Son sharing father's name and so on....

December 16, 2009 | myknowledge

[myknowledge]

Have you ever heard of guys whose names end in Sr., Jr. III, IV, V and so on?

They sure sound aristocratic, but this naming practice of naming sons after their fathers is seemingly predominant in the United States, a country with no royal family.

Would you name your son after his father?

Note that this naming practice exists in Western family names. It is nonexistent in non-Western family names. (e.g. Vietnamese families, sort of like mine, do NOT name sons after fathers because it would be awkward.)

Today, a 'Timothy James Tate V' would be a 1 in 300m chance but maybe a 'Paul Webster III', and have a chance to see a 'Duncan Henry Broughton Jr.' or 'William Robert Coleman Jr.' in your lifetime.

Also, would you want a grandson to have your full name with a III, a great-grandson with a IV, a great-great grandson with a V and so forth? That'd be aristocratically interesting!

[myknowledge]

Here is a related article:

Junior status: Sharing dad’s name a mixed bag

[PzLdr]

I would have named a first son after MY father. Kind of a family tradition. A second son would have been named after the wife’s father.

[freedumb2003]

In my wife’s family it is a tradition to name the eldest son after the father and the eldest daughter after the mother.

Interestingly, my wife’s brother (named after his/fer father) broke with tradition in a good way — her younger brother was killed in a tragic car crash and thus is now the name of his eldest son.

We don’t (and won’t) have kids, but we are eying our nieces and nephews as our heirs (but they don’t know it).

[freedumb2003]

Oh, btw, my wife is from Mexico.

[Chickensoup]

We don’t (and won’t) have kids, but we are eying our nieces and nephews as our heirs (but they don’t know it).

I hope you change your mind. Any one intellegent enought to be here on FR should be reproducing like rabbits.

[Chickensoup]

We don’t (and won’t) have kids, but we are eying our nieces and nephews as our heirs (but they don’t know it).

I hope you change your mind. Any one intelligent enough to be here on FR should be reproducing like rabbits.

[uptoolate]

I like the way the Old Testament Israelites named their children. Names were significant. We named our son Zachariah, which means in Hebrew, “God remembers”. We had a hard time getting pregnant and had prayed for a long time. God remembered our prayer and blessed us with a son.

[ReneeLynn]

My brother is named after my father. What’s the big deal? George Bush was named after his father. Doesn’t seem to have harmed his ‘status’ as a person in his own right.

[Ronin]

Former Secretary of State, Lawrence Eagleburger had one son by his first marriage and two by his second - all three of whom are named Lawrence.

He said he named them all after himself out of ego and “to screw up the Social Security system.”

To avoid confusion, the boys use their middle names - Scott, Andrew, and Jason

[darkangel82]

Some people just would not be good parents. I know I wouldn’t, so I won’t have any.

[zerosix]

You beat me to the "western" at least British Isles, old tradition of naming system: first son after father's father; second son after mother's father (middle usually including mother's maiden name); first daughter after father's mother; second after mother's mother; third of both sexes named after mother and father, never before them. Family tradition stronger than individual whims. Note also, names reflect biblical figures.

Naming after Presidents and other greats didn't really begin in America until mid to late 1800s, if then.

"Tradition" of naming after "stars" didn't begin until early 1900s, down to making up fake names or "unique" spelling of known names, definitely not until after WWII.

[max americana]

3 years ago while working for a law firm, one of my colleagues was named David...IV, from Boston. the last name sounded Brit but was all-Mass.

Incredibly, he would only show up for 1 day a week because he was in acting gigs. Looked like Heath Ledger, but better looking. Unfortunately, he went back to Mass and didn’t “make it” in the biz. Rumors on why the brass tolerated his attendance was because he was banging the lady bosses.

[freedumb2003]

>>I hope you change your mind. Any one intelligent enough to be here on FR should be reproducing like rabbits.<<

TFO (Too Freaking Old). My wife and I married in our late 30s (marriage #2 for both of us). We are well into our 50s and anyone who PLANS on having kids at that age are go beyond mere desire to reproduce into abject ego at the price of the kids themselves.

In L.A. we call then “designer kids” or “ornaments.”

[gracie1]

My sons are named after each of their grandfathers/

[papasmurf]

After our ancestors settled this brutal land, we didn’t have “lineage” to be identified with, or proud of. So we began creating it. Hence we are the capital of same name families.

In my family, my Mom and Dad started a nice tradition. We name our children from our family members’ middle names. Not always, but usually. I’m named after an Uncle on each side of the family. Another, kind of quirky thing that we did, although I don’t think it was on purpose, is 6 out 7 of us go by our middle names.

I wanted to name my kids something, I don’t know, exotically elegant maybe? Like Abramo or Abrianna (Abraham in Italian), but my wife wouldn’t have it.

Figures, I shouldn’ta married a woman named Clarice. LOL

[freedumb2003]

>>Naming after Presidents and other greats didn’t really begin in America until mid to late 1800s, if then.<<

Can you imagine how many sad kids will be asked in 20 years “you were named after a terrorist” or, even more frequently “you were named after one of the worst presidents in US History?”

[zerosix]

Yikes!!!

Imagine, "Barack Hussein Usamma Obama White!"

[mamelukesabre]

Oh bull. If you are healthy, there’s nothing wrong with it...for men. Women actually have to go through labor so its a slightly different deal there. A little more risk.

[freedumb2003]

>>Oh bull. If you are healthy, there’s nothing wrong with it...for men. Women actually have to go through labor so its a slightly different deal there. A little more risk.<<

Yes — there are a LOT of problems:

1) The male side of the equation is highly problematic and is why there so many birth defects — many fatal
2) Late age pregnancies create significant risk to mother and child. the percentages are very high — in the 20-40% range
3) Asking a child to bury his/her parents when he/she is in his 20s is a terrible burden. That egoistical SOB Tony Randal’s kid never saw his dad as a child old enough to even know him.
4) Once she and I realized we didn’t have that spark to recreate, I had the doc do the old Nomorekidsfrome operation. Not gonna happen, so the rest of the discussion is academic.

[lmr]

I was named after my Father and his father, my Grandfather. I am ‘III’ or the ‘the 3rd’, my wife wouldn’t allow me to name our son after me, so I had to settle for giving my youngest daughter my nickname as her middle name.

Oh well...