My sister and BIL had four girls. None of my BIL’s brothers had kids. When one of my nieces married, her husband took her last name so the name wouldn’t die out. They don’t seem to be in any hurry to procreate, however, so that may be a dead end.
StG
Well, let’s see, my grandfather came to the US in 1921. Near as I can tell, his last name was unique, because Google searches only bring up stuff about me and my family.
My dad was born in 1937. He has a brother, still living, who never married. I think he’s a long shot. He also has two sisters who took different names when they married.
My dad’s been married twice, so I had a half-brother from his first marriage. He died a while back, childless. Then he had my brother and me.
My brother has four kids. The eldest son is deeply and profoundly autistic, and cannot care for himself. The triplets were two girls and a boy. They’re in high school now.
I have two girls. The littlest Torqueling probably already feels strange enough being a Chinese girl in America with a Czechoslovakian last name, so I’m not sure how she’ll feel about keeping it. The elder Torqueling might be talked into it.
So, if everything goes traditional, it’s all riding on my brother’s son, or else the family name dies out. It would be a shame, because I find that it’s pretty good identity theft protection; no one will steal it, because no one can spell it.
I thought so, as a kid, and was very relieved when one of my uncles adopted a son, because I didn’t want that burden on me.
I eventually found out, though, as an adult, that while my last name is fairly uncommon, there were a bunch of other branches of the family that my father had cut ties with and didn’t acknowledge unless pressed about it, and that they have plenty of sons. Plus, of course, the root of the family tree back in Germany.
Which is irrelevant, because by that point, I had ceased to care about the continuation of the name, anyway.
I’m in the same boat, but I’ve already failed. I have a very unusual (and IMHO, very cool) last name, and it’s pretty much just me and my brother now. We have no living male cousins on that side of the family. There are more people out there with the name, but the relation is so distant that we wouldn’t consider ourselves to be in the same family.
Anyway, I had two daughters. My brother also has two daughters. My wife and I are done; not sure about my brother. That’s pretty much it for us. I think it’s sad, but not sad enough to seriously consider trying to fix it.
My father had all girls. His younger brother has all girls. His older brother had two boys but they have girls.
So the name would die out.
I was unmarried when I got pregnant and I hear a few family members were upset that I gave my son his father’s last name instead of mine. However, I got let off the hook when a younger unmarried cousin got pregnant and she did give her son the family name.
Now the name carries on.
Not that it matters to me.
That’s actually a pretty neat reason.
Distantly, as in my great great grandfather’s level of the family tree, there are I think other male offspring carrying on the family name. It’s an uncommon name, and only after I moved last year have I started running across people who are familiar with the name. There was a prominent local philanthropist that shares my last name, and I believe is a distant relative.
What I screwed up is the tradition from my great grandfather. He, my grandfather, my father and myself are all Richard Randommiddlename Lastname. There will be no fifth Richard in a row as my wife and I are happy with our dog.
Just finished reading The Walking Dead thread and now I see this zombie from 2006.
I’ve known since I was a little kid myself that I would never want children, therefore when I’m gone my mom’s side of the family is pretty much over. I’m an only child, female, and my mom is an only child. My Nana’s siblings are all gone but she has 2 nieces, and one has a son but they live far away and we don’t know them.
My dad has siblings but he disowned them many years ago. They have children & grandchildren so I guess that line carries on, but his sisters took their husband’s last names (one passed many years ago with no children) and his brother only had daughters who also took their husband’s last names.
Now that I think about it, when I got married in 2011 and took my husband’s last name that was the end of our family name. Wow.
Is it possible that he American-ized his last name when he got here? I think that happened quite often with immigrants.
When I was in Grade 4 a family came from Poland to Canada and the daughter’s name was Barbara in class, but at her house her mom called her “Basia” (pronounced “Basha”), which I thought was way prettier and more exotic than plain ole Barbara. I couldn’t understand why they’d change something as basic as her first name. But this was in 1982.
In my generation, I have 16 cousins… only one male. He, luckily, has two sons, so my dad’s family name will live on through him.
In my mother’s family, there has been a Joseph/Josephine as a first name for at least 9 generations. I’m the youngest of my generation, so had “Jo” slapped on to my first name to keep up the tradition. Unless my daughter ever has a child and continues it, it ends with my nephew.
Heh - if you’re Irish you might call your first born son your maiden name, and your sisters might too.
My husband’s grandfather has no siblings in this country (some in Canada probably have descendants but we don’t have contact with them).
Grandfather had two sons.
Of the two sons: one has two daughters. The other has two sons and a daughter (my husband and my brother in law).
The BIL has 2 daughters. The SIL has no kids and short of adoption, is past the age of that being a concern.
We have a son (“Dweezil” when we mention him on the boards) and daughter (“Moon Unit”). So it would seem to come to Dweezil to carry on the family name - or, I suppose, Moon Unit to have a child out of wedlock.
Of course, Dweezil is mildly autistic, Moon Unit has her own issues, and we’re thinking these genetics don’t need to be carried on to another generation :(.
My grandfather ended up with 22 grandchildren, but only two males with his last name. I’m one of them, and I’m out of the picture. The other one does have a son, though.
It’s been nine years – do we know if control-z ever had a son?
Why should I care? My father changed the name about when I was born (1937) and my name is not even on my birth certificate. And where did the original name come from anyway? It meant something like estate manager.
My wife feels a little sad because the line of her great grandmother’s mitochondria has now terminated. GGM had one daughter, my wife’s GM who had one child, my mother-in-law. We have one daughter who has one son and will be 49 in a couple months, so no more children.
My father’s siblings only have one male child with the family name and he was adopted. And the speculation is that he is unlikely to have kids as he was born with some serious developmental disabilities and struggles with some issues of daily living.
My brother passed away before having any children. So I guess that leaves it to me. I am already in my 40s and have no biological children, though may be adopting my fiancee’s daughter and maybe a male cousin of hers. The daughter has asked to take my last name. Not sure what the little boy would think of this. So maybe I’ll have an adopted son and it will all be on him to go forth and spread the name. Meh.
The Name is potentially passing only thru me. But no grandkids yet.
It’s all really stupid. My ggf left the old country with one name and landed in the USofA with another. (His father’s patronym replaced his own. Siblings who came over earlier kept their own patronym, giving siblings/descendants with different last names.)
But the spelling of the name evolved for a while, becoming only stable with my father’s generation.
So, what difference does it make?
They didn’t change her name. ‘Basia’ is the Polish diminutive for ‘Barbara’. It’s the equivalent of her mother calling her ‘Barb’.
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.
I have two brothers, one is useless for all things so no surprise there, the other one married a woman with about 40 nieces and nephews so they decided they didn’t need their own kids. My father had a brother but he had just one daughter who now has a different last name. Me and my two sons are the only ones left to continue. One or both of them will probably have kids, but I’m in no hurry for grandkids. And if it was that great of a name to start with I’d have a lot more relatives now.
I guess if you do think about it not sleeping around with younger women would be irresponsible of me. Oh, the burden.