We have a friend, Mark, whose sister has named her son after him. The baby’s middle name is Mark.
My wife, and Mark’s wife, think this is completely inappropriate. They claim you may only name someone after someone who is dead, unless they are in a direct line of descent. So it would be okay to name the kid after his dad or grand-dad even though they’re still alive, but to name the kid after his uncle as they have done, according to our wives, is inappropriate and wrong.
Are they part of some long lost tribe or order with sacred traditions maybe? Other than that, I call BS. I have never even heard of that before and I know tons of people that were named for living relatives including people in both mine and my wife’s family (both boys and girls).
Incidentally, my mother named my little brother Mark in honor of her brother exactly like in your story. My uncle was pleased just as he should be.
My cousin was named David Roger after my father (Roger) because it was thought that my dad wouldn’t ever have a boy. This was before I came along, obviously, but my dad was honored.
Unless there’s some sort of religious aspect, I know of no convention except there’s something about naming a boy numerically (the second, third, etc), but I don’t recall exactly what it is.
I think the ladies need to settle down. You don’t mention whether Mark himself has a problem with it… if he doesn’t (and perhaps even if he does), then who cares?
According to Miss Manners, not only can you name your child after a brother or an uncle or a grandfather, but that kid can even be styled “Mike junior” or whatever.
So in theory you could have Mike, his nephew, Mike junior, and then the first Mike and his disgruntled wife name their own son Mike, thus creating a second Mike junior.
I highly recommend reading Miss Manners’ Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior for all questions of this nature. Miss Manners knows everything.
My brother’s friend named his baby after my brother, who speaks Chinese, and went with the wife to her prenatal visits to translate for her. It’s considered an honor to have a child named after you (at least in the circles I run in) and it’s also an honor for the kid to be named after a loved one. I’ve never heard that it’s bad form to name a baby after a living person. Particularly if it’s a middle name. WTF??
Actually, the Jewish prohibition on naming children after living relatives is only among Ashkanazi jews, those whose ancestors are from Central and Eastern Europe. On the other hand, Sephardic jews, those whose ancestors are from Spain, the Middle East and North Africa, consider it an honor to name a child after a living relative.