Does your real name have significance?
 

(inspired by my last post in the married name thread)

As a genealogist naming patterns have always been a big interest of mine. They used to be a VERY precise thing,

1st son = father's father
1st daughter = mother's mother
2nd son = mother's father
2nd daughter = father's mother
3rd son = father
3rd daughter = mother
4th son = father's oldest brother
4th daughter = mother's oldest sister
5th son = father's 2nd oldest brother or mother's oldest brother
5th daughter = mother's 2nd oldest sister or father's oldest sister
2nd wife's oldest daughter named after the first wife, using her full name

It is also common to use:
the mother’s maiden name as a second name;
the surname of close friends as a second name;
give another child exactly the same name as a previous child who had died;
or give a child the name of a relative or friend who had recently died.

I was interested in any stories there might be behind your first or middle name (Im not asking you to tell us what your actual name is) I was thinking along the lines of family naming traditions besides the usual Sr, Jr, etc naming pattern. If YOURS isnt but your childs is lets hear that story too!!

our family tradition is that comes from my fathers side is that the oldest daughter has Faye for a middle name, its been that way for generations and I love it. Luckily I was the oldest daughter, and my only child is a girl so she gets to carry on the tradition too....she loves it so much (you dont meet many people here that go by Faye)...that shes trying to convince everybody to call her that now since her first name is so common. Her given name Amanda, but it wasnt given to her because it was popular, it was because at the time I was preggie with her I made an outstanding breakthru in my research concering her fathers 7th great grandmother and grandfather, if she had been a boy she would have been Elijah.

My own first name (Shannon) was given to me to go with Faye (because my mother wanted an Irish first name to go with my Irish middle name)

My dad co-wrote a biography. My middle name is the subject of the book's last name. I'm probably the only person with that middle name, so I'm not revealing it.

for me.. my initials are the same as my great grandfather...

but on the geneology naming conventions...

you should be interested in Icelandic names...
they use 'son and dottir to distinguish male female offspring.

so Johan Jonson's father was Jon. His daughter is Grimsey Johansdottir, and so forth... most Icelanders can trace back to they Viking times via the Sagas.

and naming an icelander with an official icelandic name requires proof of 2 other icelanders who had it in history.

My first name is my mom's name, my middle name is my great grandmother's name...

that's all I know..

Yes. It caused me total misery and ridicule from the schmucks I grew up with. I also do not appreciate its ethnicity.
Everyone who knows me knows I never - ever - want to hear it spoken.
I have a legal alias and nickname and that is the only name I respond to.

heeeeeeyy! we've got something in common..

My brother got his name from my father's middle name as his first name, and my mother's maiden name as his middle name.

My sister's first name is my mother's middle name and her middle name is my father's mother's middle name.

My name -- they liked the name Ellen - that was going to be my first name, but my father's sister (Eleanor) said that I'd end up with the nickname Ellie, and that rhymed with Smelly -and it was a horrible way to go thru life (guess what her nickname was?) So.... I was still going to be Ellen - -then I opted to show up a few weeks early, and I was born 6 minutes after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and my parents being good little Catholics, tacked Mary on to the front of the Ellen -- My middle name, Catherine, was just pulled out of the air (my father's girlfriend? Who knows) My birth certicifate spells my name as Mary Ellen -- I had it legally changed to all one word when i was in high school, when I got sick to death of being called Mary - because it wasn't my name - -and people couldn't quite grasp that I had two first names.

When I was researching my family tree-- about 4 generations back, on my father's side. there was a Mary Ellen -- so to make myself fit in with my family, that's who I claim I was named after...

Don't you feel like a better person now that you know that?

Excellent!!!! this stuff fascinates me....Im such a geek

My last name is Lithuanian ethnicity... too weird to pronounce, but I don't feel like giving away my last name on here anyways.

Well I knew most people wouldnt... thats why I stated in the original post that I wasnt asking to know the actual name itself

I think I was named after an ex-girlfriend of my Dad's. Well, not named in her honor or anything, he just liked the name.


If I were to have a child (huge if on that one) I want to use my last name as his/her name. Carry the family name on sort of. I've brought it up to my Dad (who had 3 daughters - bye bye family name) and he think's its a horrible idea. So there's that too..

I am the second son and my name is my mother's father's name exactly, although I'd never heard about the tradition before. Very interesting.

ShaniFaye -

Thanks for the post, I didn't know about the tradition behind naming. I'd guess there aren't too many families who get very far down the list these days. Still, back when infant mortality was higher I bet it was commonplace to use a lot of those options.

My first name is my mother's mother's father's last (great-grandfather), and my middle name is my mother's mother's mother's (great-grandmother) maiden. Both of those names were lost in my generation due to lack of male offspring, so I got them. My full name is a little unusual and combersome as a result, but I like it, and I like the tie to my family that it represents.

My given name is the first part of my mother's maiden name, and my middle name is from a great-uncle. (both deceased before I was born)
My sister named her daughter after my middle name, but she spelled it wrong on her birth certificate. :rolleyes:

I think it's a Filipino tradition to have your mother's maiden name as your middle name. In my family, we were also given unique middle names so that our mother's maiden name is our second middle name. I guess we were lucky that our great grandfather changed his last name when he came to the US or we all would have had Protiniak as a second middle name, which doesn't flow too well with the rest of our names.

My mother also wanted us all to have something else to share in our names, so she gave both of my older sisters the same middle name, and my first name is a combination of their first names. My middle name is my mother's middle name as well. All three of the boys' names start with the same letter (as well as the name that was lined up for me in case I had been born a boy), but they got unique middle names for some reason.

Strange as it may be to others, and especially to "fremen", my middle name is FREEMAN. I am the 5th Freeman in a row, my two sons also carry the name...7 total as of now. Dates back to the end of the civil war.

my fathers name is Guiseppe (sp?) and my dad is Joe Jr.

My grandpa really really really wanted me to be Joe^3 but my dad thought that was too vain. sooo, he named me after his brother Steve. I love it.

My grandma, my mom and I all have the same middle name, Louise. I like that its not too common, especially when compared to my first name.

My parents should have gotten the hint that my name was going to be popular, when they first saw it on another baby in the hospital. Right at the names peak in popularity (and I think its STILL in the top 10 or 15, even twenty years later), my parents named me Ashley. :rolleyes:

My first name my parent must have smoked way to much dope becuse they both have diffrent stories on how they named me my middle name is my grandfathers name

This makes my head swim. When I was doing genealogy research, this tradition made things SO confusing. Anyhow, say there was a guy named Frederick. Frederick has 3 sons. So his 3rd son is named Frederick as well. Now if Frederick II has 3 sons, does that mean that he'd have 2 sons named "Frederick"? his first son (Frederick III, named after his grandfather) and his third son (Frederick IV, named after his dad)?

(wanders off vacantly...)

My first name is my Grandfather's first name

My middle name is my Father's first name...

The only trouble is, my first name would be great if I live in... say... the 1940's, but it's fairly rare to find anyone else with my name, especially another male from my generation...

Does that mean your name is NoSoup NoSandwich, or.....

If your last name is Forlunch, I'm just gonna kill myself.

Seriously now...that is interesting, somehow we managed to get all four grandparents names worked into our four childrens names. And still maintained the "Freeman".

From what I heard from my mother is that; my grandfater wanted her to name me Jose. But we already have like 400 Joses in our family. So he sugested Antoino, but there already are those in our family. they aparently argued a bunch of names, Juan, Jesus, Salvador, ect. My grandfater was such a influnce in the naming because my asshole dad left my mom before i was born. My grandfather wanted me to have a mexican name, and my mom was soo against it. So she, out of spite, named me Michael... I'm the only Mike in my whole family it's cool. She also gave me the middle name of Anthony (Grandfater's name), my gramps was quite happy.

pretty much yes....I ran into it many times in the research I've done, of course that was back when people actually adhered to that AND back when having 15 kids was a normal thing for a family

I was named after my great-grandfather. My first name was his first name, and my middle name was his last name. My dad's middle name is the same as mine, although he has his dad's middle name as his first name. Names tend to be recycled in my family, although we never have Jr. Sr., III, etc.

I am the 5th of 5, male. My first name is named for nobody. My middle name is that of my Grandfather.

That's all I got.

I was named after Sean Lennon.

My family has a very neat history of middle names. If it's a boy, he takes the father's middle name. If a girl, she takes the mother's.

Our family tree goes back to the early 1600's, and I love seeing almost all of the males with my middle name. :)

"i'm american baby, our names don't mean shit"

but seriously, i never knew that. my family tree which is chinese roots back all the way to the tan dynasty. we are the progeny of the emperor of the tan dynasty according to our family tree. anyways, for the chinese, our three-letter names only have one letter of creativity. The middle letters of our name (for men of the family only that is) are decided by a poem written by the earliest of our ancestors. Thus, if i meet another who has the last name of Lee, i can determine his "generation" (used to be really important in the chinese culture) for the last name lee is created in china during the tan dynasty by the emperor (there is actually a story about it.. i won't bother) so we Lees are all related in a sense. well, i went a bit off topic sorry---

I inherited the first letter of my paternal grandfather's first name.

QuickEDIT: Ugh, double post. Is there a way to delete this?

My first name is my dad's first name, but I'm not legally a Jr., and my middle name is the first name of a close friend of my dad's.

What kind of sucks is that my dad does not know who his biological father is, so the last name he took, and thus my last name, is the last name of his mother's one time husband and father of his siblings. I could try to follow the ancestry of my last name, but it is not really a biological link, it kind of sucks. I kind of wish that he took my grandma's maiden name or something, but back in the 50's things weren't the same as they are now.

My mother's middle name is the same as mine. It's from my Great Grandfather, Lee. I was given the name souly for the fact that my Great Grandpa and myself are born on the same day of the year.

That is like, the only significant thing in my family. I totally know that I'm naming my kid Lucius because I love that name. Screw tradition ;)

My first name is named after the Jazz singer :>

Middle name after my Mothers's Father.

My name mean's Champion

My name is Adam Douglas, and Douglas Adams was a famous writer.

Erm... my first sister was called Eve (Adam & Eve), but she died.

My middle name is my dads younger brother.

i was named after my dad's brother who died in a car accident 10 years to the day before i was born... my parents were planning on naming their first born son after him anyways... middle name is father's father.

my brother and sister don't fit into the scheme at all though, heh

my mother wanted to name me diane. she was under anesthetics when she gave birth, her sister told the hospital my name was to be (a different name), so that is the name i have. i have never felt connected to this name, even though i didn't know the diane story. i wonder who i would be if i was named diane. but i do have my mother's name as my middle name.

My first name(Andre) is just something my mother liked... My middle name(Taylor) is my great grandfathers last name(he had 5 daughters, no sons).

If I ever were to have kids I think I would give my middle name to him/her.

dam.....my wife's middle name is dottir, and I was puzzled with what it means, so it's "daugh-ter"

Guiseppe is Italian for Joseph, I had an uncle named Pierguiseppe, PeterJoe

First name is after my uncle who passed away when he was 12. It was my father's way of honoring his brothers memory. Middle name, like the rest of my siblings, is a religious name.

Nothing cool like "Apple" or "Pilot Inspektor".

My parents looked through the bible until they found two names that they liked. Then they flipped a coin to decide which would be first name or middle name. There were no family issues involved in the naming; my father had been named after _his_ father, and I think he'd had enough of all that.

My mother broke tradition, women in her family had the middle name Fyan including her. She hated it and gave me a good Catholic name, middle name Maria. The first name is a good Catholic one too. Now we're all Methodist ;)

I would love to hear some opinions on this..

I really dislike my last name. It can be the butt of many jokes. I would love to take my mother's maiden name, which I think sounds very pretty - and would also give me the chance to carry on my mother & grandmother's name (whom I adore very much). But my father died when I was 10 - do you think it's disrespectful to change my last name - his last name - to my mum's maiden name? Shouldn't I be proud of my last name, of my father? If I changed my name, would people think I'm being disrespectful? I don't plan on changing my last name when I get married, so this is a name I would carry for the rest of my life.

Thanks for listening,

Tropez

I come from a Catholic family, so my sister and I both have biblical names. I'm the oldest, and I was supposed to be named after my mother's mother (Mary) but my mom in some sort of semi-rebellious fit named me Rebecca after a character in a book. My middle name is my father's mother's name and also a great-aunt on my mom's side. When my sister was born, she got the name Mary to satisfy my grandmother. The only other "Rebecca" I'm aware of in my family was a 16-year-old great-great-great-great aunt who died when the oven exploded when she was baking a cake for a school fair. I was really careful around the oven the year I was 16. :eek:

And, Tropez, I have a similar dilemma about my last name. My father died when I was 13, and I like neither the name nor his family. My mother's maiden name is not nice-sounding, or I would have changed it a long time ago. I think, yes, it is disrespectful in a way to change your name, but he won't know about it anyway and you should do it if you want to. Who cares what other people think. It doesn't change whether or not you loved your father and it is also good to carry on a name from the other side of your family too, right?

My first name is my mother's mother's first name, my middle name is my father's mother's maiden name, and my maiden last name is my father's family's last name.

My little brother has my father's father's first name, my mother's father's last name for his middle name, and my father's name for his last name.

My other little brother has my mother's mother's brother's first name, TWO middle names (that of my mother's mother's mother and my mother's mother's mother's mother), and my father's last name.

My dad has his mother's brother's first name, the same middle name as me, and his father's last name.

My mom got her first name because my grandma liked the way it sounded. Her middle name is horrid, however... who gives their kid "Mildred" for a middle name? :confused:

I think I'll feel bad if I don't give my future kids at least one family name :P

My first name is in Greek mythology and means "most holy" and i have two last names. It's a pain sometimes, because some people think one of my last name's is my middle name.

My first name is that of my mother's favorite uncle.
The interesting thing is that it's his surname, not his given name.
It is also my uncle's middle name.

This means that the name has gone from a last name, to a middle name, to a given name over three generations, which I find interesting.

I still have relatives with the same surname as my given name, but they're all still in Ireland.

My daughter's given name is the same as my maternal grandmother, Evelyn.
Her middle name is Clare, named for my wife's paternal grandmother. We thought this tied her nicely to both families.


Cheers,
B.

I'm in the same boat. My grandfather on my father's side isn't his biological father. Before she died, my grandmother told my father his biological father's name, but he hasn't shared it with the rest of the family, so, I carry a last name to a man I wasn't technically related to. :(

On my mother's side, however, the names Grant and Joseph go back several generations in various forms to fishing village in what was Prussia around 1588. Only one child of my grandfather's (he had 5 kids) has had children and she (my mother) compromised with my father over mine and my sister's name.

The name Elizabeth has been around a few generations on my father's side, but that's following the maternal line of that side of the family since my father was illegitimate.

Gosh, that was confusing, huh? :lol:

I was named after a song...so no real significance there. My (future) kids, though, will be named after family members.

my first name was off the cuff, but the middle is my father's father, who died 2 months to the day before I was born. It's funny, but I was embarrassed of my middle name when I was a kid, but grew into it. Now I use it fairly often whenever there is a fear of being mixed up with the hundreds of people with the same first and last name. I really like it since it's kinda old school.

My first two names Benjamin and David stem from family.

The first, Benjamin was the christian name of my grandfather's father, who I am named after. He in turn, was named after one of our family members who was 23rd president (an great^nth uncle of mine). Going further back, that president, Benjamin, was named after his grandfather's father, who was Benjamin Harrison V, father of William Henry Harrison the 9th president. My christian name and surname have been on this continent predating the Revolutionary war by over 75 years. I was not only named after my grandfather, but for the direct translation of my name from Hebrew which means (depending on which translation) "son of my right hand" or "most beloved son."

My middle name, David, is also from Hebrew, but is mine because of a family tradition of all my family bearing my last name having the letter D begin their middle names. David, Duane, Dwight, Daye, Dayle, among others. I'm truly happy my parents passed on giving me my mother's maiden name as my middle name. While I appreciate my Polish heritage, David is quite a bit easier to spell ;)

I'm a first son but i don't think that we fall in any of those precise catagories. One of my two middle names is William which was a great great great grandad if i remember properly. I have a brother named sam (3rd son) and his name comes from my great grandad. And my littlest bro (4th son) has my mothers maden name as a middle name.

Our other names are just Christian names in general. There are five of use and we each have 2 middle names so many have been used though!

My name is Michael, after the biblical character. In fact, every male for many many generations has been named after a bible character.

My middle name has been the same as all my male elders for 4 generations, and is the name of my great great grandfather.

My last name was changed from the traditional family name 3 generations ago. I'm of Russian heritage, and when my family immigrated to Canada, there apparently was some distaste for Russians, so my grandfather changed his last name.

And I wish I could trace my entire family tree. There are many family members trying to do this, but it is a daunting task, and there are clouds of secrecy in my familys past where whole chunks of the tree have been wiped out and nobody talks of it.

Can someone give me advice please :(

My first name was my father's middle name, and means 'Beloved'.
My middle name was the first name of both my grandfathers, and means 'Noble'.
My last name matches the family name of the weapons & armor makers for Nazi Germany to the letter.

So yes, I think my name has some significance to it.

My advice is this: it is you who will have to live with this name for the rest of your life. Do you really think your father would desire your unhappiness just so you keep his last name? My brother plans on changing his last name, not because he dislikes his last name but because the name he wants to change it to is something he closely identifies with. Only you can make this choice, but in the end remember it is you who will have to live with your choice.

All the oldest male member of the family gets the middle name "stewart"

My grandfather was the oldest of his sibling, so he got it
My father was the second oldest, but he was still the oldest male sibling, so he got it
I'm the oldest of my sibling, so I got it
My first born son will get it
His first born son will get it
So on so forth

only child, same name as my father making me a Jr. Has no significane to his fathers name. Both names are biblical

My mom gave me her younger sisters middle name for my middle name. And that same younger sister (my aunt) did the same thing with her youngest daughters middle name, giving her my mothers middle name. What's really strange is I look like my aunt (we're the only 2 redheads in the family), and my cousin looks more like my mom than I do.

Mostly it's a middle name swap that seems to happen in my family. First names are usually chosen at will.

I don't know if I'll name any of my kids that way, should I have any someday.

When my mother was pregnant with me, she had planned on calling me Jeremy. 4 days before I was born, my aunt and uncle had their baby, who they named Jeremy. He lived less than 1 day, and died from complications with a premature birth. I was also born a bit early, and the doctor thought I would have the same type of problems, but I didn't. They didn't want to call me Jeremy, as it would be hard on my aunt and uncle, so they found a new name that fit the circumstances of my birth.

Sean, meaning "God is gracious."

Thank you for your advice, Kalnaur

My first name (Martin) is my maternal grandmother's last name. I respect it, and actually like it in writing, but I am thinking of going by my middle name, which is my father's name, when I get into the business world.

Any other Martin's out there have problems introducing themselves in a way that doesn't make you sound like you're saying 'Mark'?

I'm very proud of my last name, which is VERY uncommon (like...less than 1000 ppl in the US), but only six letters, distinctly American, and easily pronounceable. :)


One other note: On my father's side, the first born girls, going back for many generations, would alternate the names Mary Virginia and Virginia Mary.

Scandinavians named their offspring this way as well. Family was very important and thus they wanted to make it clear who descended from who. So.. if Valdemar had a son called Sven he would be known as Sven Valdemarssøn (Valdemar's søn=son) and if he had a daughter by the name of Freja she would be known as Freja Valdemarsdatter (Valdemar's datter=daughter). If Sven had a son called Bjørn he would be known as Bjørn Svenssøn etc. But! If Freja had a son called Tjalfe he wouldn't be known as Tjalfe Frejassøn. It was only men who were allowed to pass on his name to his offspring so Frejas children would be named after her husband instead.

The vikings continued this usage of names from around the year 800 until around 1536 where people began to use permanent last names. The "ø" in "søn" was slowly replaced with an "o" or an "e" over the years...

Fascinating isn't it?! :crazy:

Sometimes the parents name their kids after their grandparents but it's not that common here in Denmark. I'd say that 95% of our names are not related to any relatives at all but are chosen simply because the parents like the name. That is the case with my name - they gave me the name Nancy simply because they loved it. I did, however, get my middlename from my father who had gotten it from his grandfather. My family lineage will be known by this middlename in our family instead of our last name.

My last name is Pedersen so that means that I descended from a man named Peder. I'd like to study my genealogical tree some time and see if I can track him down :D

My Story, after Internment of Japanese in WWII an American named James helped relocate thousands of Japanese American families to the west Coast including my Mothers Family. That man was later knighted and is to my knowledge the only American only to be knighted in Japan.
My mother met my father in college and they started dating. They got married, had my brother. It was discovered in their goings on the Knight helped relocate my mothers family, so my middle name is named after my 3rd cousin or so.

My Brother named after my dad, middle name after my dads grandfather.

All the kids have the same first letter in each family.

Whose pattern is that? I've continued my father's geanology research (to the 1400s), and it's nothing like that.

My first name was pulled out of the air. My first middle name is to honour my uncle and Maternal Grandfather and my second middle name honours my maternal step-Grandfather. Thus you end up with a PHD(Paul Harry Donald) for my initials :P

Hadn't thought about this in awhile, till I clicked on this thread. Nice memories.

My first name is my grandfathers (fathers) middle name.

My middle name is my grandfathers (mothers) middle name.

I really kinda like it too, has a nice Irish ring to it.







Also, I named my cat after Larry, from the Three Stooges! :D

all the men in my family are named after ancient greek warriors

My first name is my paternal aunt's (father's favorite sister) first name.

My middle name is my maternal grandmother's middle name.

I disliked them both when I was younger as they are very old fashioned, but have grown to somewhat like my first name as I matured. I'd still like to change my middle name to Maria because I've always liked that name, and it would honor someone of special significance in my life.

My first name is my father's father's name, one of my middle names is my father's name, and my brother's middle name is my mother's father's name.

I was named for my father, and my grand mothers uncle.

It means Strong Protector,
and as a few of my Ex's have seen first hand I take it very very seriously

my name=name of a God in the mahabharat...also means 'ray of sunshine'

It's only significant when considered in combination with a number of outstanding arrest warrants. But I don't mind. They're for places I don't go to anymore ;-)

Named after my passed away grandfather (before I was born) And my middle name is my fathers Italian first name. It just so happens I have a jewish first name and an italian middle and last name.

I am the first son of a first son so I have the same name as my dad and my grandfather and am the 3rd. My grandfather was not the first son and was in fact a ways down the line of the kids in his family so my great-grandfather was having some problems coming up with names by then. Hence my middle name is the last name of the doctor that actually delivered my grandfather.

James, disciple of Jesus.

...I think...

the only thing that is significant about my name is that i considered it one of the greatest gifts i have ever recieved. I am my name and my name is who i am, it emcompases everything i am and every i want myself to be.

My first name is the name of a best friend my Mom had in a British boarding school. My middle name is my mother's first name. Heather Gay

My daughter's first name is Hubby's favorite Aunt's first name. Her middle name is my great-great grandmother's middle name. I wanted to name her completely after my great-great grandmother from when I was a teenager but then I met hubby and his sister already had the same name. In his words - He only wanted ONE Sarah Elizabeth in his life. One was enough. lol

My brother is named after my Dad.

I really enjoy family names and would use a family name long before some of the more unusual ones used today. I am glad I can take pride in my family and it's heritage and want to honor it with using the names again.

My first name is biblical. I was named after Benjamin, which means both 'Son of the Right Hand' and 'Son of Sorrow'. My family had been Pagan, but my mother converted to Christianity when she moved to this country.

I have three middle names. The first is Randall, my Grandfather's name.

The 2nd and 3rd are Padraig Pearse, a tribute to the Irish teacher, poet, and freedom fighter.

My last name is my Clan name, and means 'Clan of the Wolf's Head'.

I was named after an uncle. My second name is the last name of the doctor who delivered me.

My father's mother's maiden name was Gregory. That is my fathers middle name. My first name. My son's middle name.

I'm not going to push him to name his son that, but it would be cool.

gotta say that my name is meaningless

I'm named after ground-cover which is called Alyssum...it's little white or purple flowers that is usually planted around the large flowers to cover up the dirt. WooHoo! Thanks Mom!....ground-cover...... :thumbsup:

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