# Anybody else tasked with carrying on the family name?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 11, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335 "2006-08-11T19:17:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2015, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335/41 "2015-10-28T22:17:47Z")
My brother is in his 50s and as far as anyone knows he has never even dated. Nothing is happening there. I had two daughters and no more are coming. I do have a male cousin that I think had a son so technically the family name has continued. His father (my uncle) died before I was born and I never met my cousins.
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### Author:  [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2015, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335/42 "2015-10-28T22:37:37Z")
Me. I had an uncle, whom I loved dearly, who (fortunately) died without having children. He had some ongoing mental health issues and was cared for by his parents his entire 60-year adult life; he would not have made a good father.
I’m the only son born to my two parents; I also have a younger sister. Though I’m 33 and still living with Mom (because of some extenuating circumstances), neither parent has put pressure on me to get married and have a child. Though they believe it will happen eventually. I hope so.
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### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2015, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335/43 "2015-10-28T22:45:57Z")
My wife’s father’s father had two sons and one daughter. Both the sons had three daughters each. Crazy odds.
Any pressure on me is relieved now that my brother just had a son.
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### Author:  [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2015, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335/44 "2015-10-29T02:37:08Z")
Me personally, no, even though I did my share in that regard with two guests the younger (working on adopting a third) and my brother had a son. My FiL has only a bevie of daughters so when my now wife and I married, we agreed she would keep her maiden name and my young guestling with her carries her family name (MUCH to the relief and great pleasure of her dad)
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2015, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335/45 "2015-10-29T03:03:34Z")
An uncle of mine had this burden. He was the last male carrying his somewhat unusual surname in the whole of his country. He had three girls then finally a son. I think it was all a bit unfortunate. I don’t think either he or his wife wanted that many children. They split up soon after. I don’t have sufficient inside running to be sure but I think the burden caused an otherwise poor decision to be made.
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### Author:  [@TheSpeculationElucidation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSpeculationElucidation)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2015, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335/46 "2015-10-29T06:12:10Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#):
>
> 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 wish this nonsense would stop.
All of the men in my family have a very unique middle name. Passed down son to son, every generation. There were only girls my generation, and I was given their middle name as my first name (it sounds unisex). I was expected to pass it on, but cannot (and don’t really want to) bear children. Guess it’s the end of that.
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### Author:  [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2015, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335/47 "2015-10-29T07:23:41Z")
The oldest male, (and for as long as we can remember, it has happened to be the first born also) gets the same first and middle name. John/Jack Michael. I don’t really want to name my child John or Jack. As for my last name, I’ve often considered changing it if I got married, and taking my wife’s name, or both of us agreeing on a new last name. I have no special attachment to my last name.
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2015, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335/48 "2015-10-29T10:25:03Z")
Yes, my son is the only son of an only son of an only son…so the nearest relatives with his last name are his third or fourth cousins or something (certainly no one he’ll ever meet, and I think I might have met one just once, decades ago).
It’s only a “burden” in a jokey way, because as others have pointed out, it’s just cultural convention to honor people who happen to have testicles in this way.
What’s more interesting is that his surname is quintessentially Irish (you can guess it from my Doper name), but he’s only one-sixteenth Irish, and looks it.
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2015, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335/49 "2015-10-29T10:30:20Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#):
>
> Huh? I’m Irish and I’ve never heard of this. The whole give-the-kid-a-surname-as-a-first-name thing is very small over here, it’s very recent, and it’s seen as an entirely American thing.
Perhaps the poster was referring to how Americans sometimes do this with Irish-derived surnames, like Kelly, Tyrone, or Murphy.
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### Author:  [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2015, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335/50 "2015-10-29T21:48:16Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#):
>
> Is it possible that he American-ized his last name when he got here? I think that happened quite often with immigrants.
I don’t think that happened in our case; I haven’t traced our lineage from the old country, but my last name has a silent “J” and a -sh sound where there’s only a -s, so I’m pretty sure it’s a factory original. I did once turn up what appeared to be a tractor rental place owned by a guy with the same last name in Rychaltice, Czech Republic, but I can’t read the language.
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2015, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335/51 "2015-10-31T01:17:10Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> My brother and I both had “the burden” to have a male child who will carry on the name.
>
> He had a baby boy in February so I’m off the hook.
Ah, but then THAT boy is under pressure… and in case he doesn’t ever have kids, then maybe your family should lean on you to procreate.
See, it never ends. Don’t we have enough burdens without having “THE burden”?
There may not be any of us (obscure surname from _Ze Master Race_) around in fifty years, but I’m not sure the world’ll be any the worse for it.
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### Author:  [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2015, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335/52 "2015-11-04T07:14:05Z")
My maternal grandfather has made a big deal (ok, he’s said it once, but that’s more than I ever thought about it) about his last name dying, as his only son only had a daughter and she’s too old for them to really consider having more. Grandpa is the only adult-surviving child in his family as well, but I don’t know if there would be more going back yet another generation.
As for myself, I have a male cousin with the same last name. Not my problem. Of course, the real “not my problem” is the fact that there are plenty of other people with my last name that live in the area that aren’t related particularly closely to me. One even has the same first name as me. And I have a somewhat obscure Polish name, and only once have seen someone with the name that wasn’t a member of my family. (He’s also the guy who has the same first name as me, and I saw it on the nameplate of an office I was walking by. It really freaked me out.)
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### Author:  [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2015, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335/53 "2015-11-04T23:27:30Z")
i was born in 1949.
Until this thread, I had NEVER considered the ‘carry on the family/family name’ issue.
No, never even thought about having kid(s).
For the purpose of ‘Grand Heritage’, I guess we should be grateful that my brother had a son in 1971.
I don’t know if he has a son or not.
It really never mattered.
We have an Anglicized German name - a variant of it is found in France.
It’s not like the name will become extinct if none of the 6 of my parent’s grandchildren (my nieces/nephews) name another generation after my father’s surname.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335/54 "2015-11-06T17:05:11Z")
Neither my brother nor I have ever had kids, and never will. Nobody could care less.
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### Author:  [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2015, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-else-tasked-with-carrying-on-the-family-name/368335/55 "2015-11-08T00:00:00Z")
I was.
My brother died in 1977, so it fell to me. My mother was devastated when I told her I had had a vasectomy and this branch of the family tree ends with me. Unless, of course, I adopt a little weezer but at age 67, that ain’t gonna happen.
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