What Are Everyone's Thoughts on Jr. Names?

My son is named after my husband, but I don't like the idea of anyone calling him just "Junior". Instead we call him "RJ" as a nickname the J for Junior. There are tons of juniors in the family that are just called "Junior" it gets confusing. I think it a great idea and honor to carry down the name, just find a way to make it different, but the same.

I'm not a fan of this tradition. I think everyone deserves their own first name. Having grown up in a house with a brother and stepbrother with the same first name, I can tell you there is always mass confusion when the phone rings, etc. as the child gets older. Others have pointed out credit issues, etc. I also don't like the idea of naming someone as a junior, but then using a nickname. Why bother? Name the child what you will call him/her.

My husband is a Jr, but actually the 3rd with the same first name (his grandpa had a different middle name), so my son has different middle name than his dad, grandpa and great grandpa. I wanted him to have his own identity while having the family name. Seems to have worked out well so far.

When we were expecting I asked my husband if he would like a Jr. and he said NO! I asked him why, he said because I want our child to be his own person, have his own name and feel free to be his own person. He said i want his name to be a strong name that everyone will remember when they see him and giving him my name is not going to do that. So we named him Hans. He will be 19 years old this month and I am telling you the name Jr. would have not fit him. My husband was 100% right. He is his own person and in high school everyone knew who Hans was, he wasn't just a face in the crowd.

Congrats on the up coming baby.

I work at a credit reporting agency and can tell you 1000s of stories when the dad and son's files have merged. Normally, we hear about it because one of the two (most likely the dad) has bad credit. It can be a nightmare to figure out. Common names (Mary Adams, John Smith, etc.) merge from time to time as well, regardless if they have ever lived in the same house. But when you have 2 people with the same name (minus one letter "S and J - Sr. and Jr.), more times than not, they will merge. Even after we are notified, many files continue to merge.

With that, I always advise people never to name their son after their husband. If anything, name him after a grandfather (only if the name is different).

I am not a huge fan of "juniors" really. I agree with the other mom about the Little Larry and Big Larry. I have a cousin who is Little Marty even though he is 40 some odd years old. Would your hubby be okay about turning into "Big..."? I also have a friend with a jr. and to not confuse the son and dad sometimes she'll just yell out "hey junior!" which personally I can't stand. Good luck and congrats!

My inlaws didn't want to call their son, my husband, Junior, they didn't like that so they gave him a roman numeral II and called him a nickname. It worked well, now we have III and he's got his own variation on that name so it all works fine, I was worried as you are so thought I'd share our success. Be careful about nicknames, they really stick through adulthood and while a goober kind of name is cute at 2-9, and funny in teen years, a 37-year-old man is stuck with relatives still calling him that name. My DH is okay with that, but it would be aggravating to me if people still called me the silly stuff they called me.

Also another funny thing about Jr names is that my sister's son is named for his dad, only with a different spelling, though pronounced the same. When he was young, you could tell who she meant by the tone of voice, but now that he's a teen, we kept having to say which one. It was Big R & Little R. Well "Little" R is a defensive & offensive lineman on the varsity team in his SOPHOMORE year! Now it's the big joke to call him Little, especially since he's bigger than any and all of us. It's kind of like calling an elephant "Tiny" - not that he's an elephant lol. But you get the idea. It's a lot of fun.

Congrats on your bundle of joy & good luck!
D.

Tough one.....if Dad has his heart set on naming the baby with his first name Junior makes more sense than not. My ex has the same first name as his father, but a different middle name. His parents opted to call him by his middle name until he entered school. Then, the school encouraged the switch to his legal first name being used as his first name. He had to accept being called by both names( one at school, one at home) until he became an adult. He found it very confusing as a child.
My brother is a JR. Again he had the same first name as dad, but we found a way to make the difference noticable when calling them....until my brother became a "teen". This is when he no longer wanted to be be "Johnny" but John, then came the "Big John/Little John" issue. "Little John" soon grew to make "Big John" look like a dwarf! Dad was a little man, but my brother was over 6ft tall by age 14!.....My brother never really had identity issues, but there have been plenty of times it is confusing to determine which "John" people were talking about or to.

My sister and he husband gave their son his father's first name as his middle name....this has honored Dad, and given her son his own identity. What is even cooler about this, is her second son also has Dad's first name as a middle name. Neither son honors Dad any more or less than other.

My husband and I opted to give our boys names that were not reflected within the family to avoid any issues of this type......I look at the movie "MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING" as an example of taking the family names a bit too far....When the bride's father introduces his brothers, nephews and nieces there are so many "NICKYS" it seems as though everyone has the same name!

If you are planning to give your son a junior name, keep this in mind. Most people use a nickname (my situation). You can put the nickname on some stuff, but the school stuff has to have their legal name on it.

So when they do roll call in a class, if you use a nickname, the teacher will call the given name and your son will have to tell them to use the nickname.

I didn't find them too strict about this in grade school, but high school is another story. My son's name is kind of unusual so he doesn't enjoy it.

M.

Personally, I don't like juniors. I know it's a great honor, but it's just too confusing in our modern world. They will get mixed up all the time with official forms, etc.

I was married previously to a II, and his credit report would get mixed up with his dad's all the time (which wasn't a good thing). Also, being a J., I ended up with the same name as my half-sister-in-law. We all went to church together, and we would always get mixed up. I got calls about Sunday school, etc, when I didn't even have kids - they wanted her.

I could go on & on.

In our family now, we have just honored people with middle names. For example, my grandmother is Lillian, so my daughter's middle name is Lillian.

Well, that's my 2 cents. Good luck whatever you decide!

This article was on MSNBC a week or so ago:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31416975/ns/health-mens_health/

Your child will be his own person. Give him his own name.

On the more practical side though, identity issues can and will be a problem My mom and I have similar names (but not the same) and we have had mixups on our credit reports.

Anna,

Like others have said, it really is up to you. We're not fans of a Jr. either, so my son has my husband's first name but a different middle name. We love it!

CONGRATULATIONS!!

In our circle of friends I think there are only a couple of people who did this. I am not sure how it works out for them on a daily basis. I know is that it is awkward to ask for/about "Big Larry" or "Little Larry", for example, instead of just using their normal names. But, how else do people clarify which person they are talking about when the context isn't clear? And I am sure "Little Larry" will get tired of being called that at some point.

I guess I could say, "How is Larry, Jr. doing?" but it seems odd to call a two year old that. I know a friend (was high school age at the time) whose father answered the phone and the girl on the other end asked for "John", and he said, "This is John" and the girl asked him to go to the school dance with her. And he said, "Oh, you must mean my son, John Jr?" I can imagine the girl was a little embarrassed!

Whatever name you choose, good luck!!

This is a very personal decision, but we decided to use a different first name and use my husband's middle name. My husband is Timothy John and our son is Tyler John, but we call him TJ.

The reason we decided to do it this way was because my cousin is a Jr. and he doesn't like it. The IRS confuses the Dad and the kid all the time, even though they have different SS#'s. Growing up it was "Big Pete" and "Little Pete" and he didn't like being called little.

I left it up to my husband since we had decided to call him TJ and just needed to put names to it. I wouldn't have minded a Jr. but he insisted on not doing the Jr. thing.

Best of luck to you. It really doesn't matter what you decide...your child will be well loved and will grow into his or her name...congratulations!

i think it is a very awsome thing to name your child after your husband. I have a son who is a III and we are so proud of that. It can be little confusing when grandpa, daddy and son are around, but we just chuckle and enjoy. Hope this helps.

You have to be careful. I have a friend who is a Jr and it's caused problems all of his life. His parents ended up getting into financial difficulties and it has had a domino effect on his life/ credit history. Not saying that you would get into this but it's something to be careful of. The same holds true if your son were to have legal trouble...not that you want to think of this now but you have to be practical. You guys could run up against problems if *he* were to have problems.

Not to mention, calling someone "Jr" could set the child up for complex issues. I would stay away from it. It's just not a good idea any more.

Just my .02 though. Good luck.
N.

Every child is their own person. If you want put your husbands name in the middle. Do NOT do it!!

In my extended family I have an uncle who is a junior and two cousins who have the same first name as their father, but different middle names. My older cousins still call my uncle "Uncle Junior" and he is almost 80 years old! One of the cousins is always John Anthony because once he hit his teenage years big John and little John just bothered him too much. With my own son we went with the same first name and different middle name, but my husband's first name allows for two different common names so my husband is Bob and my son is Rob. This way we can easily call them without any confusion as to who we want. We also figure that when my son gets older it will be easier to separate mail and such with the different middle name, although we did make the mistake of having my husband's middle name and his middle name start with the same letter, so we've had questions when dealing with medical stuff already.

I'm right there with Amanda P. - whenever people yell out "Junior" it just reminds me of Hee Haw or the Dukes of Hazzard.

I don't think there is any problem whatsoever carrying on a family name and if you feel the need to tack on the 'Jr.' at the end, then by all means do so. But actually calling a kid 'Junior' I guess just isn't my style at all. I like the big and little better whenever full family names are carried forward.

I haven't read everyone else's comments, so forgive me if I repeat something. I named my son a "Jr". He never liked it while he was growing up. He said he would never do that to a child. He now has a Kenneth III (the third). Why? I asked him. He said it was an honor to be named after such a good guy as his dad and he hoped his son would feel the same way. It is carrying on a tradition in a world where most people want to pave a new road. It is only when they are older and parents get older that they really feel the importance of the name. I never regretted it and surprisingly, neither has my son.

Our son is not a Jr, but rather a V (fifth). The name has been in the family for generations... my son who is 6 loves that his name has sooo much history to it. He does go by AJ (Arthur Junior) with his friends and at sports, but chooses Arthur in school.

Not a fan of Jr. for all the reasons already. As someone already suggested, using father's name is middle is still an honor.

It's really an individual decision. We have two sons and neither are Jr's. They both have their grandfather's names as middle names.

Hi I love the idea of Jr names. Before I even became pregnant I told my husband that if we ever had a boy I wanted him to be a junior. My husband was so against it because of social security issues and so on. However the day we had the ultrsound and discovered that we were in fact having a boy he was so excited that he yelled out "that's my Jr". So instantly I reminded him that he did not want a junior. Needless to say my son is now Jacob Jorge Flores Jr. I won!! Jr is now 3 and it was funny trying to teach him that he and his father were both named Jacob, but now he understands. In the end it all depends on how you and your husband feel about the legacy of his name. Have fun with it, sometimes you will not know what your childs name should be until you see their face!!!

N.

Hi,

Hubby didn't want a JR, so we went a different route. We gave our son my hubbys first name as a middle name.

Congrats & happy baby : )

My oldest boy is so proud to have the same name as his daddy. I left it up to my husband, some guys really dream of a Jr. and it didn't want to take that away, so I made him decide!

If your husband is a wonderful man, it is an honor. He will end up with a nickname or be called by his middle or add a y.

I think it's an honor to have a son and to have him name as a jr.

Congrats on your new baby. The Jr route is very special to the father, but it can be very difficult later in life. I have a friend would said that the Jr and the Sr's SSN and identity were mixed up on several occasions for credit and legal issues. Just something to think about. Good luck.

Think long term when it comes to Jr. names. Phone calls that will come in to the house when he is a teenager. Mail that arrives and may not have the Jr on it so it's opened by dad instead or the other way around. Credit Cards, Job applications etc. Many people have a very stong feeling towards naming their sons after them. Just think it out and really ask yourself if, in the long run it will be really the right thing to do. Sometimes it's hard as a young adult to make a name for yourself. Everyone should want to be their own person. Changing the middle name would be nice if the middle name was say your Dad or Grandfather. Just a thought.

Hi Anna~
I have to agree with a previous post--It could possibly cause issues in the long run with finances, etc. I'm in the mortgage industry, and I can't even count how many times I've seen it happen. There are so many instances where I'll be helping someone to buy a home, and they've got credit issues that aren't theirs, but are their son's or father's. This mainly happens if the names are identical...first, middle and last. On the other hand though, I've definitely considered the whole junior thing. My husband would prefer our children have their "own" names. But, I did want to give both of my personal views. Good luck!!
J.

if it is a name you like go for it. I would see if other jrs are annoyed or want their own name and how they feel growing up as a jr but either way this child is precious and special to have made it here! congrats!

My first husband was a jr and we were denied car insurance because there was a mix up between his dad's records and his. My current husband is a III and there have again been credit issues. I really advise against it, there is so much pressure to be like the dad when you are the name sake. Each child needs their own identity. I have seen only negative things from it.

It's REALLY up to you guys. One thing to suggest would be if you do use a Jr, I would pick out a nickname (even if it's just the middle name) for your son so that he's not always Dad Jr or little Dad (I've heard both)...
A friend of mine didn't want to have a JR, but they wanted their son to have the Dad's initials so that family heirlooms with the monogram could be passed on, so father and son have he same first name and different middle names. Both go by their middle names.

My brother is a Jr...I think if it's a name where you can differentiate the two, it makes it easier. Still later in life when your Jr. wants to be a little more adult-like, then it will get confusing at times. My dad and brother are both James, so for a long time people would ask for Jim or Jimmy. But then my brother grew up and his friends would ask for Jim and we'd have to ask...big Jim, or little Jim? Then some of my dad's buddies at work call him Jimmy, as did my grandma when she was alive...most of the time it was all in good fun, and my dad and brother are close so mostly they just get a chuckle about it.

Coming from a divorced woman, don't do it! You never know...