Home How do you feel about child name alliteration?

[musey]

Just curious. I''m not up on the baby naming topic enough to know whether this is/was/has been a fad, or if it''s just popular in pocket groups, or what.

I don''t mean first name/last name alliteration (Lois Lane), I mean between the kids. My brother''s wife wants to name all their kids starting with the letter N. Of course I''ve heard of people doing this before, but haven''t known anyone who''s done it in real life.

 

[laine]

Growing up, my mom had a neighbor whose kids all had the initials JMJ (supposedly for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph). That's taking it a bit far in my opinion.

When I was young, I liked having different first initials. Things could be marked with a single letter; for example, my brothers and I each had bathroom towels monogrammed with our first initial.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

DH and his sister both share their dad''s first initial. It was done on purpose. Doesn''t bother me with a few kids but think it is strange regarding a situation like the Duggars. I would never do it though. I like to be original!

 

[neatfreak]

My mom did it; but not on purpose. Just happened that she liked three names with the same letter.

I think "eh". Less noticeable of course if you only have 2 kids vs. like the Duggars with 18 kids that start with J. I think it's annoying if you have a ton of kids and do it on purpose. Less so if you have only a few kids.

The level of annoyance I feel with it goes up exponentially with the number of kids involved.

ETA: Tacori! You beat me-great minds think alike I guess!

 

[curlygirl]

I'm not really proud to admit it but I think everyone on the mommy board knows that we did this. The thing that makes it really corny is that DH and I and our 2 daughters all have names that start with the same letter (L)!

Honestly, I didn't know I would marry someone whose name would start with the same initial as mine so we'll call that coincidence. Then, it just so happens that I've always loved the name Lily so no matter who I married, I knew that if I had a daughter I would name her Lily. And then when I found out I was pregnant with another girl, DH (the more sensitive of the 2 of us) thought it would be "unfair" if her name started with a different letter and he didn't want her to feel left out. So we have Lucy. Do I think it's cute? I don't know but it's already done and I can't change it now! I won't be offended if people think it's ridiculous either so I hope nobody holds back their true feelings!

I probably wouldn't have done it on purpose if DH and I had different first initials but since we do, it just sort of happened...

 

[Ara Ann]

My DH didn''t want our son to be a "Jr." like his older brother was, and DH''s name starts with a "K" so we chose a "K" name for our oldest son...and our youngest son''s name ends with a "K", so they have the K in common, but all have their own names. Worked for us!

 

[D&T]

One couple I knew had 8 kids all started with the letter "D" the girls all were named with boy names as well... I don''t mind if they had a few kids, but doing it on purpose

ehh.. not my kids.

 

[Jas12]

There are 4 of us in my family and we are all double J''s. Of course, my mom and dad didn''t plan on both being J''s, and when they had me they claim it was coincidence that they liked a J name for a girl. But when my mom was pregnant with #2 she felt she had to pick a J name so the youngest would be ''part of the club'' and a club is kinda how we felt. I remember my friends thinking our family was cool b/c we were the 4 double J''s

Not something i would ''plan'' for my family, but if it happens that way, it''s cute.

 

[purrfectpear]

I think it''s really dumb when done with a "plan", but I don''t have any issue with parents who happen to like a name that starts with the same initial.

It could be worse. Wasn''t it George Foreman who named all his kids George?

 

[Burk]

Date: 5/8/2009 8:48:19 PM
Author: neatfreak
My mom did it; but not on purpose. Just happened that she liked three names with the same letter.


I think ''eh''. Less noticeable of course if you only have 2 kids vs. like the Duggars with 18 kids that start with J. I think it''s annoying if you have a ton of kids and do it on purpose. Less so if you have only a few kids.


The level of annoyance I feel with it goes up exponentially with the number of kids involved.

ETA: Tacori! You beat me-great minds think alike I guess!

I agree with neat and tacori. Not something I plan to do but not a big deal with a few kids....the Duggars is a big odd. They''re going to run out of potential names to name their children pretty soon!

 

[somethingshiny]

My mom named 2 of 4 children with the same first initial. It wasn''t on purpose and it was never really noticeable. But, once they start stacking up, I think it could be weird. I really like alliterated names for twins, but I don''t like it as much for just siblings. I think it depends on if you really start reaching for names, like the Duggars.

Nick, Natalie, and Nathan are ordinary names so it wouldn''t draw unnecessary attention to the alliteration.

But, I have to add, I''m glad they''re thinking ahead. My parents gave me the initials ASL....

 

[iheartscience]

I agree with neatfreak's level of annoyance explanation!

My dad and all of his brothers (he has 3 brothers, no sisters) all have J names, and he wanted to name all of his kids J names, too. My mom was not as down, but they named the oldest two J names.

When it came to the third, my mom told my dad that his first name could start with a J but he would go by his middle name, which starts with an M.

Then when me and my twin sis came along, my mom put her foot down on the J names and we both don't have a single letter J in our names! (ETA that our names both start with the same letter, though, but I think for twins it's cute if they start with the same letter. Anything is better than rhyming names for twins, though!)

My 4 cousins (3 boys, 1 girl) on my dad's side all have J names, too, but none of *their* kids do. Maybe it's a weird generational thing?

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 5/8/2009 10:05:13 PM
Author: purrfectpear
I think it''s really dumb when done with a ''plan'', but I don''t have any issue with parents who happen to like a name that starts with the same initial.

It could be worse. Wasn''t it George Foreman who named all his kids George?

Yep, and yep.

We chose names that worked with our last name and since we only have two kids, it wouldn''t be as big of a deal as if we had five kids! We''d for sure look for names beginning with other letters.

 

[bee*]

My cousins names all start with R. I''ve no idea if it was done on purpose though or if they just liked those names. Personally I wouldn''t do it on purpose, but if I loved the names than I wouldn''t not do it.

 

[TravelingGal]

I''m not a fan, but if we have a boy, we''ll be doing it (not on purpose). I got to name the girl. TGuy had a name for the boy. When we shared our names, they both started with "A".

So Amelia and Aaron it will be.

If we had another girl, I would not pick an "A" name. Not even sure we''ll have another. But I can tell you now, we won''t have a third! (But for the record, if we had an Aaron and an Amelia, the third would NOT be part of the A club!)

I also actually never noticed it with two kids. I notice if there are three with the same first letter.

 

[Porridge]

Musey...just a thought...would this be at all influenced by Mickey and Minnie?

 

[Porridge]

Date: 5/9/2009 3:43:44 AM
Author: bee*
My cousins names all start with R. I''ve no idea if it was done on purpose though or if they just liked those names. Personally I wouldn''t do it on purpose, but if I loved the names than I wouldn''t not do it.

My neighbours have three R kids (grown kids) too, two girls and a boy.

 

[Pandora II]

We made a conscious decision not to name our daughter with a name beginning with either of our initials or our surname initial.

Both DH and I are one of four and all our parents did the same thing - none of us share an initial, nor do we have initials that match our surnames in either family.

It makes things easier regarding mail, and maybe it's a UK thing, but at school all your clothes have to have woven name-tapes sewn in (socks and knickers too!) - my mother would have gone crazy trying to work out whose were whose clothes, especially as we had a hyphenated surname and so there was only space for an initial rather than full first name...

I also like the idea of choosing a name because you really like it rather than because it must begin with a 'T' etc. I've seen some of these TV families where they have 17 kids all beginning with J and think it must be a bit sad to know your parents were scrapping the bottom of the 'J' section in the baby name books to find something for you.

I do know someone who named her first daughter Dawn, the second Eve and then her son Adam - I have to wonder how her mind works...

 

[Deelight]

My older sister and I share intials (neither have middle names) I don''t know if it was done on purpose - my parents named her she named me.

My niece has a different intial and when my sister miscarried my nephew if he had been born he was also going to share the same intials as her - I think because she liked the name and it was just a coincidene, she never had another child so no idea what would have happened.

When I have kids- no idea I am not opposed or for it - I guess I just go by the names

 

[steph72276]

If we have a girl next, it will be another A name, simply because I love 3 girl names and they all happen to start with A. If it is a boy, it will not start with A. I kept a little boy for a friend a few months ago...his name was Alex and I was constantly saying "Alex, I mean Andrew"....so I ruled that one out right then. I don''t know how parents with lots of children with the same initial keep it straight!

 

[Sabine]

I voted for really not liking it, but actually, just having names start with the same first letter isn''t as bad to me as having somewhat matching names or names that sound similar overall.

 

[Girlrocks]

My brother has 5 kids. All of the kids initials are either the same as his "MPD" or his wife''s "CMD". However, my brother''s middle name is Patrick; the 2 boys have Patrick as their middle name, and one of the girls has Patricia...sort of like the George Foreman thing. That part seems a bit over the top to me.

No one really even realizes it unless SIL explains it to them.

 

[absolut_blonde]

I voted as really not liking it, but it depends. SO and his brother have the same first initial, but since there''s only the two of them, the pattern doesn''t really seem intentional or contrived. I find it more silly when you have a lot of kids and people start reaching to keep up with the ''theme'' - see: the Duggars. (Jinger? Really?!)

I don''t notice it much with 2 kids, it only really becomes apparent when you have 3+ and that''s when it gets too cutesey for my liking.

 

[musey]

Date: 5/9/2009 5:18:56 AM
Author: Porridge
Musey...just a thought...would this be at all influenced by Mickey and Minnie?

maybe... not those names, but maybe the alliteration with those names inspired her to do it with other names!

 

[musey]

I'm so glad that you guys brought up the Duggars and the idea of running out of names... Here they are in order of birth:

1. Joshua
2. Jana
3. John-David
4. Jill
5. Jessa
6. Jinger
7. Joseph
8. Josiah
9. Joy-Anna
10. Jedidiah
11. Jeremiah
12. Jason
13. James
14. Justin
15. Jackson
16. Johannah
17. Jennifer
18. Jordyn-Grace

I would just like to point out that they somehow came up with Jinger (cheating! they just changed the first letter of Ginger!!) before they used Joseph, Joy, Jason, James, Justin, Jennifer, etc

That's always been interesting to me. I mean, they probably (like most parents) just wanted to use less common names, but still it almost seems like they made their way into the semi-made-up names before the really easy go-to ones

 

[Steel]

BOOOOOOOO to all of you who think it is lame!

I love this idea and if we have 2, we will absolutely choose names with the same 1st initial.

I have chosen a boys name already, so as long as our 1st is a boy we are laughing. Problem is I haven''t found a girls name beginning with ''c'' that I love. So boys it is for me!

 

[pinkstars]

BF's SIL's sister and husband have done this with their family. The wife and the husband's names just so happen to start with the same letter and they named both of the kids using the same letter, they also have a LO on the way that will share the same initial.
In their case I think it's cute, usually I don't care for it.

 

[BeachRunner]

Date: 5/9/2009 11:34:56 AM
Author: musey
I''m so glad that you guys brought up the Duggars and the idea of running out of names... Here they are in order of birth:


1. Joshua

2. Jana

3. John-David

4. Jill

5. Jessa

6. Jinger

7. Joseph

8. Josiah

9. Joy-Anna

10. Jedidiah

11. Jeremiah

12. Jason

13. James

14. Justin

15. Jackson

16. Johannah

17. Jennifer

18. Jordyn-Grace

I would just like to point out that they somehow came up with Jinger (cheating! they just changed the first letter of Ginger!!) before they used Joseph, Joy, Jason, James, Justin, Jennifer, etc

That''s always been interesting to me. I mean, they probably (like most parents) just wanted to use less common names, but still it almost seems like they made their way into the semi-made-up names before the really easy go-to ones

Please tell me you had to google this!

FI and I watched some episodes of this show early on, and we could have sworn there was a child named JaBenjamin. Now, no such name. Maybe we were both hearing things, but, that was our favorite J name

 

[Circe]

I like internal name alliteration, like Lois Lane, but I''m not a big fan of alliteration-for-family-unity: for one thing, it seems like it limits your choices a bit, and for another ... maybe I''m romanticizing this but shouldn''t the name be chosen for the specific child, instead of randomly and in advance? I know we all play with baby names for long spans before kids are in the picture, wondering what will sound good with our last names, but somehow, playing with the combinations like that seems different from deciding years and years in advance that if we already have a Xanthes, the next one will be Xerxia, and the one after that, so help him, had better be a boy so that we can finally use Xander ....

 

[musey]

BeachRunner - Oh yes, google was necessary! I pulled it from their "official website," I've never watched a single episode of the show... only seen the commercials interspersed with Jon & Kate Plus 8 - who, I have to point out, only have 2 sets of recurring first initials, even with 8 kids. That's impressive!

And with J&K+8 I wouldn't need google

(maybe for the order).