Hellobee Boards

My grandpa was Kenneth something, my dad is Kenneth Raymond and my brother is Kenneth micheal. This only led to a tiny bit of confusion with my dads family. They called my dad Kenny and my brother baby Kenny or little Kenny. It worked out well for the most part.

We call our son baby brownie all the time and use other affectionate names so it seems less important.

GFIL is Kenneth. FIL is Kenneth Scott (goes by Scotty). DH is Kenneth Bradley (goes by Bradley), and BIL is Garrett Scott (goes by Garrett). So, everyone shares some part of their name with another male in the family (DH is named after his uncle who passed away as a young adult in a motorcycle accident)

Before we knew we were having a girl we had picked out a boy name (Lucas Scott). The family tradition was still included and I got to help pick out a name also. We also decided that if the baby was a girl, we would use a name from my family. That was our compromise.

I'm a big fan of tradition, so I'd use the name, and maybe try to come up with a nickname to make it less confusing when your with your fil. I have a friend who did this, she calls her son sj for Sam junior.

@zippylef: This.

My husband and I will likely use family names. But we will be sure that if the first name comes from one side the middle name comes from the other side. Tradition is nice, but I dont think it's fair for you to have to do something you're uncomfortable with just because it's his family tradition. I like Mark Robert or John Robert. And honestly of he or his family had a problem with that compromise I think that's really unreasonable!

I think its pretty cool that the boys in your family will have similar names, however, I voted for something new. Rather than go with Mark John or John Mark, I agree with @mamamoose - what about using just one of those names and choosing a different middle name?
I love Mark and John though - such classic boys names (that are cute when they are little, but hold up once they're adults).

@Jedeve: you can skip the Jr. designation and just do "II, i.e. the second" however when i hear that I automatically think that the child is directly named after their father which doesn't appear to be the situation in your case.

I picked other because I don't feel it should be solely your husband's tradition as you and him are a family yourself and should be able to start some new/blended traditions of your own. Perhaps DH could pick one of the names and then pick a name from your side of the family to include as well.

I am all for including family names as DD was named after DH's maternal grandmother and a random middle name picked by DH (I actually insisted on the first name because I love it). We are pregnant with #2 and are team green so I'm working hard to incorporate a name shared by family members on each side into the name if we have a girl. If we have a boy it is a little more complicated because there is a tradition of having George as one of the names for a male: FIL is Ernst George but goes by George, DH's older brother is George something and also goes by George, nephew is Nicholas George goes by Nicholas and DH is Christopher George goes by Chris. I hate when people refer to their children by their middle name (since my opinion is if you wanted to call them that then it should have been their first name). I've put my foot down and told DH that we do not need anymore people who go by George in the family because it is confusing enough with the two we have and therefore I've relegated George to the middle name.

Hope for a girl?

If we have a boy, we've picked out a name that we both love. The middle name will be my dad's name, which is also my brother's (who passed away) name. Hubby said suggested his dad's name one time as the middle name, but I told him his dad gets the same last name. The middle name is for both my dad and brother. We haven't decided on a girl's name.

I like tradition and would go with Mark John and give a middle name from your family. You could take the Mark and add something from your family.