Quick question, no dictionaries or google allowed

[conuly]

Let's say you have two people, John Doe Sr. and John Doe Jr. Which one is the namesake of the other one?

Poll #24506 Namesake

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 128

View Respondents

Which one is the namesake?

View Answers

The older one
30 (23.4%)

The younger one
80 (62.5%)

It can go either way
14 (10.9%)

I'm familiar with the term but don't really know
4 (3.1%)

I'm not familiar with the term at all
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[alexseanchai]

anytime someone (or something) is named for somebody, 'namesake' refers to the one whose name is an effect of the being-named-for, not the cause of it. my youngest sister is my grandmother's namesake, not vice versa.

[elainegrey]

oops.

[offcntr]

I first thought, "The younger." Then I thought, "Wait, is it the one they're named for?" And couldn't decide. Finally chose the older, dammit.

Though some online definitions are charmingly non-specific:

a person or thing that has the same name as another

Denise, across the room looking at definitions, found one that said, in effect: "Traditionally, it's the younger, but these days (21st century usage) people are using it for the older one."

Why do you do these things to us?

[conuly]

My brain just suddenly fixated on that word and I thought I should share the excitement.

[james]

You're overthinking it. I did the same thing!

[bibliofile]

> Why do you do these things to us?
Because C. can!

[conuly]

I'm not sure if you're groping for a pronoun there, but if you are, I use she. (Though I don't object if people make a mistake. It happens.)

[inkstone]

🤷🏻‍♀️

[hamimi_fk]

I’m curious - does the younger person have to have the same first, middle, and last name as their namesake? Or it just first name?

[conuly]

I still can't quite figure out which one the namesake ought to be!

[hamimi_fk]

Lol, I see.

Sake - in order to achieve or preserve

My understanding is the older person is the namesake. As in, “I’m so honored my grandson is carrying on my name!” Which infers that the grandson is named after the grandfather to preserve/keep the memory of him.

EDIt: Wait so that means the younger person is the namesake!? *hurts self in confusion*

EDIT 2: So I’m an idiot. Based on my observation the younger person is the namesake because they’re the one carrying on the name of the older person!

[alexseanchai]

(ignoring how you're misusing the word 'namesake' 😛:) not necessarily any of the above. my dead middle name is the same as my mother's middle name, which is the same as her grandmother's first name, and my dead first name (though my parents didn't realize they were doing this part until I was a few months old and someone cooed about how sweet it was that they'd named me for her) is that same great-grandmother's middle name. and my dead last name is my father's. so.

[hamimi_fk]

Yeah I thought I knew how to use the word but it took me a bit to puzzle out my mistake. Everyday is a chance to learn something new!

But your reply did give me a better insight to my question so thank you. 😀

[topaz_eyes]

Senior is the older person, junior is the younger, so generally the younger person is the namesake of the senior. Unless the parent takes the child's name for some reason, then I'd say "senior" is the first person with the name, and "junior" the one who takes that name from the first.

[marahmarie]

There's a use case for everything, isn't there.

[gingicat]

My son and one of my BFF's boyfriends have the same use-name, and son's use-name is simply one we liked. Yet they call each other namesakes. (BFF started it.)

[minoanmiss]

Go me!

Also I wrote an extremely cutesy LOTR story about the topic. Pippin Took named his son Faramir Took after Faramir of Gondor, which makes Faramir Took the namesake of Faramir of Gondor. I don't know the etymology but I always had the impression that the 'namesake' is the person whose name is a reference to a pre-existing person.

(My 'little' roommate is not actually my boyfriend's namesake -- he was named after another person -- but because they have the same use-name I couldn't resist.)

[gingicat]

Well, his legal first name is after husband's uncle. Middle name (and use name) is from my Dad's suggestion and us going "yeah!" forgetting how many people have that name...

[minoanmiss]

I remember. :) I decided to leave it up to you to explain, tho.

[calimac]

If you ask directly, "who is who's namesake?", it's the younger person who's the elder's. But it's also possible to refer the other way around. For instance, I once wrote, "Henry Clay Work was born in 1832, while his namesake was running for president against Andrew Jackson." I think that's permissible.

[swingandswirl]

Tangential to the discussion, but have you read Jumpa Lahiri's The Namesake? I haven't (literary fiction and I don't get along) but I was reminded of it by your post :D

[conuly]

No, haven't even heard of it before this comment. I also do not read much non-genre fiction.