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"Name Fight"

A couple to took their name debate to the internet; link to article is belowhttps://ca.shine.yahoo.com/father-to-be-creates-online-petition-to-settle-baby-name-dispute-203821565.htmlThe father is Greek and indeed in Greek families naming is serious business. Greek grandparents to be may threaten to never speak to their children again if a grandchild is not named after them. Middle names do not count. Middle names are very rarely used in Greece. The reason I have heard in my Greek community as to why this old tradition has endured is because it all about respect for your parents. Disrespect to your parents is a cardinal sin in Greek communities. Any way - your thoughts on the debate and on the actual name as well. Please.Spyridon. Also this name is almost shortened to Spyro or Spiro.
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This was posted already.
http://www.behindthename.com/bb/baby/4600612
The thing is, both Michael and Spyridon are names of grandparents in this situation– Michael is Mom's Dad, and Spyridon is Dad's Dad. While I'd love to see a baby Spyridon over a baby Michael, why should this naming tradition only honor the Greek parents? Like, NO, you must honor US and it's disrespect if you honor your WIFE'S parents instead! Disowned, son!
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There is an order. The first child in named after the paternal grandparents and the second child is after the maternal grandparents. If you have four children each child will be named after each grandparent. I think the issue with this family is the girl doesn't want to ever use the name Spyridon.
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If she is dead set against using Spyridon, she needs to give up Michael. If she names this baby Michael, her husband can very easily say "Well, you named our last son after your dad, so this one is going to be named after mine."HOWEVER, I read the petition and it said that mom gets 100% naming rights if the baby were a girl– which means Dad doesn't care so much about naming a baby after his mother. Not sure the tradition would continue if this was a daughter.
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Maybe his mother has already been honored by a sibling. Maybe she has been honored twice over by two siblings. In my family two of my three brothers honored my dad so I have nephew George and a niece Georgina. However my mother Demetra has yet to be honored and my brother Antonio and his wife really dislike Demetri and Demetra and they didn't want to do another George name. It caused hardship in my family when they chose to name their daughter Selena and then when their son was born they named him Niko. It is up to me to make sure my mom is honored now.
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I feel like honoring should be an honor, not an expectation. I understand traditions, but still believe that people should respect the decisions of their children in these matters. I mean, the parents raised the their children so when their children become adults, their decisions (including names) reflect how they were raised. To be disappointed in the name of a grandchild is allowable. Voicing those opinions is really just hurtful.I don't mean this against your cultural traditions at all. I am well aware of cultural naming traditions and have experienced the tension. Still, I think there comes a point when anger over unmet expectations becomes petty.
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This kind of threatening to cut off happens only in very traditional Greek families. I have serveral family members who are Greek and live in Greece - and none of them named their children after family. In fact, a couple of them didn't even use Greek names!Someone else posted about this article a few days ago. I said then that I thought it was silly because the parents are refusing to compromise. When you marry into a different culture or ethnicity than your own - compromise is a given. Even if middle names are not customary, that doesn't mean that one parent gets to claim tradition over the other parent. If these parents cannot compromise to using both names, or agree together to use one or the other... then they need to look for a whole new name. Asking the internet to decide is childish and silly. If it helps, my daughter has Filipino, Italian and American heritage. My parents insisted on several names to honor family (they are from Italy)... my husband wanted a Tagalog name that represents us (he is from Philippines)... and I just wanted a name that was meaningful and would work well in the States, where we live. She ended up with three names, the first our choice and meaningful, the second Tagalog and the third an Italian family name. See? Compromise on all sides. It works.

This message was edited 4/17/2015, 9:09 AM

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