(no subject)

[babyjess8.livejournal.com]

So friends of mine who recently got married were talking about names for their potential children one day. I was shocked when they said their firstborn son would not continue the family tradition and be called Lewis. The tradition goes back at least 4 generations that I know of. Now I'm not a big fan of the name, but if it were me I'd be so scared to break the strong tradition of my SO's family. Boy names they currently like are Eli, Zane, Harrison and Tobias. I suggested they name him Lewis Eli/Zane/Harrison/Tobias and just call him by his middle name, but she wanted no part of it and said she really disliked the name Lewis (even though it's her husbands name!) The whole situation just blew my mind a bit. Growing up with Lewis, I'd always imagined him with his own little Lewie.

FYI the names (from my friend upward): Lewis Campbell, Lewis John, Lewis Arthur Jnr, Lewis Arthur Snr

Anyone know of/been in a similar situation? Do you take or break the tradition?

Comments

[peke.livejournal.com]

I'm expecting a girl, but if I'd have been having a boy instead, we would have broken my in-laws naming traditions. For the last umpteen generations (7 at last count, but more pop up whenever someone gets into the family tree finding bug) the first born son of every first born son has been called Hugh. I was happy to use it as a middle name (though that was only after my father-in-law died and I wanted to honour his memory) but refused to use it as a first name.

[fangirlism]

depends on what the tradition is.

[snoglobel.livejournal.com]

There was a tradition in my step-family (my grandpa remarried) where all girls were D names. This continued for ALL girls starting with my grandma, and running until my her great granddaughter Nevin. (There was already a Devin)

My mom is trying to start an L/A tradition - where all girls are L's and all boys are A's. My brother wants to keep it and plans on naming his daughter Laura, or son Alex. I intended for a while with Lily or Lindsay, but then I realized that I don't really like either name and now I definitel plan on breaking the tradition - even though it barely started. The reason for the tradition in the first place was simply the co-incidence that my cousin's name also begins with L and her brother/my brother both have A names. It started with us, and I am sure will end with us.

[blueberryeyes17.livejournal.com]

I would probably not break the tradition, depending on how important it was to my husband, but give the baby a really awesome middle name and call him by that like you suggested.

[http://users.livejournal.com/___heyvanity/]

I'm not sure if I'd break that type of thing. I might if I don't like the name. But I love Lewis/Louis!

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

I would probably keep the tradition if it was important to my spouse/their family, and if I didn't totally hate the name.

My great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother all have the middle name Ruth. When I was born, my mother broke the tradition, and didn't give me the middle name Ruth. I think it would have been neat to carry on the tradition, and Ruth would have sounded good with my first and last name, but I like the middle name I do have, so I don't really care. I would seriously consider giving my future daughter Ruth as a middle name, though.

[jordle.livejournal.com]

I really hate the junior, III etc thing but 5th generation of a tradition, I'm not sure I'd want to break something that had gone on for so long. I'd do the middle name thing as well.

[stormqueen280.livejournal.com]

I guess it depends on several factors, such as how important the naming tradition is for my SO, on whether I like the name, or whether I like his family enough to carry on the tradition (what if they are are a bunch of obnoxious arses?). I might do like you suggested, and call my kid by his middle name.

[tokudama.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely a tradition-breaker, not that the situation has come up at all. I don't see the point of these kinds of things.

And regarding this situation, it sounds like they're both on board with breaking the tradition, so I'm not sure what the problem is? Or are you anticipating that the rest of his family will freak out about it?

[sxylilwitch.livejournal.com]

We ended up having 2 girls, but if we had a boy we would have carried on the tradition in my Husband's family of naming the first boy Donald, but changing the middle name. The only difference is that I was going to call him by his middle name :) We chose Donald Gabriel, and I was going to call him Gabe. Husband and his family insisted that they would call him Don or Donny, and my side said they'd do Gabe too. He would have known both names, that's for sure!

[pianokitten.livejournal.com]

james is a middle name family tradition with my husband's family. i dont really like the name james, and i wasnt going to do it as the middle name for our first born, but that's their tradition.

the tradition in my family is first boy gets dad's first name as a middle name, second boy gets dads middle name as his middle name. my father broke that tradition with my brother, instead naming him after himself, using the true family last name (grandfather was adopted w/a different last name, my dad gave him the original).

My husband is Michael James, and I was very prepared to have Alexander Michael and Archer James, but they really wanted James to be first, so that's fine. :) haha

[mrssubee.livejournal.com]

if it were me, I'd break that tradition also

[monkey-fruit.livejournal.com]

If I hated the name, I'd break the tradition.
As the one carrying, I'm getting first dibs- at least on the first child. If hubbie/boyfriend absolutely insists on a name, it can be the middle. :P

[samaside.livejournal.com]

The only tradition I plan to keep is the one where the first born son has the first name of his father as the middle name. Though, I plan to use my father's name first since he never had a son.

[googlebee-ohmi.livejournal.com]

in my family I have a huuge tradition of Josephs and Williams - but the ones that really stick out to me are William Leroy (William) William Leroy II (Will) William Leroy III (Bill) William Leroy IV (Lee) and then Lee and his wife just found out they are finally having their boy and he is going to be William Leroy V but they are calling him Liam.

I think it is a nice thing to carry on unless something happens with that person who would be the namesake.

[amstorrs.livejournal.com]

But William is a nice, traditional name (not my style, but nice just the same), and it has many different nicknames and variations so that one person can be distingushed from another.

[amstorrs.livejournal.com]

I really really dislike the name Lewis, so that alone with be a deal breaker. I would not name my child a name I don't like just because of a silly tradition.

[lolzabeth.livejournal.com]

My hubby is a Jnr. His name is Graeme and the first name he vetoed for our son was Graeme.
Are they going to consider Lewis for a middle name?
I like Lewis but it is #2 in the top 100 names here.