Why are there no female “Juniors” or women with suffixes in their names? Like why don’t mothers want their to pass their name to their daughters?
Why are there no female “Juniors” or women with suffixes in their names? Like why don’t mothers want their to pass their name to their daughters?
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Good question Ive never thought of that until now I’m wondering that too now
It’s a holdover from insecure men wanting to make it clear that this child is HIS child. It’s very much an ownership mindset.
the whole “wanting your name to live on” thing is very ‘guy’ behaviour, especially since women usually lose their surnames after getting married so have historically been conditioned not to really be attached to their names
There are but even men don’t often use Jr. any more.
Lucy Arnaz Jr. for instance, pretty sure they called her Jr. when she was younger. (Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’ daughter. The criteria for Jr. didn’t used to be all names the same, just the first name, in the past.)
I feel like it’s more common than you think, but they aren’t usually called Junior if their last name is different. Like even boys if they have a different middle name don’t have the “Jr.” Anyway, not sure women are a fan of this tradition as much as men are, not that they don’t like their name enough to make a copy of it.
My grandparents each named a kid after them.
Speaking from experience I just don’t want to be that tied to my mom’s reputation.
Also we’re generally raised expecting to change our names at some point through marriage, so maintaining a familial identity doesn’t matter so much.
My family’s from El Salvador and my mom says it’s decently common for women to name their daughters the same name as them
My sister was named after our mom, the same first, middle, and last name, but with a II (as in the second) after it. Our dad said he wanted to “right the wrong of the century”.
I know 2 girl juniors!
Generally women don’t get the suffixes “Jr” or “III” or whatever because (historically) there was the expectation they’d marry and therefore have a different surname.
John & Mary Smith have two kids, John Smith Jr, and Mary Hopkins (nee Smith) – so Mary Hopkins isn’t really a “Jr”, see?
I once dated a girl who was named after her mother. Even the same middle name. She didn’t call herself “junior” though. It was Little Lisa or Big Lisa if you called on the phone.
Because of maiden names lol
Because if they have the same name as their mom, they won’t have the same last name as their mom
We have a friend who has a name ending in Ella. She gave her three daughters all names that end with Ella also, being around them was wild cause I always just thought they were talking to me
I knew someone whose mother didn’t know she was having twins, so she only planned one name. When the second daughter came out, she named her after herself. They go by different variations of the name (think like Elizabeth as the mother, Lizzie for the daughter).
I suppose the JR/II/III etc. doesn’t get used because it’s not super common to have generations in a row of women have the same exact name (I also knew a family where firstborn daughters for generations were all Mary, but they went by their unique middle names). Also, changing your name at marriage kind of negates the chain of identical names.
I say we bring back Scandinavian ‘[Father’s name] – son’ and ‘[Mother’s name] – Dottir’ suffixes and let the kids figure it out, if and when they want to disown us. 😅
In my mom’s family, there was a brief minor “tradition” on one side where all the women had a variation of “rose” in their name, I think one of the matriarchs was just named Rose and then her daughters were Rosemary and something else and their daughters had Rose as middle names iirc, and it went for a few generations like that, so similar to a John Sr, John Jr, John III legacy but a but cooler imo
I know someone who named their daughter “Little Tara” after herself. On the birth certificate.
It’s just not normal tradition in your culture, you have to consider the vast majority of cultures to this day are patriarchal. One of the most famous female “juniors” was Cleopatra VII.
Because traditionally women didn’t carry on the family name or inherit the property etc. That was traditionally reserved for the first born son
I dated an Italian-American woman who was named after her mom. No “junior”, but it was Mary and Little Mary (for instance).
I’ve heard this topic before in school actually. It’s very uncommon but not completely unheard of. But anytime I’ve ever seen a mother and daughter with the same name it’s been the 2nd and even then in a posh family
There were like a hundred eggs named Coral Jr., but they all got eaten by a barracuda. The only one that survived got named Nemo!
I have the same middle name as my mother, her mother, and her mother for about 8 generations back. I also have a friend, Stephanie, that is a Jr. (she’s Irish, so maybe it’s part of that culture?).
They do…but it’s unlikely it’s all 3 names (required to be a junior or II)…
I have my mother’s middle name. (Mom disliked her first name for a good part of her young adulthood & went by middle …it’s actually a family trait as my grandmother dropped her first name on her marriage instead of her middle or maiden name)
Another thing that’s popular is to pass down maiden name as middle or even first name.
Patriarchy. That’s the only reason. Other cultures pass names down to daughters and granddaughters, but patriarchy requires the designations for men – so that the proper heir can assume their role.
My oldest sister had my mothers exact name, and my oldest brother has my fathers exact name. While both were alive? They were Sr and Jr. once our dad passed, my brother dropped the Jr, as it’s not on his birth certificate.
My sister never used Jr, and my mom never used Sr. So yeah, to your point, it’s true.
I suspect this is a lingering remnant of the general societal assumption that women will get married and use their husband’s last name anyway. So unless a daughter just so happens to marry a non-relative with the same last name as herself, a junior or II would be unnecessary.
The only thing that ever adeyemi me want kids was the thought of having a daughter and making her a junior.
Because 💫patriarchy💫