Names & Linguistic Naming Patterns

[Frideswide]

Each, I mean, we don't have to share. That would be odd.

 

[Erinaceus]

My middle names both have family connections. One is my father's father's name and the other is my mother's grandfather's name, whose birthday (except year!) I share.

 

[catseye]

My middle names both have family connections. One is my father's father's name and the other is my mother's grandfather's name, whose birthday (except year!) I share.

My children have original first names, and then family second and third names. I had to stop having children as I ran out of relatives to name them after.

 

[Erinaceus]

My middle names both have family connections. One is my father's father's name and the other is my mother's grandfather's name, whose birthday (except year!) I share.

This was my great grandfather, whose birthday I share. He died four years before I was born.

 

[PeteByrdie]

I have had endless hours of fun explaining the differences between Anglophone middle names and Russian patronymics: e.g. Vladimir Ilich is "Vladimir, son of Ilya", while Raisa Ilinichna would be "Raisa, daughter of Ilya". When Russian speakers ask me if English middle names also relate to the father's name in this way, I say "Actually, no. For example, my brother's middle name is Richard, while our father's name is Robert." "I see," they say. "So what's your middle name?". At which point I have to mumble "Robert", and the whole cycle starts again.

I don't know how far back it goes, but there was a tradition in my father's family for giving the father's Christian name to the son as a middle name. My grandfather had his father's Christian name as a middle name. My father had his father's Christian name as a middle name. My older brother, well, we've never got to the bottom of why he got an entirely different middle name, but my grandfather didn't approve of my mother at first, something she never forgot in later years when he was trying to be friendly. But I got my father's name as a middle name.

I say there was a tradition, as my father was the only son with three sisters, my brother has only had a daughter, and I have been blessedly child free haven't been blessed with children. So, the tradition, and the family name, ends with me.

 

[brownmane]

I think my maternal and paternal families all have second names. No one really named after any other family member.

My husband said that he was the only child (of 10) who had a second name and that his mother named him after the neighbour who had taken her to the hospital for each of her kids (his dad was a factory worker). His eldest sister has the very traditional Catholic name of Mary Katherine so I'm not entirely sure of his claim.

One of the women (client) who I have worked with has only one name and she says it's because she is German. Idk if this is true or if that is just what she thinks.