(no subject)

[red-inuzuka.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking too much again, haha, so here's a few questions. My brain is everywhere, so I hope this makes sense :)

Would you find it odd if siblings had a different number of middle names? Like, baby one has two middle names, but baby two got only one. Or even, baby one got only one middle name, but baby two got two middle names. And, honestly, would you personally be upset if you grew up with only one while a sibling had two?

Would you be upset if your name was way in left field while the siblings were 'normal' (ie Jezzyka and Michael NOT Mykael or something equally strange with awkward spelling, etc)?
(I know, that sounds sorta silly to be even typing, but I do remember someone here expressing a small sadness that her name was nothing like her brothers' naming trend. I'm just curious how widespread that feeling might be in the comm, hence those above questions)

And would you find it odd if the second son was named after the dad, or the second daughter after the mom, but not the first of either gender? Like, I knew a Gary Jr. who had an older brother, and I remember back then asking him why they didn't name his brother Gary Jr. I was a nosy teen with an overactive imagination, and it made me wonder if the brother wasn't related to the dad. I'm sure he was, it just seemed like an odd practice to me to name the second son after the dad and not the first. What do you guys think? (And please no, "I wouldn't name the child a junior to begin with".)

Comments

[kitchen-poet.livejournal.com]

hmmm...you asked so many questions, lol! ok:

1. Well, if I saw two kids named Cannsyss and Anne or something, I might be a little curious. But that said I absolutely do not believe in naming children in "sets"--I think its a little weird. But, usually a parent's taste doesn't radically differ between kids I guess.

2. I don't think naming the second child after the father is that odd, especially if the first child has a name connected to the mother. Still, I really dislike it when people add "jr." to a name. Why not just name him the same name as his father and not add jr.? And I think it is best when the link is more subtle. (i.e I would be all for naming my future son after his father. But as a middle name only. :) I think kids need their own first name. For the record, my middle name is my mom's first name, and I always loved that!

3. Please don't name your kids Jezzyka and Mykael Jr, haha! Seriously, don't.

[red-inuzuka.livejournal.com]

I know, my brain was oozing questions! XD

1. I don't believe in naming sets either, but then I do think they should sorta go together. Like, I don't understand why add some extra y's to one name, but spell the other the correct traditional way. It seems to stand one kid out, but not, in my opinion, in a good way.

2. I don't think the first son was connected to the mother at all, but then again, he was a 16 year old male at that time, and his knowledge on the subject wasn't that good. He never wondered why, even tho I picked up on it the first time he mentioned it XD And yeah, I know what you mean, I know not many people like juniors. My step dad is Michael Andrew, my brother is Andrew Michael. I like that much better than a junior, since it would still be naming the child after the dad.

3. Definitely not! I can admit when I was 12 or something, I so wanted to be Jezzyka instead of a Jessica, but that was just so I could be different than the other Jessicas in my class. I since, thankfully, outgrew that and stick to using names in their traditional spelling.

[crzydimond.livejournal.com]

My boyfriend has two middle names:

Michael Robert Murdoch

His sister and two brothers all only have one middle name. I doubt I would think anything of it if one of my brothers had two middle names and I had one.

And re the naming after parents, if you named the first child after his father, then a second son couldn't be named after him. So isn't that the same?

Unless you wanted Gary Jr and Gary Jr Jr I suppose.

[red-inuzuka.livejournal.com]

Murdoch is one of his middle name? That's cool XD

I'm not sure what you meant about naming after the parents, I guess I didn't explain it all that well to being with. What I meant was, if you were going to do a 'junior' sort of thing, why name the second son junior and not the first son? So why, say, John (first born) and Gary Junior (second born), and not Gary Junior (first born) and John (second born)?

[rockstargrrrlie.livejournal.com]

1. No, I would think perhaps the parents had a reason.
2. Yeah, probably. I guess it would depend on how many siblings I had. With Jezzyka and Michael, I doubt I'd really care. But if I was Jezzyka in a long line of siblings like Michael, Mary, Linda, etc. I might be curious why I got the short end of the stick.
3. Yeah, that's kind of strange. I would wonder the same thing as you.

[lilacmermaid.livejournal.com]

I only have one middle name, but my brother has two, and I don't think either of us has ever cared. It's kind of cool the way my parents did it, because my middle name is the feminized version of my maternal grandfather, and my brother's middle names are my father and paternal grandfather.

I think having one child with a 'normal' name and one with a really unusual name would be more problematic, or even if the spelling of one was common and the other was more unusual.

I can't say I know a lot of people who are Jrs. to begin with (in my family the middle name thing is a lot more common, and that's probably what I will go with). Having said that, I do think I would find it unusual if the child who gets the parent's name was not the first child. It's not that there's anything wrong with it, it just seems odd ... my first reaction was that if it's the first child, it can reasonably be assumed that this was an important way of honouring that parent, but if it was the second child it kind of seems like they just couldn't come up with anything better after having the first kid.

[tumblingdice.livejournal.com]

My family often uses different numbers of middle names and some kids just got a letter as their middle name while others got a full name as a middle name. Also on DH's side of the family the youngest son (DH's uncle) was named after the dad, but the oldest son was not.

[tryyingtoevolve.livejournal.com]

I think in a lot of families, it's common practice to name the first son after the grandfather(s) and the second son after the father. I know a family like this, too; the oldest son is named Hans, after his father's father (and his middle name is after his mother's father), but the younger son is named Jon Jr. Mostly, I agree with you, though. I think it seems strange, since it's usually the first son. But whatever.

I don't like the idea of using one really really common/nicely spelled name with something totally made up like that. It's even worse when it's two (or more) of one style and one of another. I don't like the idea of names sticking out like that.

As for the number of middle names, I think it depends. Some kids might feel like they were short changed or something, but others might not care. I think it's just up to the parents of each individual kid. I plan to give my kids the same number of names (either one or two middle names), and the same general 'style' of names -- all spelled correctly, all 'classics,' etc.

[reclaimeddreams.livejournal.com]

I agree with pretty much everything you've said. With my children - my eldest son has his paternal grandfather's name as a middle name. (Kaleb John) And our youngest son has his maternal grandfather's name as a middle name. (Tristan David) Perhaps they wanted they first born to stand out. Not necessarily be a Jr. Or perhaps they just couldn't decide on a name aside from the father's name for the second child? Or perhaps they had other very good reasons for naming their children as they did. Only they would know. :) It would not annoy me or upset me in that situation, nor do I really find it wierd.

I REALLY dislike the idea of naming one child something really outlandish that's going to stand out - and naming the second (and possibly third and fourth) child with something completely normal and nicely spelled. I think in the long run there's always that possibility that the child's going to notice that he/she is different from the other children. I further believe that adults are definately going to notice. A parent who does something like that is bound to get questions from other adults like - 'Why is her/his name different than their siblings?' or 'Is there a reason why you spelled her name differently than the others?' I'm not a fan of names sticking out from their siblings, because I want the siblings to feel like they belong together - not like one is the odd-man out, so to speak.

I don't like the idea of giving a different number of middle names to different siblings. I was very sure that when I decided on my current and future children's names, they all have the same number of names altogether. It goes back to the idea that I want the siblings to feel like they belong together - they're a team, so to speak. I don't want them to feel like Mom and Dad put more thought or more effort into naming the sibling with two middle names, or three middles names, and not as many into their name, you know?

All of my children are within the same generaly 'style' of name.

I think it comes down to what a parent wants for their child, but I think a parent should always think carefully about the future that child will have with said name. *nods*

[memorymaze.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's weird for one to have more then one middle name. My brother is John James Patrick, but my sister and I go by our actually first names, and only have one middle name.

Although, I think I would be pissed if I ended up being Kortni instead of Courtney, but Patrick and Rachel got normal spellings. Although my brother was almost Padraic.

[ecarnation.livejournal.com]

I'm answering your first question. I'm the youngest child and only daughter. All my brothers have middle names. The oldest has like two or three :) and the other two have one each. I'm the odd one out. No middle name :( I don't think it's odd, but I do wish I had one sometimes.

[jordle.livejournal.com]

I think they're all odd. These are all things that really drive me crazy when I see them.

[sageharper.livejournal.com]

1. Hmm yeah a bit, but it might depend on the reasoning behind it. Middle names aren't used that often so I don't see that it matters a huge amount.

2. I probably wouldn't do it myself, just because my tastes are fairly consistent in that respect, but it can work. Mine & my brother's name are polar opposite styles; and maybe the geek in me is a little dissapointed. I love the style of his name, but for him, and I don't think he could pull off anything hippyish. We're very diffrent people, so I like that our names suit us as individuals.

I think it would be more noticeable/problematic in a larger sibset and/or with siblings of the same gender. If I was Joaquin Phoenix [brother of River, Rain, Liberty & Summer] I'd be dissapointed and go by Leaf too. I've always wanted to know what his parents were thinking.

3. I don't like the trend for juniours in any sense. If it was a younger kid I'd probably think they ran out of names or something, lol.

[nightskygalaxy.livejournal.com]

1. It might be a little strange, but I don't think it would upset me personally if my sibling had more or less middle names than me. But my brother goes by his middle name anyway, so my family is already strange.

2. I don't think popularity would necessarily pose an issue to me as far as this goes.. however, don't spell one name creatively and the other normally. But I hate creative spellings anyway.

3. Well, my dad's family is actually like this. My dad was first born son, he has his father's first name as his middle name. Then his younger brother is a JR. I never did understand that... but my dad said his mother refused to have a jr if she only had one son. She wanted to use her favorite name, so they compromised and my dad got his dad's first name for a middle. Then when they had a second son, my grandfather still wanted a jr, so yeah. Still very strange to me.

[dustkitty.livejournal.com]

Hubby is a second son named after his dad (though he's not a Jr.) because they didn't feel the name they'd chosen for him fit when he was born; they hadn't intended to name any children after themselves. But in most cases, I do find it a little strange.

And yes, I find it strange if siblings have different numbers of middle names or wildly different styles of names. I suppose I shouldn't, because it just means the parents have eclectic taste, but it's unusual, so it seems weird.

[seksimaggie.livejournal.com]

All of those things would bother me a lot.

For the middle name thing, I would feel like they weren't as excited about the baby who got fewer middle names, like they couldn't muster the creativity or something.

And I hate the creative awkward spellings anyway, but I would feel even worse for Jezzyka if her brother's name was Michael instead of Mykael.

And I've always thought it was strange if a second son was named after the dad etc., too.

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

I would definitely not find it weird if siblings had different numbers of middle names.
For some reason, I would find it strange if one child had no middle name at all, and a sibling would have two, for example. I'm not sure why though.

Personally, it would annoy me if my name were crazy and my brother's name were not.
If I were to come across a sibset like the one you mentioned (Michael & Jezzyka) it would make me wonder, but it wouldn't bother me that much.

No, I would not find it weird if the second son (or whatever) was named after the dad instead of the first. Maybe they just liked another name better on their first son. Or maybe they only came up with the naming-after idea later.
That said, I don't like that tradition at all. Putting 'junior' behind a name always sounds to me like you're a mini version of that older person.

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about the italics, I guess I was not paying attention =)

[eleanorgrace.livejournal.com]

My sister (second child) is named after my mom (more or less) while I, the older sibling, was not. Neither of us have ever been bothered by that. I don't know if it's different for men or fathers/sons. Not a big deal, I presume.