<p>I was talking to my Mom today about first names that have been in our family for generations which got me to thinking about you guys. Do you have family names that keep regenerating themselves? During my genealogical searches I have noticed that Eliza, Anna, Charles/Charlie and some variant of William keeps reappearing. Some that have faded out, but I thought should maybe reappear in our family again, (though I am of course getting too old to have new babies, lol), is Sabastian, Sophia, Celia, and Wellington. I like them. Maybe I can talk my future daughter-in-law and son into naming my future grandchildren these names. :)</p>
<p>While doing research of my fahter’s family tree (50th anniversary gift for him), I found out an interesting fact. It is Italian family tradition is to name the first son after the paternal grandfather and the second son after the maternal grandfather. Same with daughters (first daughter after paternal grandmother, second D after maternal grandmother). Accounts for all the Franks, Carmines, Anna-s, and Maries in my family.</p>
<p>Too late to restart the tradition with my teenage kids (and my DW emphatically states we ain’t having more! 
). Hopefully, they can start it up again when they have kids.</p>
<p>I have a family name. My first and middle names are the first and last names of a relative from around 1900 (actually, the names are from her stage name–she was quite famous at the time–and not her birth name, but her stage name included her mother’s maiden name, which is my blood relation). My father’s name is now in every family unit on his side of the family; all of his siblings (and there are a number of them) named a child after him. My sister’s middle name is my mother’s maiden name. My sister and I were talking about baby names the other day, and one of the names we both loved happened to be the name of my mother’s mother. I like other family names, too. I’ve never looked through our genealogy to see whether some names reappear, but now I’ll have to look.</p>
<p>Interesting thread…my sister and I were laughing the other day about how there are only three names for several generations that have been used on the maternal side for the girls: Dorothy, Caroline and Margaret. The same ones over and over again. In fact, my niece is Caroline Margaret! Traditionally, our family has used a maiden or family name for the child’s middle name to keep it “going” and not have it forgotten. H’s family didn’t do that but he seems to like the idea because we did it with our kids. (Yes, our daughter is Margaret, of course!)</p>
<p>Tradition in both sides of the family - oldest son had the first names from both grandfathers in which ever order sounded best. No juniors or III etc that way, but the names stay in the family. Goes back a long way.</p>
<p>From as far back as I can trace (1500s England/Scotland border country), the males on the ‘father of the father’ side have each passed down the name William to one of their sons in addition our family name. That all changed in the late 1800s when one of my Williams married a woman with the surname Douglas…and the ‘pass down’ name became Douglas. Since both of my brothers only have daughters, my son’s middle name is Douglas. He also carries one of the ‘pass down’ names (Alexander, Andrew or Madison…I won’t say which 
) from another branch on my father’s side. Inspired by this, I started something new with ldgirl, giving her my mother’s maiden name of Taylor.</p>
<p>I love the name game…and fortunately, in our family, someone didn’t choose Nottingham or Chatterton as the legacy name. That wouldn’t have been very pretty…lol!</p>
<p>Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim. Grandfather Jim, father Jim, brother Jim, his kid is Jim, I have several uncles and second cousins named Jim. </p>
<p>My son has a different name.</p>
<p>It’s the Irish custom to name the oldest son for his paternal grandfather; second, maternal grandfather; third for the father; fourth, for the father’s oldest brother, and then down the line. For daughters, oldest gets maternal grandmother’s name; second, father’s mother’s name; third, mother’s name; fourth, mother’s oldest sister’s name, and then down the line, if mom has other sisters.</p>
<p>End result? In the old days about 80% of the population shared about 15 first names.</p>
<p>When I met my H’s big family, he asked me how I was doing with their names. I said, no problem, if I’m not sure I just call them “Jack” or “Rose” and they’re very happy.</p>
<p>I am named for both grandmothers, which I hated when I was a child. My first name is French and quite unusual, but now I love it. I feel very connected to that grandma though she has been gone for 30 years.</p>
<p>I think it’s sad that not so many people use family names any more. I don’t care for a lot of popular baby names nowadays, especially the last-names-as-first-names (unless it is actually your family name).</p>
<p>My father-in-law had four children and named them all names starting with “A” (the first letter of his name…coincidence? I think not)…
Those four have had five children, all with “A” names. I think it’s massively stupid, but DS says he intends to keep it going.</p>
<p>both my husband and I had a grandfather named Emil- pronounced differently.
Long E for H, short E for mine.</p>
<p>Helimomnyc- I agree. H has an aunt and uncle whose first & last names start with D. Both of them ( well since the aunt dropped her maiden name I don’t know what that was)
All the kids also have names that start with D. I am afraid to look and see if their spouses names also start with D</p>
<p>I am Jewish we name the first son after the paternal grandfather, first daughter after paternal grandmother, second boy after maternal grandfather, second daughter maternal grandmother. The names in our family have been there for generations and generations.
I am half German/half French. My first name is Nuri, very untraditional but I am very proud of it due to my family history and hope that my children carry the name to their children.</p>
<p>I thought about a couple of names that have dropped out of our family. Dicey, Marselee, and Beede. All very interesting, although Dicey is probably the one I come across the most in the south. I think Marselee and Beede are almost extinct, and definately for our family.</p>
<p>Although our families do not have any tradition of passed along names, my husband and I chose to give our sons their grandfathers’ first names as middle names–paternal grandfather’s for first son, maternal for second. Had we had any girls, we would have done the same thing with grandmothers’ names. I’m not sure our boys are thrilled with their middle names, as they are quite old-fashioned, but we thought it was a nice way to honor the grandfathers. (Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to make the grandfathers want to be any more involved with their grandchildren, but that’s another topic…)</p>
<p>In my family oldest son is named for his father, we continued that. My younger son is named for both of his grandfathers, we used the less old fashioned one for his first name, which happens to be the most used name in the family. Daughters seem to be named whatever, although there is a nod to family names usually the middle name. I was given a name that has no nicknames, always hated that, ended up with a strange nickname, that makes no “sense”.
Therefore I’ve always been big on names that have alot of derivatives, so a person can choose what fits them best.</p>
<p>My middle name was my father’s first name and my grandmother’s last name. Alas I didn’t pass it on.</p>
<p>My mother’s father was the one of a long line of Fredericks who alternated being Fred or Rick. He only had girls, but I have a cousin who is continuing the Frederick tradition.</p>
<p>We named our first son after both grandfathers. Problem is, one grandfather has a very Irish first name and the other is Spanish, with a typical Spanish name. You can imagine how that combination sounds with our Spanish surname. But it was important to both grandfathers that we did it, and we don’t regret the decision.</p>
<p>When S2 came along, he got one of my favorite boy’s names as his first name, and my maiden name as his middle name. Both of them are “Irish” names, though, and sound a little odd with the Spanish surname. </p>
<p>We really debated about the Spanish/Irish thing a lot when they were born, but now we’re used to it. And so far neither of them has complained :)</p>
<p>We didn’t pass any names down to our kids- just picked names that we liked. H is something like the 6th of his name, and then there’s a break, and the name continues back even further after the break (something like 7 more gens). A very famous slave was owned by this namesake, so we didn’t feel it necessary to continue the name, and H doesn’t use the first name anyway (doesn’t like it). Hope it’s not bad luck or anything.</p>
<p>My grandmother’s name was Grace. My husband’s grandmother’s name was Grace. When DD was born, there was no question when deciding upon her middle name … Grace.</p>