I’m the last male of my family line that is likely to have children. I’m my father’s only son, and his brothers had girls.
So that actually puts a little pressure on me to have a son. My family isn’t actually pressuring me, but I am just aware of the fact that it would be nice if I produced a son.
Me, I’m 30-something, married once, I love my daughter but she’s starting middle school and I don’t really want to be tied down another 20 years. I’m more interested in raising her right and then roaming the world.
Anybody else in the position of being the only one to carry on the family name?
I’m one of two that I’m aware of (my dad’s family is splintered) and my cousin’s wife has already said their daughter is all they’re going to have so I may as well be the only one and I don’t intend to have kids at all and it doesn’t bother me as it’s just a name and would have been completely different if my mom and dad had not married anyway.
My brother was the only son of an only son of the only of 2 brothers to marry and have kids. Sadly, my brother’s wife decided she didn’t really mean that whole “till death do us part” thing, and she left before they had kids.
I say “sadly” because my brother would have been a great dad - he’s always been wonderful with kids. But he’s 50 now, so I doubt very much that he’ll give me a nephew. And our last name, while supposedly rather common in the area of Poland where my grandfather came from, is extremely rare in the States. In Maryland, only my mom, my brother, and my youngest sister still carry the name.
My husband’s (and now my) last name is much more common, but alas, from three sons, only one produced a child, and she’s not a boy. (My nephew, while a doll, is adopted, so he’ll carry the name, but not the bloodline.)
Since there are no grand estates to be passed down, I don’t suppose it matters in the grand scheme of things, but it does make me rather sad to think that of the three brothers in my husband’s family, and the five sibs in my family, only 3 offspring were produced. We didn’t even replace ourselves, but I guess we’re doing our part to fight overpopulation.
I was so “tasked”. It was brought to my attention when I was a kid that I was not just my paternal grandfather’s only grandson (lots of grandaughters) but the only greatgrandson of his father … and no one seemed really 100% if there was another great-great-grandson in my great-great-granson’s line. In our Old Country, it wasn’t --and isn’t-- an option for daughters to carry the name, even if it is the 21st century.
Of course, back then, the lineage was big enough (there were quite a few other males of my father’s generation-- my uncle, cousins of varying descriptions, etc.) that it wasn’t a big worry (though I rather liked the idea of being the One Hope). Another male could show up at any time.
None did.
Of course my son turned out to be every bit his own reward, and it occurs to me that I’ve never told him that the family name rests on his shoulders. I don’t think I will.
Youngest son here. My parents had plenty of grand kids, girls & boys, before I got married. Still, there was a lot of pressure, especially when my brother had all girls. But it turns out I had nothing to worry about: evidently, I only make ‘boys’ via my babymaking contribution.
Part of that’s a bad thing though, because there is/was a whole lot of deep-seated hatred/jealousy towards my sons from my siblings.
My husband is - he’s the last in a line of a very unusual German name (I’m sure others exist, but not in his family’s line). His family couldn’t care less whether or not it’s carried on, though. We are having a baby boy any day now, so it’ll be carried on, but they didn’t think it was a big deal before getting pregnant or before knowing the baby’s sex.
Mr. Armadillo is the Last Male [Lastname]. Out of 8 boys in his father’s family, his father is the only one of the 8 that had any boys–and Mr. Armadillo is it. Furthermore, if (when) we have kids, and if they are boys, he not only gets the last name, but demands the middle name as well to carry on a one-generation family tradition, since he is the Last Male [Lastname].
Yes. I was the only male, the only one left to carry on the family name, etc., etc.
Of course, then I found out my grandfather picked the family name out of thin air while he was on the boat coming to America. Not only that, he did it so no one from the old country could track him down.
So if anyone wants to change their name to kunilou it’ll be just as legitimate a way of carrying on the family name as the way we got the family name in the first place.
It would fall to me, and it was in the back of my mind for a while, until I realized that my Dad changed his name when he came to the US, so nobody really cares.
My father-in-law had one boy and five girls, so he considers my husband to be charged to carry on the name. (Never mind that he had a brother who had a number of sons; that doesn’t count since his brother was a failure in business, etc.) Every time I think he’s finally accepted that we don’t want kids, he’ll surprise us by bringing it up again several months later.
I was the only male grandchild produced in my family. My great uncles only produced daughters and in turn his daughters produced daughters. My uncle had daughters and my father fortunately helped produce me. It was pumped into my head since I was a small child about the importance of family and our line. Luckily, my wife and I had three sons, so thankfully that pressure is now off my shoulders.������
While I didn’t have children, all the males in my family have the middle name of Howard. The same Howard family as the politicos.
Both of my brothers had the middle name of Howard. The felt obligated to give their sons the middle name of Howard. And my oldest brother’s only son gave his son the middle name of Howard. Said son’s wife is now pregnant with “William (her father’s name) Howard.”
I don’t have this exactly, as my last name is at least likely going to be carried on by my nephew (way to young to really consider at this point). But I don’t really understand this. What’s in a name, especially a last name? I know the name is kind of important to my dad and his generation, but so what? I didn’t choose that name, he didn’t choose that name. No one alive knew anyone who might have had a hand in choosing our name and there’s apparently disagreement on exactly what it means. Even the famous people we’re related to don’t share our last name. With modern technology and genealogy, it’s not like anyone will be forgotten because of the lack of the name, they’ll be forgotten because our line dies out, or they’re just so far in the past no one cares anymore.
So, I really don’t care about the family name living on at all. That said, I DO care about our bloodline carrying on, and to a certain extent that I have cousins with kids and a brother with kids, I’m have little doubt our family will carry on past my lifetime. But at the same time, there’s still a part of me that wants to have kids of my own. As far as that goes, I don’t feel a compelling need to have a son, other than the fact I’d like to have one for his own sake, just like I’d like to have a daughter for her own sake. But I don’t even care much at all if they have my last name or not; hell, I’ve even toyed with the idea that maybe they should get a new last name.
Really, the idea of carrying on a family name, as opposed to the family line, dates back to times when inheritance was a big deal and when knowing people lineages was really only doable through name. Other than tradition, what purpose does it still serve in today’s society?
My last three nephews have the family name as their middle name. It’s not our original family name, anyway. Changed when great grandfather immigrated in 1887.
My dad had two siblings, neither of whom had children. His parents had come over from Germany after WWI, so I was the only child of my generation on my dad’s side. Clearly I couldn’t pass on the family name by any regular sort of means. My husband had been a foundling, literally a baby abandoned in a church. He had been adopted and carried the name of his adoptive family. When we were making our wedding plans, he generously offered to change HIS last name to mine so that we could continue the family name. It was highly unusual, but not illegal, so that’s what we did. Happily, my two sons are now carrying my family name forward for yet another generation, as my oldest son recently had a son of his own.
