A name question... « Back to Group Discussions

[tolovemercy]

DH and I are considering the name Lucian (LOO-shun) for a boy.   I really like the name, but I have a nephew (whom we see and interact with often) whose name is Luke, and I'm concerned that the closeness of the two names will rub my DH's family the wrong way.  Not that I would choose a name based on their preferences or anything, but I'm not out to step on their toes, either.  What do you think?  Are my concerns unfounded?

[lbkw]

It's not really the same but in my family everyone is careful not to name the same name as any other living relatives. My parents named me Lauren and my mom is really close with her aunt: Laura. It has never been an issue.

[Nicole730]

I don't consider those two names similar at all.  I think Lucian is an awesome name!

[dogmom327]

I don't think they are similar enough to matter. Now if you have a crazy family it may not matter 

[ms.shell]

I don't think they are very similar, but I think it's great that you are considering their feelings.  Maybe ya'll could ask the brother or sister whose child is named Luke how they would feel about it?  My husband's name is Matt (Matthew) and my sister named her child R. Matthew and she called me when she was thinking about it to ask if we thought we would want to name one Matt or if we did whether we minded if she used it, too.  We didn't mind, but I really appreciated her consideration in asking!   Also, dh's cousin gave her child who was born a couple months after my son the same name we used as a middle name for her child's first name and I was a little off put by that....although it shouldn't have bothered me!  But again, I think those are two totally different names, so it shouldn't be an issue in your situation, imo.

[Jodie]

If you both love the name go for it. It is a similar name in that they both start with Lu, that's about it. They are not the same name so its not like you are copying them or anything.

[scowgirl]

I agree with the others... I don't think it's a huge deal unless it's exactly the same name, or a closer variant than you are considering. We have a nephew named Tom and I wouldn't worry about using the name Timothy if I wanted to, for example.

[elizaveta]

I don't think they are similar enough to worry. If you were thinking Luka and they had a Luke, then I might say they were too similar, but I think these are far enough apart. In Russian Lucian is Lukyan and it is similar to Luka, which is the Russian version of Luke. We're probably going to name this one Luka, but we've received a lot of Lukyan comments... My husband's grandmother's father was Luka and in Russia we use the Father's name as the middle name (So, my husband is Semyon, our daughters middle name is Semyonovna and our son will be Semyonovich) and for some reason my husband's grandmother went by Galina Lukyanovna sometimes, even though her father wasn't Lukyan, he was Luka... But I think they sound more similar in Russian than they do in English! :) 

[tolovemercy]

Thanks everybody for chiming in- really helpful to get opinions!  I think we are going to stick with Lucian.