WHY DON'T YOU PEOPLE name your children....?

i have two sisters and we all have some kind of family name .

Sarah Lynn (Lynn from a great aunt)

Ann Marie (Ann my moms middle name, Marie my grandmas middle name)

Elisabeth Jane (which is me, Elisabeth=Saint, and Jane is from a great aunt, i was gonna be named

Elisabeth Jessie after my great grandma that died 2 years after she had her son, AKA my moms dad, and his dad died before he was born, he was raised living with his aunt, and he died when i was in 2nd grade, i was closest to him out of my sisters, it was really hard on my whole family though.)

so my kids will definatley have

robert (grandpa)

& jessie (great-grandma)

in their names.

but my other great-grandparents names, NO WAY, i would NEVER give my child those name

esther & virgil .

but i have a ton of names for first names, middle names for me will always have meaning, maybe first names sometimes too :)

Family names are great!! Me and my husband are trying to get pregnant with our first child and we have already spent alot of time picking out names that are important to us. We have decided on:

Andrew Calvin- Andrew is what my dad wanted to name me if I had been a boy and Calin is my dad's middle name.

Allisyn Christine- Allison is his grandmother's maiden name and Christine is a wonderful lady that I worked with for many years that passed away in March.

I feel that a child should have a strong name that has meaning and that they can be proud of. All these cutesey names are great when they are babies, but what about when they are grandparents? Do you really want them embarassed to tell people their name?

Good for you and your sisters but you can't just assume everyone has people in their life that they want to name their child after. Some people grew up in abusive households and didn't have many good relatives or friends. I named my kids Kevin and Adam because we just loved the names. It wasn't an originality contest because those names are fairly common. Kevin has his dad's name for his middle name and Adam has a middle name of a friend who had passed away from a brain tumor.

that's a good idea. But if every member of the family did that, we would all have the same names. Which isn't original. The parents can pick the name, but have the middle name be passed down.

I agree with honoring ancestors this way. Marcus is a strong name for a boy. We have an Otto several generations back. If I have a son, I would want that to be his middle name.

I wasn't named after anyone. No it doesn't bother me. What bothers me is my name, Jennifer and its popularity. My dad named me that just because he liked it. I just wished I could of been one in a million. Rather than look at someone when it really wasn't you they were calling. Now that I am an adult I have learned to accept my name and all of its flaws. My middle name is Ann from my mother and my brother's middle name is Lynn from my father.

When it comes to naming your child it is a challenge. For me I have it covered. My Great Grandmother was special to me and still is. She died of a stroke very sudden in 2004. It was very tragic for me because her last breathe was outside in front of the house. If I have a girl I will name her after my Great Grandmother, but so far I have had boys. Her name was Valtie, Valtie Monet Emmerson. It is a very special name. You know one of those immigrant names. I know, I know it is rather uncommon but she was my Great Grandmother and it is family ties. I think it is a nice sentiment. I personally would of liked it for myself rather than Jennifer. But we don't get to name ourselves, do we? LOL To be honest she was born in the year 1919 and her name is unheard of but I really do like it. The origin of the name is either Norwegian or Finnish. I have since looked it up and have found two women who have this exact name and spelling. One is a model and the other plays in College Basketball. I do not like the male names in my family except for my Great Grandfather, James Nolan. He died two months after I was born. I was not able to see him in person. Although he had the opportunity to hold me when I was a wee little one. I was told by others that he wanted to hold his first great grandchild. He couldn't wait until I was born. He had his wish then two months later he passed away. I cry each time hearing this.

To answer your question about originality contest I must say we have no real way of condemning our likes, dislikes, creativity or invention of names.

Some people just have no desire to use family names. I don't it just not something that seems important to me. However, my fiance does want to use his parents middle name (they both have Lee as a middle name) I'm still not very excited about that Lee is just a blah name to me. Our compromise was to give two middle names one of them being Lee if/when we have kids. So though naming your kids after people in your life is import to you not everyone feels that way. If they want an original misspelled name that up to them. Personally I like somewhat old fashioned names spelled correctly.

I think the middle name is a great place to fit in something special or meaningful. I think it is nice for a parent to pick the first name as the first gifted picked just for their special little blessing.

Well I think its great to honor your family and friends by naming your children after them but I'm also not going to name my child something that I don't love and can picture myself calling them that every day for the rest of my life.

A big thing to consider when giving your child a relatives name is, did this person even like his or her name? My grandfather Elmer absolutely hated his name and went by a nickname, he wouldn't even sign his name, he would just put E. and then his last name. So giving a child a name like Elmer, when even the person you want to honor hated it, seems ridiculous to me. I think my family members would want me to name my child what I really love. Besides there are many ways to honor a loved one, my cousin Carina was named to honor my grandmothers Swedish heritage.Carina isn't my grandmothers name but she loved that it was in honor of something she really cherished.