Is it egotistical to name your child after yourself?

[peruban]

I'm a Jr., my dad gave me his name and now that he's passed away I'm glad he did. I feel like I'm carrying a legacy of his, somehow.

However, I've heard people say that it's egotistical. Also, from what I understand about Judaism, it's wrong to name a child after a living family member.

So what's your take?


On edit: I was also not given a middle name but I gave myself one when I converted to Catholicism. It's the English version of José, Joseph. It was my deceased maternal grandfather's name.

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. It's weird when families keep passing down old fashioned names like 'Gaylord Marmaduke Smith VI"

LOL.

[jobycom]

5. How'd you know my dad?

[jobycom]

7. Misplaced post

Oopsie.

[peruban]

14. LOL!!!! n/m

[Chan790]

10. Yes...

I have one of those names. Because I'm the last in a long line of people with my name...I've never used any of those names except my last name. Neither does my bio-dad, neither did his dad. Based on nicknaming tradition in my family, if I had a son and gave him the same name (which I would never ever do) he'd be doomed to go through life either as "Chipper" or "Jimbo".

I'm Chan or Jacey (J.C.) or my name I use most often publicly. (which I'm not posting because freeps like to troll this board and they've been a pain in my ass IRL before when they've put my screenname to a face and a real name.)

The whole thing is funnier because there are no C's in my full name. Yet it's "C" nicknames. :shrug:

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. All the guys I know with old fashioned names use nicknames.

[Aristus]

2. I'm the third in my line with the same name.

But what's kind of funny is, we all hated our first name, and answer to our middle name. So what I want to know from my dad (my grandfather is dead) is: if you hated the name so much, why did you pass it down? :shrug:

[Gormy Cuss]

3. My mother gave her name to my sister.

It wasn't about her ego though -- it was honoring her grandmother who had the same name. Now that our mother is gone, my sister feels a little bit odd being the only one with that name.

We have no male juniors, oddly enough.

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. Friend of mine was a female "jr". Her deadbeat mom used it to perpetrate fraud on the daughter

- Cash the daughter's checks and such.

[Gormy Cuss]

16. Yeah, no one expects female juniors.

My mother and sister had different middle names so that sort of fraud wasn't possible.

[Ptah]

4. My father gave my sister his name.

[AlCzervik]

6. My daughter has the same first name as her grandmother but she wasn't named after her

i just always loved the name and when i met my husband it turned out that was his mother's name.

[jobycom]

8. I'm named after my two grandfathers, which also means I'm named after my father

since he was named after his father. Never thought it was weird, and no one would accuse my dad of being egotistical.

I, who am quite egotistical of course, named my daughters random names with no connection to family, and sometimes I wonder if I insulted my family by doing so. Maybe for me rejecting family tradition was the real egotism.

[Kali]

9. Its kinda handy when they turn 16 - ins co has hard time figuring out

there is a teen in the house:evilgrin:

[Ptah]

13. Superb!

:thumbsup:

[LeftyMom]

15. My son has a family name, the same first name as my father and grandfather.

Not the same middle name though, they're all different there, so nobody's a Junior or The Third or anything.

Partial name repetition is culturally normal for us (plus my family's Hella Catholic and there are only so many saint's names that don't sound dumb, so it's kinda unavoidable in a large Catholic family) but I tend to regard naming one's offspring the same identical name as uncreative, if not pretentious.

Plus, I liked the idea of LeftyKid having a very traditional name and a less common (but not one of those goofy creative names) one to choose from for business purposes as an adult, so the family name worked nicely.

If for some reason I had another rugrat (not really planning on it) I'd likely name 'em after either my late uncle, who had no kinds of his own and is really missed, or my grandmother I was really close to. I'd rather honor somebody I loved than just pick a name out of a book.

[Skittles]

17. YES YES YES YES YES

absolutely YES

[ElsewheresDaughter]

18. George Foreman doesn't think so......5 sons all named George.....

Foreman has 10 children, and each of his five sons are named George: George Jr., George III, George IV, George V, and George VI

[peruban]

19. That's not egotistical

It's just plain stupid.

[old mark]

20. peruban: I don't think it's ego, it's family.

If you like your name, and you want to continue a tradition, pass it on.
If not, not.

I would not worry about it too much unless your name is something like Saxby Chambliss.

mark

[peruban]

21. Yeah, that's how I feel about it.

Like carrying on a family legacy.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

22. the whole concept of having children is egotistical. So, why not

name them after your self :shrug:

[peruban]

23. good point

I can't argue that logic.

[LeftyMom]

24. I'm guessing you don't have any?

Really, the first few years are pretty hard on the ego. First you let what seems like every stranger with medical training in a five county radius look at your vagina. Then, when you're finally over that indignity, you go into labor and even more come out of the woodwork. Then, after complete strangers get to see you cry, sweat, make funny noises and likely shit yourself, somebody hands you a baby. Your baby. And then you have that completely ego-destroying moment that you are completly inadequate to the task of rearing another human being. But by then you're stuck, poor kid. And you spend the next few years getting vomited on and wiping up somebody else's shit. And not just diaper detail. Oh no. Every toddler at some point fancies themselves the Pablo Picasso of poo.

If you have much of an ego left at the end of all of that, more power to you I guess. But here in the real world, parenting is like boot camp for getting the fuck over yourself, because parenting is one of those things where you never really get to say to yourself, "this is just going to have to be good enough."

[Tuesday Afternoon]

26. the very idea of producing progeny (making something in your

own likeness is god-like and egotistical) what happens afterward is a lesson in humility ;) :toast:

this is age old philosophy...not my own idea.

[LeftyMom]

29. That assumes most pregnancies are fully intentional.

Would that it were so.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

31. I think the age old Philosophers were men

and thinking with their Johnsons ;)

shit. I am drunk...right now all I can think of is:
http://leb.net/~mira/works/prophet/prophet4.html

well also this (paradoxically)
http://67.104.146.36/english/gothic/works/Nietzgodanddoomsday.html

[LeftyMom]

32. Well, half of them came from societies that weren't real clear on the process anyhow.

;)

[peruban]

27. That's one of the funniest descriptions I've ever heard.

Sums it up quite well, doesn't it?

[Svengali]

25. Not at all.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

28. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[peruban]

33. Yes, welcome.

One of us, one of us, one of us!

[ChoralScholar]

30. I don't think so....

It's kind of a tribute. I personally wouldn't name a kid after MYSELF, but on my side, Paul is a family name. Also, my mother, before she died, always tried to get us to name a boy Paul, so he'd be Paul-Three (as she called it)...

So, we named our son Ethan Paul. It was a tribute, without being closed out of picking our own name.

Elizabeth is a family name on my wife's side, as well, so we would have named a girl Ainsley Elizabeth.

Like I said, it's just a tribute. My two cents.

[Beer Snob-50]

34. my son is a junior

which i sometimes regret when the mail comes now, but gave him the same nickname as my father (jack) which made my father very happy.

do i consider it egotistical? no not at all. i was named after my mothers uncles.