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Family name Legacies

464 Views 6 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  arlecchina
My Dh's family the first born son's middle name is William. For atleast the last 3 generations ( I have to ask about this some time to FIL and see if it goes back farther). My problem is my DH wants to name our son Oliver ( after his grandfather) and we are going to come up with another name. DH's family is a bit upset though holding there tounges that we wont be naming our son Oliver William. The other reason I dont want to is my DD's name is Willa ( a female form of William) do you think I'm out of line? If my DD's name was not Willa I probly wouldnt care so much but I already have a William. Anyway how have you / will / would you deal with this.

I've offerd DH to give the baby 3 names and he dosent like that. Though I think it would be cool.
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I haven't btdt as the mother but do come from a family with a similiar situation. My grandfather's name was Stirling Eugene and my father's and brother's name is Stirling Edward. My grandfather continually called my brother the third though he was technically the second. It drove my parents crazy. Anyway, it's ultimately your choice and if your dh is fine with not using William than the family will eventually get over it. I agree, I wouldn't want a William when I already had a Willa. If they do ever bring it up I would explain to them (like you did here) that you feel you have already somewhat followed tradition by using the name Willa. GL!!
i think you've already used up your william in willa. i think your dh's family should have been over the moon with that!

do you know you're definitely having a little boy?

ds has three first names, the last one is my surname. dh has three names so it's no big thing. it's up to your little one how they use them, i think. the question for this one is will we use my surname again or my mom's maiden name. we'll see.

good luck!
I agree with Willa being your William. I have also noticed a trend where I live of babies being given 3 names then their surname. Do what makes you happy & the family can get over it
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I think you should do what you want, but I would also say that at least in my family, the middle name is really not used (except on stationery) so to me I think it wouldnt matter if his middle name was William, even if I had a Willa -- In other words, if I liked how it sounded and it was an "easy win" to get the family off my back, I would have used it ...I mean, I don't think I wouldnt use it just b/c of already having a Willa. They'll grow up to be individuals and who will know except you and the immediate family that they were both similar sounding names. Some families make all their kids have exactly the same middle names.

Just another viewpoint....Best of luck deciding what to do! Oliver is a beautiful name whether or not the middle name ends up being William!
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LOL Thanks Guys!

I dont KNOW I'm having a boy and we are not finding out. But this pregnancy is completly different ( I know that dosent meen anything
) and I'm getting hair on my face and on my belly already. But I also want to talk about this far in advance.

We are not naming the baby for around a week after its born even though the first name is picked out for the boy ( even though I LOVE oliver it makes me worried to label someone I dont know yet).

I talked to DH about 3 names again, also the William thing he siad...he hasnt done anything his parents wanted anyway in life why start now... I.e going to college, leaving his church , married me ect.
I just wanted to know if I looked like the [email protected]#$$ that DH's SM makes me out to be... So I thought I would run it by some cool people first
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I stuck my poor son with a crappy middle name cause superdad's family/superdad insisted. we all hate it, (including superdad which I suspect is why he stuck his son with it) and I shuoldnt have agreed to it


but that's me.
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