Before our son was born there were a few clerical issues we needed to address as a couple. One was our son’s name. We had heard that the sonogram showed a boy, so we worked from there. The Jewish faith that I follow does not name after the living, but when my last nephew was born I found out that this was not religious law, it was just the “Ashkenazi” tradition. That means we are from the Russia/Europe area. The Sephardic Jews do name after the living, I never grew up with Jews from that sect, so I had no idea. Well, I consider my self of 1 religion, not of various sects, so I opted for naming my son after my father, as he had half kiddingly suggested to my brother when my nephew was born.
I’m not stupid, I have to insure that we all stay in the will!
My spouse’s dad has a very ethnic Italian name so we thought that would be good for a middle name. Everyone gets included. In talking about the last name, we decided to include both of our last names. Our support group suggested it was better that we both be represented on our son’s passports and social security cards. This would prove ironic later on.
At the last minute my spouse said we should not have a hyphen for the last names. I had gotten to choose the first name so I let him have the last name, leaving my son with 2 middle names. It seems with the diversity in America that this would be just fine. The irony comes later when I met an Asian Indian family at pre-school, they follow their culture, so the wife, husband, and daughter all had different last names!
All this after we labored on the right name for a month!
Cute.
My hubs is Argentine so we wanted a name for our son that would translate in English and Spanish. We both like more traditional names so that eliminated a lot. We used my father’s name for his middle name bc we also dig the honor of family names (no big inheritance to hope for though).
I kept my maiden name but also thought a hyphen was a bit much so he has my hubs last name.
Sounds complicated but it wasn’t 🙂
We heard Diane Keaton say our daughter’s name as she called her movie daughter to her. DUH! Love her voice Hubs and I both sat up and said, “That’s IT!” We just found out she was a girl that week.
Middle name is MY DAD’S Middle name.
My maiden name is actually hyphenated – it’s my dad’s last name first, then my moms. When I got married I was glad to be rid of both and just stick to one! So I think your partner was on to something – hyphenated last names are a drag to a kid! *LOL*
That’s a great story – sounds like your son’s name is really meaningful and special. We chose our boys name based on just really, really liking them. We wanted names that were fun, attractive, and would grow with them (ie, we both liked “Cody” but didn’t know how that would go over as a grown man in corporate American one day).
My first son’s middle name is Marley and that’s based on our mutual love for Bob Marley. Our second son has the middle name of DH’s uncle who passed away in his 20’s – so that one a little more weighty. Not sure why we didn’t give the 1st son this “honor,” but I don’t think it occured to DH til the second pregnancy.
Sorry to be so wordy and write a dissertation…. but hey, you asked! LOL!!!!! 😉