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HelpRe: What do honoring names mean to you? :)
in reply to a message by Xena
I think you should only use a name honoring a person you know who means a lot to you, or that honors a branch of your family* or place/thing that is significant for you. I also think if there's a tradition going in your family that you appreciate, you ought to try to stay with it.
*I considered using the name of my great-great-grandfather for my youngest's middle name, not because I knew him, but because my own grandpa wished someone would--so it would've honored my grandpa over the name-bearer himself.
My family has a mix of honoring and non-honoring names. My own name doesn't have anything, it's just a name my parents liked. It always bothered me as a kid, I felt like that wasn't nearly as substantial. It was my goal to use an honoring middle name for my kids. I think it's also nice to give them something new, and actually liking the name is of utmost importance. If it wasn't, my youngest's middle name would be after my dad. But... ehhhhh.
His middle name actually doesn't intentionally honor anyone, although it coincidentally is the same as one of his great-grandfathers. I chose it because the meaning of it was something that I had a vision of, and I also like it, and he was so friggin hard to name that it just happened to be the combo that we most agreed on.
*I considered using the name of my great-great-grandfather for my youngest's middle name, not because I knew him, but because my own grandpa wished someone would--so it would've honored my grandpa over the name-bearer himself.
My family has a mix of honoring and non-honoring names. My own name doesn't have anything, it's just a name my parents liked. It always bothered me as a kid, I felt like that wasn't nearly as substantial. It was my goal to use an honoring middle name for my kids. I think it's also nice to give them something new, and actually liking the name is of utmost importance. If it wasn't, my youngest's middle name would be after my dad. But... ehhhhh.
His middle name actually doesn't intentionally honor anyone, although it coincidentally is the same as one of his great-grandfathers. I chose it because the meaning of it was something that I had a vision of, and I also like it, and he was so friggin hard to name that it just happened to be the combo that we most agreed on.
This message was edited 3/22/2019, 12:34 PM
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Replies
Honoring is done on both sides of my family. On my husband's side saints names are also very important.
My daughter's name does an incredible amount of honoring. Her first name, Miriam, was chosen for a multitude of reasons. My dad is a minister and I always wanted to use a Old Testament name. She has two middle names, Elizabeth and Mae. My middle name is Elizabeth and my husband wanted to use it to honor me. It's also the name of her godmother, my husband's sister. Mae was the name of my husband's grandmother. Elizabeth also referred to Elizabeth Ann Seton, making sure that my daughter is also named after a saint.
I love the idea of my daughter's name having so much history and weight. She's named after some pretty cool women, in fact my husband will often bemoan the fact that he named his daughter after the three most stubborn women he knows. It also has a lot of history to it, with Miriam being used for thousands of years.
The only thing about honoring I don't like it when people go to the family tree and find names that they like, use them, and then claim it's honoring. My cousin did this, he chose Josephine after our great grandmother. She was not a particularly nice or loving person, and none of us have any memories of her at all. If I remember correctly she would have died in the 50s or 60s, well before we were all born. ( my grandfather was the youngest of seven and was born in 1915)
My daughter's name does an incredible amount of honoring. Her first name, Miriam, was chosen for a multitude of reasons. My dad is a minister and I always wanted to use a Old Testament name. She has two middle names, Elizabeth and Mae. My middle name is Elizabeth and my husband wanted to use it to honor me. It's also the name of her godmother, my husband's sister. Mae was the name of my husband's grandmother. Elizabeth also referred to Elizabeth Ann Seton, making sure that my daughter is also named after a saint.
I love the idea of my daughter's name having so much history and weight. She's named after some pretty cool women, in fact my husband will often bemoan the fact that he named his daughter after the three most stubborn women he knows. It also has a lot of history to it, with Miriam being used for thousands of years.
The only thing about honoring I don't like it when people go to the family tree and find names that they like, use them, and then claim it's honoring. My cousin did this, he chose Josephine after our great grandmother. She was not a particularly nice or loving person, and none of us have any memories of her at all. If I remember correctly she would have died in the 50s or 60s, well before we were all born. ( my grandfather was the youngest of seven and was born in 1915)
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Yeah, I also agree that honoring names should have some emotional significance.
It's interesting that as a kid it bothered you that you didn't have that honoring name. I personally strongly disliked my honoring middle name as a kid (say, elementary through high school) because it was so old fashioned and my dad actually misspelled his mother's name on my birth certificate. Whoops.
It's interesting that as a kid it bothered you that you didn't have that honoring name. I personally strongly disliked my honoring middle name as a kid (say, elementary through high school) because it was so old fashioned and my dad actually misspelled his mother's name on my birth certificate. Whoops.
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