Same Middles names

[nobodynomore.livejournal.com]

What are your thoughts about all of your children (the same sex) having the same middle name?

Comments

[gf-girlie.livejournal.com]

Why would you do that?

[nobodynomore.livejournal.com]

Why not? It is more common than one might think.

[spaceandclouds.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan. Then again, there are so many names I love that I'd have to have about 20 children to use them all...so using the same middle name for all just seems like a waste of space for me.

Then again, if it's a family tradition - sure, why not.

[nobodynomore.livejournal.com]

Makes sense. Not sure if in these cases it was a family name, but overall, they sound nice, so I guess to each their own. I am torn a little bit, though. I find it cute, but also a bit strange. Thanks for your input!

[sittingsage.livejournal.com]

On the one hand, if it is honoring someone then I guess that's nice.
On the other, each child is a unique person and I think that that should be reflected in a unique name combination so that the children do not feel that their parents find them.. interchangeable. For some reason boundary issues comes to mind.

[nobodynomore.livejournal.com]

I feel that way about having multiple boys (or girls in some cases), and the first born being Dad/Mom's Name, Jr. How do the other kids feel? In the specific instance I'm thinking of, the kids don't mind, but I doubt they think about names to the extent I do or most of this community does, haha. Thanks!

[pirahan.livejournal.com]

My sister'e ex husband wanted to name all their kids with the middle name Hilton. It was a family thing, but I don't think it was anyone's surname or something like that. I wouldn't do it, but I like how it is on others.

[nobodynomore.livejournal.com]

That's how I feel too. Family name, that's nice. Although this one specific family I know (two boys, two girls) used the names Grace & James for the middle names, I thought it was strange, but now I kind of like the idea. Sort of sweet. Thanks!

[shirogirl.livejournal.com]

It's a very common thing in Chinese and Korean cultures. No big deal.

[nobodynomore.livejournal.com]

I didn't even think about that; I have friends who are half-Korean and they both have the middle name Kim. Thanks!

[qtshorty1625.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't do it, but my best friend has three boys, and if I recall correctly, the oldest has two middle names, and the middle one has one middle name is the same as one of his oldest brother's middle names. I forget the the third one's middle name. They were so certain that the third one was a girl that when he was born and they found out he was a boy, they were stumped on a name because they had used up all of their boys names.

[nobodynomore.livejournal.com]

My husband and I had a girl, but a few days before I went into labor, I had a dream she was born a boy & we'd have no name! He was in Afghanistan at the time so when he called me we had a discussion about what we would name a boy if that turned out to happen! :)

[quentinwrites.livejournal.com]

My best friend used the same middle name for both her boys, every boy in her family has had that middle name for seven generations.

[nobodynomore.livejournal.com]

A few of my friends' families did that too, with the boys. In fact, her little brother & her dad have the same initials, different first name, same middle name, and I believe both her grandfather & great-grandfather had that same middle name. Thanks for the feedback!

[sarahness.livejournal.com]

My boyfriend's son and our son together have the same middle name. It's a name that was special and important to me and I wanted to use it before I ever knew the father of my children. It also happens to be my boyfriend's middle name, and his father's first name. So it was easy to decide.

If we have another boy, I don't think I'll use it again, though.

(and in case you're curious, the name is James)

[takhallus.livejournal.com]

My dad and two uncles all had the middle name Paterson after a great great grandmother's maiden name, all the men in our family have it

[adamantplatypus.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine has a family like this. Their middle names are all the same, their mother's maiden name.

[gregariouspeach.livejournal.com]

Are they Spanish? My husband is Filipino and they follow that Spanish tradition.

[harinakshi.livejournal.com]

I don't like it. I agree with the first commenter. You already share a last name, each person's name should be unique. Of course, I'm also against naming children after parents and grandparents. I understand it's tradition in a lot of families, but I find it annoying.

If you want to honor someone, honor them with the middle name and when you have another kid, well, that person has already been honored, maybe honor someone else! My first two kid's middle names are after people and if we have a fourth, that child will get namesakes as well, but it's ALL different people; which is nice, lots of people can feel special.

[annika-j.livejournal.com]

I can understand why you would, for example my son has my Grandfather's first name as his middle name. It seems almost unfair that if I had another son he wouldn't have that connection to his great-grandfather too, assuming there wasn't another relative I'd want to name him after.

[eveyalecia.livejournal.com]

I think it's nice to carry on family traditions, so if that's a tradition in someone's family then I don't see anything wrong with it, especially since it's the middle names, which aren't used as often.

I think the concept of giving children the same names (first or middle or both!) comes from the old days when a lot of children wouldn't live to adulthood. Parents wanted the family names to survive and be passed down, so they'd give every child the same name in case one/some of them died at a young age. So even though the tradition is nice for tradition's sake, it is a little bit outdated and unnecessary these days.

Overall, I do think every child should have their own first name (as in, no siblings with the same first name) so that they have something unique to them. I think honoring people by passing down names is a lovely idea. Me and my siblings all have middle names that honor other people: mine is Valecia, a combination of my grandmothers' names Valeda and Patricia. My brother's is Brian after my uncle, and my sister's is Michele after my mother's best friend. We all have first names that my parents chose from baby name books, though, with no tradition or family names in mind.

[retrodancekitty.livejournal.com]

No, no, no.

[octobre09.livejournal.com]

First of all I hate middle names and don't see the point. My husband wants them for whatever reason so I struggled with it for my daughter and I'm struggling with it with this upcoming baby.

So that being said, I don't think it matters whether you have the same middle name as someone else. I know one family where all the boys share the middle name Michael (not sure why though) and another family where all the girl have their mother's name as middle names and the boys have their father's name. There's two daughter's in the family so they share the same middle name.

Middle names in my extended family were traditionally godmother or godfather and although my kids don't have godmothers/godfathers, I try to keep it linked to family somehow. I like when the middle name has a special meaning like that, so if that means everyone gets the same middle name, it really doesn't matter.

[lissalynn.livejournal.com]

It's not uncommon in Jewish families, either. I think it's fine. It's actually the only way I would be ok doing the "naming after someone" thing, because I strongly dislike that as far as the first name- I want my children to have their own unique, individual first names that no one in the family already has. But a middle name I'm ok with.

[how-obscure.livejournal.com]

I don't care for the practice. It's not something I've thought about a lot though. I think it may bother me because 1. it's unusual in my country (US) and 2. it takes away from the child's individuality. Well, that sounds odd. The child is still just as unique from their siblings as they would be regardless, except for the name. But I'm sure you knew what I meant.

I guess I could see how it could be sweet, as you described it a few times below. It is a sort of extra connection between the kids. Still, I'm not sold. I've always enjoyed the differences in everyone's names.

[ladyjbug.livejournal.com]

We have two sons, and they both have the SAME bloody middle names. It is a tradition with DH`s family. They started it three generations ago to replace an even more annoying tradition: The first son in the family used to be named Norman Percival and then that man`s first son was called Percival Norman and so on....so, the same middle name tradition seemed far more preferable and both son have the same middle names. It`s not my favourite tradition, but not a hill I wanted to die on. We named the dog Percy.

[sursumcorda.livejournal.com]

My best friend and her sister have the same middle name, I think it totally works!

[loverofhistory.livejournal.com]

I've known families where siblings share middle names, although usually split along genders.

In one family I know, the boys all had the same middle name - their father's first name. While the girls all had the same middle name as their mother.
I'm not really a fan, myself. They already share a last name, and it's fun to come up with unique name combinations. Although, for girls, I see how it can be used to strengthen family ties since often when women marry they take on their spouse's surname. With a shared middle name they still have the name connection to their own family.

[hermione-vader.livejournal.com]

Well, I used to babysit for a family where all three kids (two boys and one girl) had Warren for a middle name. At first, it seemed odd, but then I assumed it was a family name. It's really up to the parent. Some people probably find it odd because they think it might take away from the kids' uniqueness.

[coffeecup37.livejournal.com]

I'm not big of it if there is only one middle name. Then it just kind of seems generic/robotic to me that the kids will share two names (assuming they all have the same last name, of course).

Generally, the only time I would be inclined to use the same name for all kids is in order to use my own last name in my childrens' names without hyphenating it with their dad's (both our last names are super-longer!). Even then, I would have another middle name for each child.

[thellamaqueen.livejournal.com]

It bothers me.
Your kids are all individual people. They should have individual names. They are already connected to each other via their last name (in most "traditional" families, anyway - I realize there are many families where this is not the case).

[pixie-bones.livejournal.com]

No.

[duckduckcaboose.livejournal.com]

I know a couple of families where all the boys have the dad's first name as their middle name, ex: Shruti & Manish, sons are Krush Manish and Kishan Manish.

I wouldn't do it because there are sooooo many names I love, but I don't think it's a big deal.