How often do you meet people with the exact same name as their father?

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Opposite but the majority of women in the Welsh side of my family are called Gwendolyn/Gwendoline. Both spellings as the first one named was Gwendolyn and as it got to my great nana it was Gwendoline.

Great nana had no girls, the sons were all named after other male family members so we have a lot of Malcolm’s and Daffyd’s.

It stayed with the Welsh side as my dad chose a different name for me and I won’t be having kids so for us it ended at great nana Gwen.

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TurbulentContext@reddit

I don't know middle names but my sister married a guy called Peter and at the wedding I discovered his Dad was Neville [last name] V and had made the deliberate choice it died with him.

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atillathekitteh@reddit

We looked into my dad's family history. His cousin was named Henry, as was his dad. Traced the name back to the 18th century. If you're from the localish area and are called Henry/Harry [my common last name] it's likely we're related.

My (F) middle name is my mum's name. This is a tradition bestowed on the first daughter that we can trace back as far back as Scottish records go.

I went to school with a Mr [insert full name here] III. To be fair though he was American. Son of a lecturer at the local Uni.

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Severe-Industry-2717@reddit

I have a vague memory that the family that lived behind us when I was like 7 all shared names the father and son were both called Robert, no clue about the mother and daughter, probably not Robert though.

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evelynsmee@reddit

Well. I'm Welsh so I have an 800 year family tree of men called David, that nobody actually calls David to their face.

But the American style "David Junior" isn't a thing. We just call them by a middle name or a nickname.

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skibbin@reddit

I loved in the Discworld where one gang had a man called "Medium Dave" due to Big Dave and Little Dave already being taken. Medium Dave was slightly larger than big Dave if memory serves

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sugartheshihtzu@reddit

I’m also Welsh with a lot of family and ancestors called David. My grandad and uncle are called David, they went/go by “Dafydd”

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harrietmjones@reddit

Same! My last name is Jones as well, so that’s fun to try and work out who’s who with my ancestors! 😅

Actually on that branch, there’s minimal Davids but there’s about 5 John Jones’ in a row (from dad to son) before reaching my great-grandfather, who was called David Jones. However, his middle name was John! 😂

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skibbin@reddit

Y'know Dave Jones, not that one, no the other one, hangs about with Rhod, not that Rhod the other one...

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skibbin@reddit

My favourite was "Dai The Death" because he was an undertaker

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honestlyVERYhonest@reddit

I've got a mate with the family tradition of naming the first born son the same as their father.

We just call him "Gay Tim".

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Substantial-Hotel493@reddit

Very common in Liverpool. My own grandad was Thomas and his eldest son (my Uncle) is also Thomas. This tradition goes back a long way in my family.

My mum's side is Welsh and they do the same thing.

You would usually call the son by their middle name or a nickname though rather than calling them the same name as what their father is known as.

E.g. one of my neighbours growing up was Stephen, his dad was also Stephen, but the younger one was known by his middle name which was Paul.

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CPD1960@reddit

Junior is an Americanism as is the even worse John Smith III.

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Butagirl@reddit

I did know a “III” once, the naming of whom we secretly mocked. We decided that the three represented the number of toilets he had in his house.

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CPD1960@reddit

🚽🚽🚽😊

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ManInGarage28@reddit

Not very.

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Ill_Cheetah_1991@reddit

I know someone who has the exact same name as his father

and grand father

they were never called Jnr or anything - you just had to make sure you made it clear from your body language and phrasing made it clear who you were talking to

silly idea

When he got married I asked his wife if they were going to continue the tradition - she didn;t answer

They have 2 daughters - so that "discussion" was never necessary!

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DollySheep32@reddit

Precisely one, my cousin, but his dad is a dickhead and my coz has gone by his middle name all his life.

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seven-cents@reddit

I don't think I've met anyone that shares the same first name as their father (that I know of), but I recently met someone whose parents built a house in a village and named it by combining their two son's first names. The old man passed away some time ago, but the old lady still lives over 60 years later. She now has dementia and one of her sons is her primary carer although he now lives a couple of miles away with his family in the same village.

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Significant-Leg5769@reddit

I've never met someone British who has the same first name as their father. Not to say it doesn't happen at all, though.

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PassiveTheme@reddit

My family has a tradition of naming the first son of a generation the same thing, so while I don't have the same name as my dad, I do have the same name as my uncle and my granddad (and my great grandad that I never met, and probably more generations). We all have different middle names though, and some of us are known by common nicknames for the name, so there isn't really any reason for confusion.

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Super_Ground9690@reddit

I had a friend whose brother had the same name as his dad and grandad. They were all called by nicknames so I never really saw the point

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GnaphaliumUliginosum@reddit

Ed, Eddie and Edward Grundy in The Archers fit this pattern.

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Weird-End5410@reddit

It definitely does happen, unfortunately. My dad and I are both called Steve. It's ridiculous.

It wasn't so bad as a kid, but then when I got older and people would ring the house phone asking for Steve, or mail for either of us, caused no end of confusion. Mark my words, stay clear of this game!

I remember my uncle telling me (about 13 at the time) all about my granddad's cancer. I was thinking "what is he telling me this for?". You know where this is going....

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smoulderstoat@reddit

I went to Polytechnic with a guy called Graeme, whose Dad was called Graham. For some reason they thought this would be enough to tell them apart, until the phone calls started.

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Weird-End5410@reddit

I worked with a Jeff who's dad was Geoff.

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ToothessGibbon@reddit

I’ve never met one

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Peskycat42@reddit

This may vary from nation to nation. In England its fairly uncommon to use the same name for the next generation, but I think I am safe in saying using Jr would be seen as weird anywhere in the UK. Numbering them is pretty much reserved for royalty, and despite what you may have heard, very few people would look at royalty and wish to emulate them in some way.

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Kiss_It_Goodbyeee@reddit

It's pretty common, but not obvious. We don't do the whole Jnr or Bill Gates III thing. Often boys are named after their father, but then go by a middle name or a derivative of the name. Like Jimmy instead of James or Bill instead of William.

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draaj@reddit

A lot of people probably won't realise that they know someone with the same name as their dad, because they'll tend to go by their middle name.

For example, a lot of British Pakistanis are called Mohammed but go by their middle name. You can have multiple Mohammeds in the same close family. I can almost guarantee that most people in this thread know a Mohammed only by their middle name

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Norman_debris@reddit

I'm English. Very uncommon, and I've never met a JR in my life.

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LiquoricePigTrotters@reddit

My Dad and Granddad has the same name, my Dad was known by his middle name. I only found out his Middle name wasn’t his actual name when I was about 25.

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Lasersheep@reddit

My son has a friend who is the third generation same named. They only ever call him name name the third, even if it’s just hello or thanks.

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lawrekat63@reddit

My sister had the same first and middle name as my mum. She was always little name mum was name

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nonsequitur__@reddit

I’ve not met anybody like that, and certainly not anyone who has Roman numerals after their name like a monarch.

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Historical_Project86@reddit

I have never met anybody like that in the UK.

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neilm1000@reddit

This feels like a bot or LLM/AI training question.

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Pyschospherex@reddit

We had so many John's on my mums side, goes right back through the family who knows how many generations.

The ones im aware of are my great grandad known as Jack, my grandad was John Willy (middle name William) and my uncle was John and then my cousin is Jonners. I think my great great grandad was known as John too.

My dads side is John Kenneth. So Great Grandad was John, Grandad was Ken, my dad was young John or John Kenneth.

My Dad wanted to call my brother John Wayne but my mum refused saying we have too many Johns. He's Wayne John.

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Lanky_Literature_157@reddit

A very long time ago I worked in a bank. An angry man came in because his son (with the same name) had opened his bank statement and seen something they didn’t want him to know which led to huge argument which was our fault.

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-auntiesloth-@reddit

I've known a few people with the same first name as their father, but it's not common, and they don't add "Jr" or "VII" or whatever at the end. I don't think I've ever even heard of someone with the same first AND middle name as their father. That's just weird.

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Smooth_News_7027@reddit

I have the same name as my eldest cousin and our great great grandfather, my other cousin, my dad, grandad and great grandad also share a name. A tiny bit confusing even if half of them are dead at this point.

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Xenozip3371Alpha@reddit

I have never once come across someone in person that had the same name as their father, maybe a middle name, but never a first name.

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non-hyphenated_@reddit

David Moyes' father is David Moyes as is his son

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MountainDapper167@reddit

Gary and Phil Neville's dad's forename is Neville. Imagine the lack of imagination required to call your son Neville Neville.

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non-hyphenated_@reddit

Honestly, it's my favourite "shit name".

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Xenozip3371Alpha@reddit

Who?

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non-hyphenated_@reddit

Everton manager

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mellonians@reddit

I've only met me and the only reason I have the same name as my dad is because my mum found out my dad was seeing someone else so named me after him and took baby me into the bank she worked at to open up a child savings account. " Oh yes, he's named after his dad"

Turns out that didn't change. Dad because my brother and sister are born 6 weeks apart!

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kippax67@reddit

My daughter has the same name as me I’m her dad.

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Internet-Dick-Joke@reddit

I hate that I'm about to say this, but most of the men I've met with the same name as their father have been named Mohammed or a variant of it.

It's simply far less common for people to be named after a parent in the UK in the 21st (or late 20th) century, so you're more likely to encounter it here when it's a person whose family come from a culture where there is less variance in names.

Having the same name as some other relative (a cousin, grandparent, aunt/uncle or neice/nephew, ect.) is a bit more common when it's just a common name. And there is also a huge influence from socio-economic background; I'd say that, excluding those mentioned above, children being named after parents is probably more common among the upper classes than it is with us poors. Having Jr or a number after your name was definitely regarded as a posh people thing when I was growing up.

Often, when someone does have the same name as a relative, including fathers, there are enough nicknames/diminutives to pick from that adding Jr or a number after the name isn't really necessary.

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Bossco1881@reddit

I have one friend with the same name as his dad. But his dad uses Robert and he uses Robbie, to make it easier. No jr or numbers though.

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Miserable-Rub-4053@reddit

Never met one. Got a friend with the same first and last name as his dad but they have different middle names and both go by that name rather than their first name!

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BG3restart@reddit

My cousin was given the same name as my uncle and my grandad, but grandad was Charles, uncle was Chuck and cousin is Charlie. We don't really use 'junior' or call anyone 'the third' (apart from the monarchy). It's seen as very American.

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mad8869@reddit

First name is my fathers name, second name is my grandfathers name

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Rage_fotf@reddit

We have more imagination over here and dont name our kids after parents

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Fuzzy_Scrump@reddit

I've met about 4 in n ireland, probably more but doesnt really come up in conversations lol and as others say we dont really use jr or 3rd so much unless they are both in the public eye or line of work (politicians, solicitors, pastors). The ones I would know personally or met at uni etc would use their middle name and that's how the conversation would start about how many generations share the same name/s. I would say it was rarer in England though.

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Slow-Kale-8629@reddit

One variation I've seen is where the father and son have the same first name on their birth certificates, but the son goes by his middle name socially.

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peanutthecacti@reddit

I’ve worked with a guy the same name as his father. We found out when we called his landline and his mother answered and said she’d put him on. Cue my boss getting very confused when a very different man came to the phone but swore he was the person my boss was looking for.

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SnooDonuts6494@reddit

I don't keep stats on that, but it's common.

It depends whether you mean two that literally say the exact same thing on their birth certificate - or if you're ignoring middle names. And if you're ignoring nicknames.

But apart from that - yeah, quite regularly.

They usually acquire some kind of nickname to distinguish; like my cousin "Little Roy" and my uncle "Big Roy". They both have the same surname. Little Roy is considerably taller than Big Roy.

"Jr" is extremely rare in the UK. Using Roman numerals is practically non-existent.

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IndependentPiece5308@reddit

My cousin has the same name as his dad, different surnames because the sperm donor fucked off when he was like 1. But same first and middle. No one calls him by his first name, we all just call him junior

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Robbylution@reddit

My glaswegian dad was last in a long line of [first name] [surname]. No middle name, no suffix. My mom's culture gives their children the mother's maiden name as their middle name, so that line ended with me.

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purple_kathryn@reddit

I deal with families quite a bit in my job so I see it quite frequently. I've even seen same ones with the same middle name. It's not massively common to have jr officially in your name (although I wouldn't be surprised if it's their common name). Bit of a pain when I'm having to send out a letter than includes them both & they live at the same address. How do they know which post is for who!?

Much rarer to have daughters named after their mothers

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yadayada457@reddit

Having traced my family back several generations, my father, grandfather great grandfather & great, great grandfather each had the same name. They each went by their names & certainly didn’t have a prefix of junior or III etc. It is not a thing in the UK, unless you’re Royalty!

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AuroraDF@reddit

Never, but going back in the family tree, all eldest sons have the same name as their grandfather, Robert and James on my Grandad's side, and James and George on my Nana's side. For about 250 years.

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Critical_Vehicle_72@reddit

I’ve always found the American custom of calling your son junior or the third etc. It’s only really a thing in Britain for titled nobility and even then it’s not really used often outside of actual royalty. When I first heard it done in America I thought people were trying to fake being upper class.

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ice-lollies@reddit

I have a few times. Not mega common but common enough.

I have a family name (but women) where the first born girl has the same names- but our surname changes- mine is the same as my aunt and my grandmother.

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LouisaB75@reddit

My grandfather, my uncle and my cousin, three generations had the same name.

We went with Big John for my uncle, Little John for my cousin, and my grandfather was referred to as Jack.

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