She couldn’t name a son “Autumn”?
Well, it certainly wasn’t her dream.
Probably all for the best. Can you imagine if she did have a kid, and it turned out to be real klutzy, and was always FALLing down?
“Hey, Autumn! Have a good FALL?” People would say that even if it didn’t happen a lot. Heck, if it didn’t happen often, bystanders would forever be thinking they came up with an original joke. 
Hah! I got that reference!
Never had kids, but always thought if I had a daughter I’d lobby for her name to be Kalynda Rhiannon Surname. The first name lends itself to enough nicknames that she can be whoever she wants.
Once in one of my classes, a student was looking at the box of tissues in the room, and saw the brand name on the box, “Willow” (Aldi’s house brand), and pondered that it would be a pretty name for an eventual daughter. I told her that if she ever did end up having a daughter named “Willow”, she had to promise me that she’d never tell the poor kid that she was named after a box of tissues.
And which one is supposed to be pronounced slightly differently.
Like “Zathras.”
Ha, no. The Vorkosigan Saga. I find it rather ironic that my autistic son is named after a Machiavellian social genius. I can’t wait until he asks me where his name came from and I can dump 19 books on his desk and say, “Get reading.”
Maybe he’ll learn something.
I went to an all boys school. A small private school at which my father taught. There were 18 boys in 4th grade. 7 of them were named Jo(h)n. One went by Jack. The Jon went by Jonathan. The other 5 had to fight it out.
Twice in the past year I’ve had four of the same name in a class. One of them was Elizabeths, which fortunately has a very large number of variants. The other was Graces, which doesn’t.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s noticed that the popularity of boys’ names mostly stays fairly stable (John and Michael and Peter and so on will always be near the top of the list) but that girls’ names come in waves. I think that it’s because men will often name their sons after themselves, so what’s popular in one generation will still be popular in the next… but women will often name their daughters after their own grandmothers, so what’s popular now is what was popular three generations ago.
People can and do get possessive about everything imaginable and unimaginable.
My son, born 2006, is named John. My husband and I were not fans of Maddysin/Haydyyn/Eeainn (when you’re in love, the whole world is Welsh) or “Neveah”-- “Heaven” spelled backward…uh, wait-- WITEOUT! but our son is actually named after my oldest childhood friend, who sadly died when we were 34.
He probably would have been called something like “John,” though. We thought briefly about Stephen Jay Gould Maccaby.
Oddly, among his classmates, he had one “Jon” classmate who was a Jonathan, and our John has always gone by Johnny, so, no issues. We asked him a couple of times, around his bar mitzvah, and again when he was around 16, if he wanted to be “John” now that he was older, and he did not.
A few years after Jonathan, there was another John who went by Jack, and later a John, jr., who went by JJ. That’s about it for classmates also named John. In high school, there is a girl Joanna, who went by “Jonie,” pronounced like “Johnny,” but he never had a class with her.
Al would call him “Tony Uncle Johnny.”
But then again, “Tony Uncle Al” is never called that on the show as an adult. He is Tony Blundetto and he only ever gets called “Tony B.” So, maybe you make a switch as an adult or when the show’s writers realize “Tony B.” is easier to type out than “Tony Uncle Al.”
It’s a English tradition anyway, and Aus was still a bit English at the time, but me and my friends in class (Melbourne, Melbourne, Melbourne and Melbourne) all went by our last names. As it happens, we were outnumbered by the group with variations of the name Chris, because that group included both girls and guys.
I have often counseled that folks married or in other committed relationships should only date other people with the same name as their SO.
That can avoid a LOT of embarrassment after using the wrong name in a moment of excitement or inattention.
What if a member of this compliant clan of Reusses decided not to name his son Henry 48 or Heinz 57, or what-the-Hank-ever the kid’s scheduled to be named? If Henry the 17th named his boy Fritz or Jocko or Axelrod, would he be fined or jailed, and by what authority? How many of these unfortunate H+Xs change their name to Bill or George or anything but Heinrich “The Next” Reuss on the day they turn 18? Are they particularly forbidden by law to change their names? That doesn’t sound very fair, or very enforceable.
Hmmm… I’m named after my Uncle, my cousin is named after her aunt (my mom). Another Aunt named her child and a different aunt named her child the same thing. Close to the same age.
We now have 5 Lisa’s in our life.
My Wifes two best friends are named Lisa.
Our realtor is named Lisa.
One of my best friends name is Lisa
My Wifes boss is another Lisa.
Context helps, but it does get pretty darn confusing sometimes. “Wait, who are you talking about”
I was named after my older brother, who died at birth 12 short months before I came along.
When I worked on the North Slope of Alaska, my team of 10 had 5 Steves, one of whom was Steve Stevens.
When I worked in Saudi Arabia, fully half of the Saudi men I worked with were either Abdullah or Mohammed.
All of which was good practice for becoming a classroom teacher later in life.
Of course there’s a lot of nuance built-in here. It’s not possible to steal a name like Greg since it’s so common. If you never mentioned to your cousin that you planned to name your child Pubert, it’s not like she intentionally stepped on your toes. More likely you both picked up subconscious cues about an emerging trendy name, and you both should reconsider because it’ll probably be seen as played-out in 5-10 years.
But in general, if the person could’ve been aware of the conflict, I’d put this in the same category as someone out-dressing the bride on the wedding day. Of course there’s no law against it, people can do as they will, but if you’re inconsiderately stealing someone’s “thing” then you’re not a very nice person.
A good friend of mine was named after his parents’ first child who died as an infant. He never minded it, and it comforted his mom (who he adored).
The dachshund my siblings and I grew up with was named Carla. I always felt just a tiny bit weird when I met people-Carlas IRL.
We had (three of the four are now deceased) two sets of neighbors. Both husbands were Jim, and both wives were Karen.
One of my brother’s friends married for the second time to a woman who had the same name as his first wife. At first I was confused when he talked about either one of them by name until I asked him to clarify. He said it made things simple: didn’t have to change any monograms or worry about blurting out the wrong name at the least opportune times.