Former child actress Kim Richards named her youngest daughter Kimberly.
My brother is a junior.
My paternal family had several generations where Heinrich Johann had a son Johann Heinrich who had a son Heinrich Johann. There were even brothers name Heinrich Johann and Johann Heinrich.
I can’t believe they never thought of using different names.
It was definitely this.
How about boxing legend George Foreman and his five sons, all named George Jr.
From Wikipedia:
Foreman has 12 children: five sons and seven daughters. His five sons are George Jr., George III (“Monk”), George IV (“Big Wheel”), George V (“Red”), and George VI (“Little Joey”)
My boss and her mom are both Cathleen. One goes by Cathy and the other Katie. I think they have different middle names.
My theoretical children should be glad I’m not inclined to do this because the only time I’ve ever heard of my surname being used as a first name, it’s in a scifi story.
Anyway…I had a friend in college named Sarah. Her mom was Sarah too. When you called their house and asked for “Sarah” her dad would inquire if you meant young Sarah or old Sarah. Even at age 20 I couldn’t imagine his wife was amused by this.
Until this thread I have never actually thought about Mothers passing their names to daughters. I’ve never knowingly encountered it in my lifetime.
On the other hand, my father is a Jr who stopped the tradition because he hated being called “little Eddie” growing up.
I know someone who is Robert Jr. even though he is not the eldest son. His older brother is John II, named after his grandfather. Robert’s only son is Robert III. I don’t know if John has a son but if he does, he’s probably John III. I imagine a Robert IV in the not too distant future. This is a southern moneyed family. Naming matters to them, at least for the men.
Henceforth, all children should just be given Gaelic first names that no one can figure out how to pronounce along with a government-issued BLAKE2 cryptographic hash of their entire family tree. Problem solved.
Stranger
My wife’s father is a Jr. Her brother is a III, his son a IV, and he’s having a boy this summer and they’ve already named him V.
On her mother’s side, the first born daughters are named after the grandmothers. So every generation has a “Jane” or a “Susan”, each one named after their grandmothers.
In my family, there’s no rhyme or reason.
Some problems beget others, My Code Name Is Gwynnedd Llewellyn Junior.
I’m pretty certain that Welsh people don’t even understand each other and are just speaking syntactic gibberish:
Stranger
My friend, an only child, was named after her mother. I am female, the youngest of 4, and named Paula after my father Paul. My eldest brother’s middle name was Paul. I highly doubt my parents were narcissistic in naming me after Dad.
Well, you can certainly speak for your own situation.
In my case, I’m the fifth generation eldest son named <myfirstname> <mylastname>. Middle names are the main variable, at least after me. I’m a Junior, my grandfather and his father didn’t use a middle name, but my son has a different middle name from me (and my father), and his son has a different middle name than him (or any of his ancestors).
Seven generations, stretching back to the old country. It makes me look back at the strangers who gave me my heritage and forward to that adorable little boy who will look back at us.
And every one was an Henry
There never was a Willie or a Sam?
My father was “Kent Clark” as was my grandfather. That wasn’t narcissism, that was handing down the family name (a tradition my wife stopped with our sons - although they both have Kent as their middle name.) My mother gave my sister a derivation of my mother’s name (think Mary and Maria) different enough, but also close enough. The topper is my cousin Leslie, who was named after her father.
My mother, who is from a northern European country, was born in 1942. She has the same name as her mother, who was born in, I think, 1901. My mother went by a diminutive of the name – and now, in the states, she goes by and abbreviated, anglicized version of the diminutive.
Thankfully, she did not pass on the name to me, because it is not easily said in English. I still wound up changing my first name though…
Oh, and my grandmother was not at all narcissistic.
When a coworker was seven, her mom was pregnant with her baby sister. She was apparently pretty pissed about no longer being an only child, so her parents promised she could name the baby. She wanted to name the baby Monica, after herself, and apparently it took 9 months of wheedling to get her to compromise slightly and name her sister Monique.
On the plus side, she does adore her kid sister, 30 years on.
And yes, she’s living the dream - her daughter is named Monica and she’s adamant that M2 will be an only child.
When my Grandma was pregnant with my aunt, she received a telegram from two old maid aunts that directed her to name the baby after the two of them if it was a girl. Grandma said “nope, I’m naming the baby after me if by some miracle it’s a girl.” (There were three boys by Grandma, and four by Grandpa’s first wife).
My cousin has a son, David, named after my grandmother, Julian David, who was named after her grandfather.