Emily writes:<\/p>\n
My husband and I have talked about what we would name our children for years before we actually decided to have them. Now, we’re pregnant with our first and we are so excited. We both agreed that if it was a boy we will name it August Wade. August after my great grandfather and Wade after my husband’s middle name. If it is a girl, we decided on Finley Diane. Finley because we like it and Diane after my mom’s and my middle name.<\/p>\n
Before my grandfather passed away a few years ago, we told him that in the future, if we have a boy, we would love to name him after his father. He was very moved and it was a special moment. About a year later, we were discussing future baby names with my sister-in-law and she mentioned that the only name that she and my brother could agree on is August. At first, we were a little thrown off, since they were there when we told my grandfather our future plans. But, then we decided that we would still go forward with naming our baby August if we had a boy some day.<\/p>\n
Another year passed, and my brother and sister-in-law shared the happy news that they were pregnant. A few months later, we found out that they were having a boy. Around this time we found out we were also expecting our first child, but have decided that we would not find out the gender until the baby is born. They have decided to go ahead and name their sweet baby August and my brother checked with me first to see if that would be alright. I told him that would be great, but that we were most likely also naming our baby August.<\/p>\n
We don’t live in the same state and will most likely not ever be living in the same state. So, in the event that we do have a boy, our children will only be in the same place for family holidays and vacations. I’m curious if this is something we should do or just except defeat and find a different name. Is this appropriate? In our opinion, it is a family name, so it seems acceptable to pass it down. Also, they will both have a different last name as well.<\/p>\n
Any thoughts on the etiquette of cousins with the same name?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
I am posting this in part because it is such a happy example of the absolute IDEAL when it comes to duplicate names in a family: everything is clear and upfront, and everyone is staying sane and pleasant. Really, this hit the spot this morning, when I am reading a book with some dreadful behavior in it and was starting to despair for humankind.<\/p>\n
Definitely both families might have preferred to have their August be the only one in the family (in this generation, I mean, since the children are being named for another family member named August), but I think the thing to do is put the preferences on a balance scale: which weighs more, your preference that your August be the only one in his generation of your family, or your preference for your favorite name? If your preference to avoid a duplicate does turn out to weigh more, then there is still time to change your mind—or perhaps the baby will be a girl, giving you more time to think it over.<\/p>\n
I think this whole thing is going just beautifully. I think both families have good reasons to use the name, and I see nothing wrong with you both using it if you do have a boy; in fact, I think it’s charming to have cousins with the same name, and that it can give them a special bond. I love that the first discussion happened before anyone was pregnant, and that there was a re-visiting of the discussion after both pregnancies occurred, so that everyone can make their final decision based on the knowledge that the name will likely be shared. And the boys will likely have different middle names as well as different last names, so the confusion will be minimal and easy to work around: they can go by August Wade and August ___, or by A.W. and A._., or by whatever other nicknames the family finds. I think the whole plan is great and I want to kiss you all for being so lovely and reasonable.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Name update!<\/strong><\/p>\n
Was reading your blog in preparation for a future kid someday ;) and wanted to send an update on the naming of our baby BOY from your 2\/4\/14 post. We ended up having a boy and named him Augustus River Wade. He goes by River. Thanks for your help and all of your encouragement for having two cousins with the same name!<\/p>\n
Emily<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Emily writes: My husband and I have talked about what we would name our children for years before we actually decided to have them. Now, we’re pregnant with our first and we are so excited. We both agreed that if it was a boy we will name it August Wade. August after my great grandfather […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2ee","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8570"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11562,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8570\/revisions\/11562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}