Namesake names

Last week I received my first request for naming advice.  A friend of mine whose real name is Adelaide but goes by Lad is preparing to be a grandmother for the first time.  Her daughter is having a daughter and is planning on naming the baby Addison June (my friend's middle name is June) and then calling the baby Laddi.  The daughter says she is naming her baby after her mother but my friend disagrees.  My friend believes that Adelaide and Addison are not derivative names and that the only name she and her granddaughter will have in common is their middle name.  My friend is  not even happy with Laddi.

My advice was to accept the honor.  The daughter might have felt that Addison is a more modern name but that it would allow her to connect to her mother's name.  That possibility coupled with the middle name and nickname all make me think that this is a honor name.

Naming Daughters

In today's world, I think it is more difficult to name daughters than sons.  I think most boy names make the transition for infant to child to teenager to adult easier and will fit most career choices.  It is easy to imagine Jack the attorney, Jack the doctor, Jack the rock star or Jack the jock. Almost any boy's name will meet the test.

Girl names are a little different.  Once upon a time parents only had to consider if the name worked for a child and a grown woman.  No career choices entered the picture.  Now they do.  Traditional names like Katharine, Elizabeth work. But I have a harder time with names like Liberty, Glory, or Nevaeh. Dr. Glory? Liberty the attorney?  Nevaeh anything except a rock star? 

Naming Traditions

My family has a naming tradition whereby the females have a middle name that starts with a L.  Most of us are either Lea, Louise or Lynn.  This tradition held strong until my much younger cousins abandoned it.  My part of the family, however, holds true.  My younger daughter, her daughter and I all share the same middle name and my older daughter and mother share their middle name.

I like it.   I know of other families with naming traditions.  One family gives all the males the first name of Robert and then a different middle name which they go by.  Another family uses the mother's maiden name for the middle name of the first born male. Another family follows the alphabet (ABCD names) or did until they hit the end of the alphabet.

I hope it continues in my family.  I like the connectedness of it, But I want it to be out of choice and not a requirement.  I want my children to be free to break it if they desire, just as my cousins have.  The child is more important than the tradition.