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HelpRe: Why Do You Love/Regret Your Name?
in reply to a message by ViviLC
Thank you for sharing your experience. In my culture it's convention to name the first girl after the mother's mother, the first boy after the father's father, then father's mother for a girl, mother's father for a boy etc.
I used to like this tradition, because researching genealogy is a hobby of mine, and it makes it easier to track ancestry, but my family relationships are complicated and I don't want to burden a child with bagge from an already strained dynamic. My daughter has the same initials as my brother, but a distinct, feminine name of her own. My son has my great-grandfather's surname (grandmother's father) as his first name and we all share my grandfather's surname (mother's father). My name regret is a recent development, but I'm glad it happened before my children were born. My original name options were styled after my mother and grandmother because of tradition, not because I actually wanted to pass on their names. This experience made me stop and think about the "story" I'm actually giving to my children. I do agree that passing on a family name can be an act of love, like in your grandfather's case. I only realised it today, but both my kids' names come from good people who didn't get to live their whole lives. Both are people whose stories I want to pass on, while letting my children know that they're the ones writing their own chapters.
I do sympathise with having a TV show with the same name as you, especially if it's popular. TV shows come and go but I can see how that would be hard on a school age child D: My own first name was too common to inspire a TV show, and I'm hoping my kids' are too uniquely South African, but having a show, or worse, a BRAND, pop up with the same name as your child is definitely a 21st century naming fear :')
I used to like this tradition, because researching genealogy is a hobby of mine, and it makes it easier to track ancestry, but my family relationships are complicated and I don't want to burden a child with bagge from an already strained dynamic. My daughter has the same initials as my brother, but a distinct, feminine name of her own. My son has my great-grandfather's surname (grandmother's father) as his first name and we all share my grandfather's surname (mother's father). My name regret is a recent development, but I'm glad it happened before my children were born. My original name options were styled after my mother and grandmother because of tradition, not because I actually wanted to pass on their names. This experience made me stop and think about the "story" I'm actually giving to my children. I do agree that passing on a family name can be an act of love, like in your grandfather's case. I only realised it today, but both my kids' names come from good people who didn't get to live their whole lives. Both are people whose stories I want to pass on, while letting my children know that they're the ones writing their own chapters.
I do sympathise with having a TV show with the same name as you, especially if it's popular. TV shows come and go but I can see how that would be hard on a school age child D: My own first name was too common to inspire a TV show, and I'm hoping my kids' are too uniquely South African, but having a show, or worse, a BRAND, pop up with the same name as your child is definitely a 21st century naming fear :')
