When I saw this old Atlantic article, I did a double take…
The title was “The Women Naming Their Babies After Themselves,” and at first, I was confused. Sharing a name with your child seemed bizarre. But writer Maggie Mertens pointed out that for centuries men have named sons after themselves, of course, so why can’t women name their daughters the same way? “For certain mothers, sharing a name with a child is an intrinsically feminist act simply because it’s unexpected in our society,” she writes.
“My brother’s a Junior, and his whole life, no one bats an eye when he and my dad give their names,” adds Susannah Wilson, who named her daughter Susannah. And Nancy Swider-Peltz, a former competitive speed skater said that naming her daughter after herself “was an enthusiastic decision that brought her joy.”
Some cultures seem to lean into namesakes more than others. In my boyfriend Freddie’s Italian-American family, there are countless Freds and Johns and Anthonys. As for the women? “My grandparents Fred and Patricia named two of their kids Fred and Patricia,” says Freddie. “Then my aunt Patricia named her daughter…Patricia.” And my Brazilian friend Gisela knows a woman, Antônia, in São Paulo, who was named after her mother, Antônia. “Zero percent creativity, 100 percent ancestry,” she laughs. “Sometimes you need to draw a family map.”
What do you think? When I was pregnant, I LOVED the name Anna for a girl, but “Joanna and Anna” sounded like a tongue twister. The question was moot when we had two boys anyway!
What baby names are you loving these days? Would you name your child after yourself? How about a a fictional character or a place?
P.S. One thing that has surprised me about parenting, six ways to choose a middle name, and and as a mother, would you give your child your last name?
(Photo by Stephanie Tamir/Stocksy.)
