Hey,
I've notied certain trends in naming children...
in my family about (give or take 1 or 2) out of 22 grandchildren on my mothers side...we can all trace our names to an ancestor 2,3, or 4 generations back... whether it is an adapted version such as Roslyn Vs Rose, or John Vs Johanna, micheal vs micheala and philip vs philipa etc.

Ive noticed similar trends in Fanfic... and just sort of got curious as to what you guys thought of the issue

recently (in the dentist's waiting room... the only place i read thse mags) i read about a certain actress who named her children:

Apple (for its wholesome, pure and BIBLICAL nature- now i dont know how she read the bible but the apple in question caused some mighty upheaval)
and her 2nd child---Moses... surprising not for its biblical connections but her Husband;s song
As Moses had power over the sea
So you (my darling) have power over me

im not sure the exact lyrics but you get the gist

i love the continuing saga versions with L and C as a family + kids, and i guess a big part of that is names

Yeah, I think naming kids after family is pretty common... it's a nice way of maintaining some continuity with the past. My son's middle name is the same as his father's, and my daughter's name is a variant of my mother's.

And there's precedent in the L&C universe, as I believe "Clark" was Martha's maiden name, which is why they named their mystery baby that.

Plus it's easier to use a familiar/variant name than come up with a whole new one

PJ

Up until my generation, the naming of children on my father's side had a very mathematical approach.

First born son, first and middle names came from the first names of both Grandfathers.

First born daughter, first and middle names came from the first names of both Grandmothers.

Second born son, first and middle names came from the middle names of both Grandfathers.

Second born daughter, first and middle names came from the middle names of both Grandmothers.


Third born went back to great grandparents, and so on.

My Mom, being the person that she is, sort of put her foot down and changed things, yet another reason why most of my father's side dislike her...

If I had been a girl, My name would have been Darla Ray. Darla, coming from Darlene, which is her name and Ray, coming from my Dad's middle name.

Since I was a boy, Dad won and I was named James Arthur. James, from Grandpa James Henry Tull III and Arthur, from Grandpa Arthur Wiley Huffaker, who also went by the name of Jack (we still don't know why...)

With our kids, we totally went against the grain and picked names at random for the first two. By the third, we were so brain dead that we just went with a modified name based on ancestors. Katelynn comes from Catherine and Fern is Elisabeth's Mother's middle name.

In a couple of WIPs, we decided to go against the tide, sort of, and chose the name Kalvin L. Kent, Kal for short. This gives you Kal L. Kent. We haven't figured out what the middle initial is yet, so we would take suggestions...

James


.

Here in Greece, it's quite common that kids are named after their grandparents. (We have no middle names, usually.) It's also relatively common to name a child born in the day we celebrate a saint, after that saint. Of course, there are people who just pick out names they like.

My family went with the tradition. I'm the eldest child in the family, and I'm named after my father's mother. My middle brother is named after my mother's father, and my little brother is named after my father's father.

We actually had problems with my father's family when the first of my brothers was born... they wanted to name him after my father's father. My parents thought it wasn't fair and that we should get a name from my mother's side, and so we did. I don't remember it - I was very young at the time - but I know a while passed before my father's parents and my parents spoke again

See ya,
AnnaBtG.

Lane?

I don't think there was a thing with naming in my family - but then again, my family doesn't tell me much about anything. Someone once mumbled something about naming the kids after grandparents or great-grandparents. I'm glad that isn't so...as my nana's name real name is Hilda! She goes by one of her middle names Jean...sorry but I don't fancy that either. Instead I got a name that was last popular during my Nana's youth - Ruth. My brother's middle name is my biological father's middle name.

My middle name, Anne, is from my grandfather's mum - that's how far it goes.

My husband fist name is his dad's first name. My husband's brother got their dad's second name. I don't know what my brother-in-laws middle name is! That just occurred to me! *blush*

I am definitely not using either of those names if any kids pop out!

I've always like the idea regarding how Clark got his name. People have suggested to me that I do that, but I kept my last name when I got married and hyphenated it with my husband's...mind you possible future kids will only have my husband's last name (complicated reason). Still that will confuse things!

I think the idea of 'passing down' names is romantic and cute, but if the name bites I'm not going for it. Also, I know if there is a family rule, I'd go against it. I can see why some get mad if the family thing isn't continued, but I wouldn't want to be forced and I have many reasons...I'm babbling so I'll stop.

Just shifting this to OT because most of the discussion appears not to be fanfic related.

Yvonne
Forum Moderator

Which is why I'm not named after anyone in my family. I got Marie from my mom's middle name, but there are some downright weird names in my family.

JD

My family doesn't seem to have a hard and fast rule. My brother is named after both grandfathers. My name depends on who you ask: Mom says I'm named after her sister (her middle name is my first) and a cousin. Dad says I was named after his childhood friend and his prom date. There are a few names that are recycled over and over again. My mom's grandfather was James J. Her dad was Donald James. Her brother is James Paul. My brother is James Leland, and Uncle Paul's son is Andrew James. And if my brother has a son, it will be named James. Of course, I'm still trying to figure out how I have an Andrew James on both Mom and Dad's side of the family....

My great-grandmother, on the other hand, also took names from books. These names, most likely, will not be recycled. Most of the names are fairly commonplace (Elizabeth, Brenda, Janice), but there's also Zora Pauline and Loris Eugene. As much as I loved my grandmother, I won't be reusing Zora.

Using another naming convention, my soon-to-be-born neice (my brother) will be named Dulaney Rose, after the last names of the grandmothers. And my nephew (husband's brother) is Hayden, which is my mother-in-law's maiden name.

My family (down the male line, anyway) has created, mostly by chance, I suspect, a fairly straightforward rule for the boys:

First name is unique, and carefully selected (since my surname begins with a vowel, we need to be careful to avoid potentially embarrassing signatures ); middle name comes from father's name -- so my elder boy has my first name as his middle name, and the younger son has my middle name (his grandfather's first name) as his middle name. What we'd do if there was a third son remains to be established.

Daughters are problematic, as there hasn't been one on that side of the family for at least 3 generations; if J and I had had a daughter, we were going to follow the same sort of pattern, except that her middle name would have been the first name of her grandmothers (yes, plural; by chance, both J's mother and mine had the same name).

We weren't alone in coming up with this sort of scheme; a lot of people of our generation where we lived were named in much the same way, and some of their parents and even grandparents had been, too. An interesting example of a self-establishing tradition, we think.

We like the idea of a child having a name that is his or hers alone; family connections can be made by middle names rather than specifically naming the child after someone. But that's our opinion, and this is nothing if not a highly individual preference.

Phil

Yeah, my family does middle names to some extent. It's not formal or anything, but kind of a pattern some have picked up.

My immediate family all has individual first names--but they all start with the same letter, even the pets' names! My middle name is a longer version of my Mom's middle name, but a totally different name in itself (not really a variation, just added a letter). My brother takes his middle name from my uncle's middle name, and my dad's middle name is my great-uncle's first name. It's kind of haphazard . . .