was Mom's Firstname Middle Lastname Jr. It raised a couple eyebrows when we heard it at work, but more because it was so unusual to meet a female "junior" than because it was any more distasteful than boys being juniors.
I also know a woman who is named after her mom. She has a VERY dated name and mentioned to me that she and her mom have the exact same name. I believe her brother was also a junior.
Dislike, for several reasons:
1) You should have your own name, not live in the shadow of someone else.
2) It's confusing as hell, especially when the kid gets to high school and people are calling and asking for "James" all the time. Which one?
3) It's rather sexist, since "juniors" are boys 95% of the time. As though you want your boy to have a tie to the family, or have more expectations for him than for a girl. (Which also assumes he'll keep the same last name his whole life and any daughter won't.)
In my family, my grandmother was a junior, but went by a nickname. Then she turned around and gave my dad the same name as my grandfather. Technically, my dad isn't a junior, because they had different middle names, but see the issue with number 2 listed above. Neither my dad nor my grandfather had a nickname, although my dad's aunts still call him "Johnny" to distinguish him from my grandfather, who died 16 years ago.
Anyway, when my mother was pregnant, my grandmother gave her one piece of advice: don't name your kid after a parent. I feel like she should have known better, since she disliked her name. She never went by "junior" though.
40/112
Are you kidding me? Sorry, that excuse does not pass my sniff test. Of course, there's no accounting for stupid, but having worked in both a doctor's office AND for an insurance company, I have never heard of that nonsense, and we had many, many patients with the same name.
My library doesn't look at my name, but at the barcode on my card. That's why we all have dob and SSN info.
Additionally, my father has a very unusual last name. Hard to spell, hard to pronounce (for Americans) and so unusual that my entire family is often asked by strangers worldwide if we are related because they have never heard the name anywhere else. When I was young, we moved to a small Southern town. In this town, pop. a few hundred, was a man with my father's name (no relation). We never got his mail. We never got confused for his children. Nothing.
Is that really a concern people have? I can say with all honesty that when I was choosing a name for my child, whether or not someone wholly unrelated to me thought my choice was "boring" did not enter into my mind. This hypothetical other person could be naming their children M'kayla and Breckin for all I know, and therefore, their opinion does not hold much water with me.
Nope, not kidding. The medical thing was specifically mentioned at the identity theft workshop--apparently it's not that uncommon for people who end up in the ER to give fake information.
As for the library thing, having worked in a public library, we NEVER took SS info(though I've had people try to give me their SSN both in person and over the phone to prove who they were--nevermind that we never asked for nor entered that information in their record in the first place), nor has any library I've ever had a card with. We used photo ID when signing people up for cards, along with some sort of proof of address if it's not correct on their DL/ID(this could be something as simple as a statement from their bank--and I've been told by people who worked at banks that THEY don't bother checking addresses). And if people forget their cards? MOST libraries I've been to will look you up with your picture ID, and many don't even require that--just that you give them your name, and know the correct DOB or phone # in the record.
My husband and I both get bills and collection calls daily that are not for us. Different middle initial, definitely different SSN. We both have very common names and we actually have a 2nd phone line that we keep the ringer silent and check the messages once a week because most of the calls are for other people. It happens all the time, and this isn't even counting the bills and calls for my deceased FIL.
I have personally been fighting with a collector over someone else's student loan for 3 years. They keep insisting that they can't change it unless I give them my SSN, which I refuse to do. With my luck they'll change the SSN in their system and then I will owe it! It is not on my credit report, thankfully, but it is still a huge annoyance in my life.
Completely anti. My oldest brother is a junior. His entire adult life, it has been a PITA. He and my father run in similar circles, and people always wonder whether it's "Senior" or "Junior" whose name they are hearing relating to x, y or z (they are both very involved with the Hispanic community in the city where I grew up). I also think it really stinks for my SIL and my niece, who have had to make clarifications themselves several times.
In addition, their credit files are all mixed up with each other's.
On a private note, in our family, my dad gets to be called by his name while my brother gets the Spanish diminutive "ito." It's rather annoying for him as a 48-year-old man to still be known as an "ito" by his parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, etc.
Against. My step-father is David and my brother is David. Neither like "Dave" so growing up, my brother was David Wayne. Now at age 28, I still call him David Wayne. It embarrasses him to the point, he is actually going by Dave.
And the credit issues are very real issues. My step-father had a gambling addiction and racked up some credit card debt. It made it really hard for my little brother to get student loans.
Even my mom, who is divorced from my step-father, had issues just because she has the same first initial as my step-father, "D". When the postman can't get the mail straight, they send that info to credit bureaus and that address gets on your credit. Stupid stuff like that can be a nightmare.
Sure, there are others in this country with my exact name, but they don't live anywhere near me and we never shared an address - that's why it's not a problem.
Drat - for reason this thread was being weird for me yesterday, and I couldn't reply. So it's late, but here it is...
https://community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/45688178.aspx
C&P from the above thread...
And here's my biggest complaint about Juniors. I say my husband's name with love, and it means a lot to me. I say my daughter's name to say I love her, but to also correct, guide, warn and reprimand. I couldn't fathom disciplining a kid with the name I say so lovingly.
My minor gripe about Juniors is that it's limiting. It basically puts someone else's name story on a kid who might otherwise have a great name story of their own.
Oh, and the Dear Abby letter in the above thread is also a good read.
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