Conference oass::babynames

    My brother is a junior and his middle name is a family name which
    was not to useful - Sisler.  My mother never wanted to name him
    that, but my father really wanted it.  She said fine, but she would
    never call him that, too confusing having two in the same house.
    Thank goodness she picked an nickname which has been one he could
    live with - Skip.  He was Skipper until he outgrew that.  He has
    never liked being a junior and has always gone by Skip.  
    
    At least part of the name should be your own.  Children are definitely
    part of their parents, but not clones!
    
    BTW, I have some friends whose child has a V after his name.  People
    ask what it means.  He really is Harry the Fifth!  His mom can't
    believe none of them ever went by their middle name, Taylor, which
    is a nice name, so that's what he goes by.
    
    Robin
    

    
    My family has a solution to 'confusion clone' problem.  I talk
    about this under the note 'Italian Name Traditions' but I'll
    mention it here too...
    We switch the first two names in every generation of the first
    born male (so far, there has been at least one male for as far
    back as we can account for).
    ie:
         my grandfather's name : Charles Salvatore Saranita
         my father :             Salvatore Charles Saranita  (Sam)
         my (only) brother :     Charles Salvatore Saranita
    
    now, the only time this causes confusion is when the whole family
    is together, like on Sunday's and Holidays and then, the only person
    who calls my grandfather Charlie , is my Grandmother. We calls
    him Grandpa and my parents cal him Dad... no confusion.  
    
    
    Of course, these names allow for a lot of variation....Chuck, Chaz,
    Sam, Sal....  This is a true Italian Tradition (we're Sicilian),
    we
    didnt make it up, I know of 2 other families who also do this. 
    
    It also is a way of keeping family heirlooms through the generations,
    my grandfather will leave things to my brother...like gold cufflinks
    with 'their' initials on them.....
    
    It's a way of preserving the family name without confusion.....
    
    Loreen
    

    My brother and father are both Joseph D. Bryant, but my brother
    is not a junior.  (One middle name is Donald, one is David.)  This
    is even more confusing than being a junior, especially since they
    work at the same company.
    
    My brother has always been Jody (Joe D., get it?), so there's never
    been confusion in the family.  My mother said she felt bad when
    a couple years after he was born, Jody became popular as a girl's
    name, but Jody has always preferred it to Joe.
    
    -Tracy

    
    My wife and I both liked my Grandfathers name "WARREN". There were
    already enough Warren Drurys' in the family, so our son became
    Thomas Warren. 
    I'm also another person who is against the JR tag.
                                             Joe D.

    My stepson's name is Karl Harry Walser II.  He is actually only
    a "Jr.", tho.  I guess no one griped about the error back then when
    my wife and her first husband named him.
    
    In .0 or .1 someone mentioned the use of diminutive names - Karl's
    maternal grandfather (respective ages 12 & ~60) calls him "Karlie" which
    just drives all of us up the wall, sounding so feminine.
    
    Al

	My full name is Frank McEwen Foster, Jr.  

	It is not always fun to be a Jr.  When I was a kid, they called
	me "Mac" from my middle name, but in Jr. High I started to 
	go by Frank.  My parents, sisters, and other relatives and 
	childhood friends still call me Mac (which, BTW, I don't hate 
	now the way I did when I was 12).

	Problems arise because many computerized systems are unable
	to correctly handle the Jr.   DEC has the Jr. in their
	systems but it doesn't always show up or it shows up in 
	the wrong place.  (Look me up in the DEC phone book).
	It's irritating because the Jr. is a legal part of my name
	(despite what DCU insists).
	
	My wife and I decided early on there would be no 
	Frank McEwen Foster, III.  Our son is Robert McEwen Foster.

	The often confusing part of it is that my father and I have
	the same birthday.  It never really caused us any problems,
	but the system used by some states to issue drivers licence numbers 
	would have caused us to have the same number.  It's based on
	first, middle, last, names and birthday, excluding year.  Maryland
	and Michigan are 2 states that use this system; I have lived in 
	both, but my Dad lives in Ohio, so we've never experienced this
	first-hand.

	BTW, as a 1956 kid, I liked being Frank because it is not real
	common among people my age and it's very difficult to misspell
	or mispronounce.

Frank

    My father is Bryan Jennings Springer JR. and my little brother is
    the third. We have always called him "B III" but I don't know where
    they came up with that. We have not had a problem yet. "B" seems
    to like being named after his father, he thinks the "III" adds 
    character.

    My fathers name is John Joseph Hughes and mine is John Patrick Hughes,
    even with out the Senior, Junior titles, it has caused confusion.
    I am in the process of buying my first home, which in it self is
    a good topic for the REAL_ESTATE notes file, but one step along the way was
    the result of this very topic. When I received a copy of my credit
    report, my father's credit cards were showing up. At first I didn't
    make the connection, I didn't know who's cards they were. Once I
    realized what was going on, both my father and I resolved the issue
    in a matter of days, 3 to be exact. At the time it seemed hopeless,
    but after all was said and done, it doesn't seem so bad.
    
    Now that my wife and I are expecting our first, we have already
    decided that Juniors are out of the question. My father say's that
    in Ireland, the first born male takes the grandfathers first name
    and the fathers first name as a middle. Which would have made my name 
    Patrick John Hughes. I not sure if this is true or not? 
    Anyone else ever hear any thing like this about the Irish? Well, since 
    this has been broken in my family, my wife and I have decided if it's 
    a boy, we will name him Patrick Ryan Hughes, no matter what my mother 
    says... and believe me she hates the name Patrick. We can't seem
    to decide on a girls name, which probably means we have one, but
    we still have plenty of time, the boys name only came about after
    the issue on the credit report...
    
    						-JpH-
    
    
    

    My fiance is a JR. also.  He is very much against a David Rennie
    Porter III  - this is fine with me although I do like the name
    David.
    
    Maybe we will use David as a middle name someday...

    In my family the problem is even worse than most of you have described.
    I am a junior, and as a girl this had led to some pretty strange
    things.  Most people don't think of girls as Juniors, but until
    I got married my voter registration was as Nancy Jr.  This used
    to cause all kinds of confusion.
    
    To make matters worse, my oldest brother is a junior.  So, my father
    is William Conrad, and so is my brother.  Unfortunately my mother's
    father is also William, as is his son William Jr., and his son William
    the third.  Let me tell you, when the whole family gets together
    we have 5 Bill's, 2 Peter's, and 2 Nancy's.  
    
    I am still Little Nancy to my grandparents and I am taller than
    my mother.
    
    Since my husband is Jewish, it is bad luck to name people Jr., so
    we don't have to worry about that problem, but I would never stick
    a kid with it.

    When my mother and father were trying to decide what to name me,
    my dad desperately wanted me to be named after him, but my mom was
    dead set against JR.  Therefore, I was given the same first and
    middle name as my father but with a II.  While I was growing up,
    I went by "Kenny" until I was in high school when of course that
    was considered unsophisticated.  Most of my friends solved the confusion
    factor on the telephone by asking for "Ken the younger".  Now, I
    go by Ken with the exception of a few close friends which is OK
    just because it sounds natural.  Besides, my dad and I used to have
    alot of fun signing letters top each other with our Roman numerals.
    I also have fun signing things that may result in Junk mail as K.
    Frederick Fulton II.
    
    Now, we are expecting our second child.  When we had our first,
    we didn't even consider naming him (assuming a boy) after my dad
    and myself (as it turned out, a girl named Jessica Jael).  It would
    have been OK by me, except that I don't want to saddle my son with
    "Kenny".  But since then, my father has passed away and I found out 
    that he had been somewhat disappointed that we hadn't been considering 
    it.  My wife thought that I might want to consider it for our second
    since my dad and I were so close.  We still haven't figured out
    a good nick name though.  (I suggested Trey for III, but my wife
    [Jael] didn't like it.)
    
    Ken Fulton
    

    TALK ABOUT BEING A JUNIOR.
    
    MY GRANFATHER IS NATHAN SMITH THE 6 AND THEN MY UNCLE THE 7TH AND THEN
    HIS SON IS THE 8TH AND MY GRANDFATHERS FATHER WAS THE 5TH AND BACK IT
    WENT TRY FIGURING OUT WHO IS WHO AND WHEN YOU YELL FOR NATE THEY ALL
    TURN AROUND AND THERE IS REALLY NO NICKNAME TO CALL THEM. 
    CONFUSING.....

    You should call them by their numbers!
    

    My in-laws were Robert and Catherine and so my husband and I are Robert
    and Katherine (close enuf).  My husband wants to name this kid Robert
    or Katherine
    
    YUCK!
    
    Does anyone like the name Alex Dunn?  It's my father's name and I don't
    know if it sounds quite right.  Kinda hard to get used to it when you're too
    close to the situation.  Would love some feedback.....My husband will
    never go for it though...but it's worth a try
    
    Kathy

    Al Dunn...All done?
    
    

My husband and I are expecting in August.... for a boy we have chosen..

Alexander Peter Dunn