Family Naming Traditions

[pippi777]

I thought it would be fun to find out what naming traditions different families have.

Example:

With a friend of mine, every first born son is name Thomas (and given different mn names.) Grandpa is Thomas, his dad is Thomas, he is a Thomas and his son is Thomas.

One of my cousins and her husband gave all 4 of their boys mn's from each side of the family. (Mom's mom, mom's dad, dad's dad and dad's mom.)

They can just be within your immediate family, or a tradition handed down from generation to generation. Whatcha' got!?!

[llama_lord]

In my family, every first born daughter has the middle name Rae, since my great-grandpa on my mom's side was named Ray. So far, there is Donna Rae, my grandma, Lori Rae, my mom, and Courtney Rae, me.

On my dad's side, my grandpa was named Milo, but he hated that name so we went by Mike. Then they named my dad Michael, after my grandpa's nickname. And so far there are 2 grandchildren of my grandpa's with the middle name Milo (which he hated because he thinks its so ugly)

[east93]

Oh, man. I really don't have any naming traditions in my family. Well there's the whole having "two" names thing on my mom's.
Everyone in my mom's home country has their legal name, and then their "nickname" but they're nickname is the name that's used all the time. Example: My cousin Joan is Tash, everyone calls her Tash, except at work, but her family always calls her Tash. It can be full names too, like my grandfather. His birth name is Hilton, but his father ALWAYS called him James/Jimmy. Always. My grandmother calls him Jim all the time, everyone calls my grandfather Jim. Grandpa Jim, Uncle Jim etc.

My boyfriend's mom's parents named all their kids with Es. Eileen, Ellen, Elise, Elaine, Eric, Earl, Edward. And a lot of his cousin's names start with M, Mark, Maisie, Madison, Mckenna are the ones I remember.

[pollymaec]

In my family it's the name Mae, since my great-great-grandma, each first born daughter has the name Mae, for example My gandma is Mae, my mum is Caroline Mae and I'm Pollyanna Mae. Pollyanna is also my great-grandma

In my husbands family, all the boy's have family last names as middle names. My father-in-law is John Keller, my husband is Jack Sawyer and our sons are Edward Paxton, Maxwell Tennyson and August Sawyer...Paxton and Tennyson are names from my side of the family and our next bub will have Ellington, a last name from Jack's side, as a middle name.

[greyer]

None on my mom's side. I've posted about it before but on my dad's side all the firstborn boys have double middle names. The first middle starts with D, and the second is Dodge (a family surname).

My dad's middles are DeLanci Dodge (both family surnames), his son's (my half-brother) middles are Douglass Dodge, and my oldest nephew is a Jr. so his middles are also Douglass Dodge. If I had been a boy, I would have had the middle names David Dodge. Still debating whether to continue this with my children... it would be convenient, since my first son will absolutely have the middle name Donald anyway and I love the name Dodge. But we'll see.

[jemama]

Pretty much every first born male on both of my parents sides of the family have their fathers first name as their middle name. As a child, I thought this was what everyone did, especially since so many boys I knew in the small town we lived in growing up had their fathers first names as their middle name.

My husband and I broke all family traditions and started our own, fine with me.

[jemama]

Oh, I didnt see you wanted to see our family traditions until I re-read...

My DH's middle name starts with a L and my middle name starts with an E. All of our children have middle names that start with an L or E. The girls both have variations of our middle names (Andy's ie Leonard after his grandfather so we have a Leona, mine is Elizabeth after a great-grandmother so we have an Eliza). The boys have names that are chosen for meaning and just so happen to be old testament/Hebrew names as well. Linus has a "G" middle name, but its his second so "doesnt count", lol. But it was chosen for meaning so it still fits. Of course this is difficult since we feel we need to abide by these "rules" with middle names this time around and its been difficult thus far.

[vicioustrollop9]

My dad is Harry Benjamin M III (HBM) and I am Hollyann Beth M (HBM) and my nephew is Hunter Brady M (HBM)... so we now have 5 generations of HBMs. There are a ton of repeated names on both sides of my family, but nothing that I would truly call a tradition.

[bakingno.2]

My grandfather was Paul Jr. (so his dad was Paul Sr., although we never met). My dad's middle name is Paul. For me, it's Paula, as a first name, and my boy has Paul as a middle name too.
I think that is why I'm having a hard time liking a baby girl name, since we don't have a family name in it.

[ashthedreamer]

Erm, I'm not sure we have a ton of naming traditions, haha. My brother is John Robert, III, and before my grandfather, my great grandfather was a John Russel. His twin sons got one name each from his full name--John Robert and Jerome Russel (Jack and Jerry). And I guess it's a pretty thing to honor parents in my family--my paternal grandparents were John Robert and Ruth Mae; their two children were John Robert, II, and Jacquelyn Ruth. And then on my mom's side, my grandparents are L. B. and Arlene Grace; my mom is Karen Arlene. My mom's brother, Christopher Earl, didn't get a name from my grandfather (how do you honor an LB?!), but he is named after my grandmother's father.

Other than that, I guess it's just that my siblings and I all have family names, although it wasn't intentional at all with me. I'm Ashley Marie--my uncle is Bruce Ashley, and two of my maternal grandmother's sister's have the MN Marie (Wanda Marie and Patricia Marie). My brother is named after my dad, my sister is Rebecca Eileen (Eileen sort of for my grandma, since it rhymes with Arlene), and my baby sister is Natalie Ruth after my other grandma.

I don't really have any traditions to pass down, since I'm not John Robert, haha, but I know I'll be honoring family with each of my children, in some way, at least, and all my children will have two MNs. I guess I'll have to wait until I meet my husband to know what other naming traditions we'll have!