Will your family name die out?

[mrsheppo]

I was talking to a friend of mine this morning. Her DM died last month and she was lamenting that when she dies, so does the family name. My friend was an only child and she is 58 and has never married.

It got me to thinking that my maiden name will probably end with this generation. I have 2 brothers, 45 and 50 who have never been married and have no children. My dad had one brother who had no children. It's sad to think that our family name will end.

Anyone else?

 

[kpm76]

No, ours won't for a while...we have a big family....I also kept my maiden name as a middle name because I didn't want to give it up completely but it's too long to hyphenate.....

 

[mick67]

My family name has good odds between my son and a nephew. My wife's Grandparents had 3 sons, so you would've thought they'd be good, but one son had a boy who died tragically, one son had 3 daughters, and the last son is gay. Since her family name is going to die out, my DD and DS have that as their middle name.

 

[Virgo10]

Yup. Very unusual name and only my 40 something year old nephew to save it. He's not married and I think he likes the single life. Probably just as well as no one could spell or pronounce it correctly.

 

[bcsmom]

My DH's family name will die with our generation. His dad was an only son. DH & I only have a girl, & his brother will probably not have children.

 

[Stacerita]

Nope, it will probably go on for a while. My brother has three boys and him and his wife aren't done yet having kids. So the name will go on.

 

[WatchinCaptKangaroo]

I'm the last of my name. I'm female, single, no kids. I'd like to incoroprate it into my future kids names though.

 

[ziggystardust]

Ours will and I hate that.

My uncle had a son who is my age so hopefully it will continue for a little while. But we're all girls in this family, so we won't be passing it along.

My mom's name is on its last leg now. Shes 1 of 4 - 2 boys 2 girls. My one uncle had all girls and my other uncle is only now (at 54) getting married for the first time. but children are def. not in his future. Its such a shame.

Mu cousins and I are all fighting for the last name to be used as a first name when we have kids.

 

[Cindyluwho]

Yep, this is the last generation for my maiden name. My father had only one boy, my brother. He gave his sons up for adoption when they were 3yrs old & 18months old. My uncle didn't have a son. No more Herrmann's in this neck of the woods

 

[Kim in TN]

I'm the last on of my family name and its to much of a teasing point to use as a middle name. (Little)

 

[AMcaptured]

My husbands father used to worry about this because we only have a daughter however the internet came about and I did a search online and found literally HUNDREDS of people thoroughout the States and Canada with the same last name even though it is long, italian and rare.

I would do a search online before I truly believed the actual "name" will never be seen again.

 

[monarchsfan16]

Mine will. My dad was the only boy in his family (that I know of anyway), and he only had my sister and me. The name itself won't die out (my junior year of high school there were 6 of us in my homeroom with the same last name so it's pretty common), but within my family it will. My grandmother's maiden name is dying out too. Her brothers all had daughters

 

[Sonya]

My maiden name will, I am the only child and my dad was the only son.

But my DH's famiy live on, we have DS!

 

[Andrea]

ours did once i got married, i really really thought about keeping it because of that reason

 

[disneyfanz04]

My DH's probably will. His dad was an only chld and had my DH and my DSIL. We have one DD(I have a DD from a prev. relationship) and I really don't think I want to have anymore. It kind of is sad though. Who knows maybe we will win the lottery and then I will have a couple more kids!!

 

[Iggipolka]

Mine will. I'm female with no children and my brother and male cousins only have girl children. So, unless the girls keep their names when they get married, the family name will end with this generation. Rather sad.

 

[binny]

interesting....


I gotto thinking about this. Dh has 2 brothers, neither have ever married or have any kids ( that we know of) of course theyre in the early 40's so I suppose they could change... we have one son...


FIL has a sister, I think she has a son...
I think he has a brother as well but Ive never met him and dont know if he has any kids.
Other than that I think thats it.


wow!

My maiden name wont die out any time soon. I have 3 brother, one has one boy with a pregnant wife, one has 2 boys and one has one and one girl. Plus there are a bunch of cousins from my dads side, we'll be safe for a while yet!

 

[froglady]

My maiden name will go on; I have three nephews who have not had children yet (too young) and two great nephews from another nephew who has. Interestingly, these are all the sons of one brother. My other two brothers only have girls, and another brother never had children. DS is the last male to carry on DH's family name.

I suspect that with the trend towards smaller families, more and more family names will die out.

I've never done a geneology on my family, but DH's is well documented back to the 1600s. His original ancestor (in the US) had 11 children, who each then went on to have 10-15 children, and so on. It wasn't until the last century that people started having less than 10 children, and a generation (my generation) ago 5-7 was the norm, with a family of only 3 children being considered small.

 

[MEG&MINNIE]

Sadly,my families blood line name may run out. There is a "little hope" as the only one left ...my 37 year old cousin in Ireland is still single! I saw him this past year and told him that he is our families only hope to keep our families name alive. What pressure !!! I hope he finds someone soon and marries and has a son !!! I have a beautiful Irish maiden name and I actually use it as a hyphenated last name...I hated to give it up completely!

 

[Ronda93]

No, our last name is safely in the hand's of my brother ; ) Now it's his son's burden (he's 2). However, my mother's maiden name line ended with her. She's an only child and her father had only a sister. I don't expect to have children, but considered taking that name when I was younger. That thought was due in part to my grandfather's extensive genealogical research in the 70s. His family came to the US in the 1840s. He corresponded with a family in Germany with whom we share common ancestors. He traveled there to meet them, too.

He also took trips to Salt Lake City to do research at the Mormon archives. After tracing it back to the mid 18th century, it really seems a shame for it to end. I know of four other "clusters" of the name around the US.