Anna Trunek loves three Georges and a Georgene.
She married George Trunek on Valentine’s Day 59 years ago and gave his son his name and his daughter a female variation of it. Then, George Trunek Jr. overruled his wife’s suggestion of Kyle and passed the name onto his son, who now is 21.
“Whenever they have family doings, you say ‘George,’ and three people turn around,” said George Trunek Jr., 45, of Johnsburg. “Now we just call my son ‘Bud.’ ”
It’s hard to measure how common the practice of naming a son after a father is – the Social Security Administration tracks the most popular children’s names but not other naming practices. The original George Trunek said it seemed more rare that fathers and sons shared names today than in the past.
“I’m proud they’re carrying my name,” the 84-year-old Chicago native said. “They didn’t have to do it. I don’t know if they did it out of respect of me. … You don’t see too many children carrying their father’s name.”
Often fathers and sons who share names sometimes are a little confused about how to continue the tradition. The Emily Post Institute, which offers etiquette advice, gets regular calls about the proper protocol for using senior, junior and the second, said Cindy Post Senning, a co-director of the institute and great-granddaughter of its namesake.
Fathers should use “senior” only when it is needed to distinguish themselves from their sons with the exact same name, such as when they are members of the same club or attending the same event.
“You would not put ‘senior’ on your stationery or on a signature on a letter or something,” Post said.
But the junior uses the “Jr.” at the end of his name in all cases, unless he chooses to drop it when his father dies. A child gets a second, delineated with Roman numerals of II, when he is named for another family member that is not the father, such as a grandfather or uncle.
Some deviate from tradition to emphasize their individuality. James Carlos August II, a desktop service coordinator for District 300, added the “second” before he graduated high school to distinguish himself from his father, James Clarence August.
The elder August had never used senior or put junior on his son’s birth certificate, but some other family members were prone to call the younger August “Junior,” which he found annoying.
“The name ‘Junior’ was a degrading name, because it didn’t establish individuality in oneself,” the younger August said.
But the duo varies their nicknames based on their age.
“When we were young, we’re Jamies; when we get older, we’re Jameses, and when we’re really old, we’re Jims,” said the younger August, who, at 35, considers himself a James.
What about girls?
Women traditionally do not use “junior” or “second” when they are named for female relatives, a practice that might have started in times when women were expected to marry and take their husband’s last name, said Cindy Post Senning of the Emily Post Institute.
A popular alternative
The Social Security Administration does not track how many baby boys take their fathers’ names, but its Popular Baby Names database shows more parents are giving their sons Junior for a first name. Junior climbed to 647 last year from 814 in 1993 on the top 1,000 list.
Source: nwherald.com
