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[firefly_ris]

I know of a divorced couple who tragically lost their 8 y.o. son. The father was remarried and the new wife was pregnant at the time. Yep, they gave the baby the same first name as the deceased child. It's four years later now and the mother has just recently had another child. Yep, she used the deceased child's first name as the new baby's middle name. Weirdest thing I've ever heard but far be it from me to criticize bereaved parents for practically anything.

Not that im making a parallel comparison, but this reminds me - my husband has done a lot of family tree making on ancestry.com the past several years. When you get back far enough, this was a common thing with several lines of his and my trees - back when more children died of diseases, we noticed that a later child they had of the same sex would be named the exact same name as the deceased child. It was sad looking at some lines where there were 8 children but only 4 survived to adulthood.

 

[robinb]

But it does happen. My Grandfather (in California) and his brother (in Missouri) had daughters at about the same time...and unknowingly both of the girls were given the same first and middle names. So the first cousins had identical first, middle and last names until they were married.

I know someone who adopted their DD from China 19 years ago. They named her Meredith. Not a top 10 name by any stretch of the imagination. Unbeknownst to them, their DD was a twin and her sister was also adopted in the US and named Meredith!

BTW OP, changing the subject to “.” Is sure to attract even more attention.

 

[ronandannette]

Not that im making a parallel comparison, but this reminds me - my husband has done a lot of family tree making on ancestry.com the past several years. When you get back far enough, this was a common thing with several lines of his and my trees - back when more children died of diseases, we noticed that a later child they had of the same sex would be named the exact same name as the deceased child. It was sad looking at some lines where there were 8 children but only 4 survived to adulthood.

My DH was named after his father (not a junior but both names the same), although he was not the firstborn son but the third. Eerily, he's the only one that survived into adulthood. The eldest past away at age 3 and the second in his very early 20's.

 

[focusondisney]

OP, some tips...

#1... changing a thread title to '.' makes everyone WANT to look at it.
#2... deleting the OP doesn't help when someone (in this case, multiple someones) has quoted you..

Yep, that’s why I opened the thread!


And as long as I did.......it’s not strange to me either. My middle name is the feminine of my father’s name. My sister gave her her daughter that as a first name, also named after my dad. I had a daughter about a year later & gave her a very pretty name. I never knew that my niece loved my daughter’s name, until that niece had a baby a few years ago. She gave her daughter my daughter’s name as a middle name. So that niece has my middle name as her first name, her daughter has my daughter’s first name as her middle name. I love that our names are all interconnected; I think it is sweet. My daughter was surprised & very happy to know how much her cousin loved her name. And by coincidence, my husband suggested Marie as a middle name for our daughter. I refused because I thought Marie was the name you gave when you couldn’t think of anything else.

In my generation, we had several male cousins with the same names. We just tacked “big” & “little” into their names. We rarely see our cousins anymore, so not an issue after we grew up. And by coincidence my sister & I married men with the same first & middle names. So the nieces & nephews have uncle Mike X & Uncle Mike Y. Not a big deal to anyone.

 

[wenrob]

Yep, that’s why I opened the thread!


And as long as I did.......it’s not strange to me either. My middle name is the feminine of my father’s name. My sister gave her her daughter that as a first name, also named after my dad. I had a daughter about a year later & gave her a very pretty name. I never knew that my niece lived my daughter’s name, until that niece had a baby a few years ago. She gave her daughter my daughter’s name as a middle name. So that niece has my middle name as her first name, her daughter has my daughter’s first name as her middle name. I love that our name are all interconnected; I think it is sweet. My daughter was surprised & very happy to know how much her cousin loved her name. And by coincidence, my husband suggested Marie as a middle name for our daughter. I refused because I thought Marie was the name you gave when you couldn’t think of anything else.

In my generation, we had several male cousins with the same names. We just tacked “big” & “little” into their names. We rarely see our cousins anymore, so not an issue after we grew up. And by coincidence my sister & I married men with the same first & middle names. So the nieces & nephews have uncle Mike X & Uncle Mike Y. Not a big deal to anyone.

For us Marie *was* kind of “couldn’t think of anything else.” Cheryle just did not flow and any variation of it could have been mistaken as naming after my bio mother and I wasn’t going there. Marie was easy and it honored MIL.

My uncle married a woman with my name and I married a man with his name so we are forever known as “little.”

 

[zoo2tycoon]

Op removed title and deleted her original post- always funny as they don’t realize it is usually quoted somewhere in thread.

Guess she didn’t like answers she was seeing .

 

[NotUrsula]

In my Dad's family there is an unbroken 400-yr tradition that girls in every branch and every generation are always given a variant of one of two names, and if there are two girls both names get used. We're rather proud of it, but Dad's family is from a very small village where there is a lot of intermarriage, so we've passed our tradition to nearly the whole town now. DH likes to joke that the surest way to get attention on the street there is to call out one of the names: pretty much every woman in the entire town will turn around and go, "Yes?"

I'm one of three sisters. We all got some variant of the names, as did 2 of our daughters. (My Dad liked to go whole-hog on traditions.) In our family we differentiate by either saying "our Firstname" for someone in the immediate family, or something along the line's of "Johnny's Firstname" (identifying the first name of that person's related parent as well.) Naming patterns like this are common in our culture, a DIL who objected to it wouldn't be taken seriously.

 

[NHdisneylover]

What an odd thing to be upset about---especially upset enough to post a thread on the DIS; argue with the many posters who disagree with you, then delete your OP and change the thread title. I feel like there almost has to be more to the story--like OP strongly disliking the BiL and SiL already or SOMEthing. I mean, really, it is a super common middle name, and the cousins are almost 10 years apart in age----it shouldn't be more than possibly a blip on the radar of "hmmm, interesting they share a middle name".

When my oldest was a toddler, we were in a playgroup with a little girl who had been born in the middle east when the parents were stationed abroad in the millitary. This was shortly before email was something everyone had and internet was widely available to soldiers abroad, people living in very isolated and rural areas, etc
The little girl and her cousin, born 2 weeks later in a very rural and isoalted area of Wyoming, had identicl names (first, middle and last). Totally a fluke---there had been no conversation about names between the respective parents and the ones in the middle sast (first of the two born), the dad had called his family only once between her birth and that of the cousin, right after the birth to let them know the baby and mom were healthy, etc but before they had settled on a name, so none was communicated.

 

[bellebud]

My daughter and her cousin share a middle name (which happens to be my first name), AND a birthday (6 years apart) and I think it's really sweet!

 

[QueenIsabella]

What an odd thing to be upset about---especially upset enough to post a thread on the DIS; argue with the many posters who disagree that with you, then delete your OP and change the thread title. I feel like there almost has to be more to the story--like OP strongly disliking the BiL and SiL already or SOMEthing. I mean, really, it is a super common middle name, and the cousins are almost 10 years apart in age----it shouldn't be more than possibly a blip on the radar of "hmmm, interesting they share a middle name".

When my oldest was a toddler, we were in a playgroup with a little girl who had been born in the middle east when the parents were stationed abroad in the millitary. This was shortly before email was something everyone had and internet was widely available to soldiers abroad, people living in very isolated and rural areas, etc
The little girl and her cousin, born 2 weeks later in a very rural and isoalted area of Wyoming, had identicl names (first, middle and last). Totally a fluke---there had been no conversation about names between the respective parents and the ones in the middle sast (first of the two born), the dad had called his family only once between her birth and that of the cousin, right after the birth to let them know the baby and mom were healthy, etc but before they had settled on a name, so none was communicated.

I know, right?

My MIL and my sister both have the middle name "Marie". I think it's popular for a middle name because it flows well with any number of first names. My mom and I have the middle name "Anne"--another one that goes well with pretty much any first name.

Back when I was a teen, my Aunt Rose died suddenly (and quite young). Both older cousins who were pregnant at the time, had girls, and gave them "Rose" as a middle name. Everyone thought it was sweet and thoughtful.

This is not a big deal. It's not even a little deal. This is making a mole hill out of a speck of dirt.

 

[NHdisneylover]

This is not a big deal. It's not even a little deal. This is making a mole hill out of a speck of dirt.

Perfect!

 

[nd5056]

 

[bellanotte10]

My cousin and I were due the same week. Both my mom and my aunt wanted the same first name. I ended up being born 3 weeks early, so I got the first name, and my first name is my cousin's middle name.

As for my middle name, I shall confess...it is Ann...no wait Anne... no wait Anna..... As you can tell there is some debate on my middle name due to my grandmother hating her first name of Anna... and changing it to Ann...then Anne... then when I was in my mid 20s we finally found her missing birth certificate where her name was listed as Anna.... so my middle name is legally Anne after being legally changed once from Ann... i'm not changing it a third time... but now no one know what to call me when they're really upset with me.

 

[okeydokey]

So not a big deal. Heck in my husband's family there are first cousins with the same first names. Nobody owns the rights to any name.

 

[Breezy_Carol]

I just remembered that my first cousin, who was born one month after me, has the same middle and last names. We have different first names. I always felt closer to her because of it. And the middle name was Elizabeth, which is used often in our famly.

 

[rajak73]

Hey lot of people in my family share the "name" Uncle.....Uncle Rob, Uncle Will, Uncle Richard, Uncle Tom, Uncle Brad etc, etc.

Did you steal that "Uncle" name from your SIL?

 

[orangecuse]

Reminds me of how my sister had her daughter and named her E.K.Last. Cousin was about to have a girl and wanted E as the first name but didnt want to step on toes, so she went with C.E.Last. Welp, my niece only goes by K.Last now haha It worked out- my cousin’s daughter has a gorgeous name that really fits her. Also my sister, cousin, and cousin2 all share the same middle name and they bond over how they hate the name haha

 

[MamaBelle4]

My guess is that OP doesn't like the person who "stole" the name from her.

My one daughter is 6. My brother in law decided to name his baby girl (born in September) essentially the same name. I don't care. It's a pretty, uncommon name (traditional, older name).

I can't imagine getting worked up over a middle name, but I'm guessing there's some underlying family dynamic issues here that make OP sensitive.a