Your role in your lineage

[Typhoid]

I just smoked narcotics, and probably worded the thread very poorly for what I'm trying to bring up.


So as I'm sitting here in the sun waiting for my tea to turn drinkable, I started wondering about how many people are in the predicament I'm in.

I'm the only son of [my dad's family has] 3 sons. I also happen to have my father's last name, which - I assume - is ridiculously normal. However, I am currently the last name on the branch of the family tree. if i fail to produce at least 1 male offspring, my family name all but dies out. Now, sure - I have relatives [with my last name] all over the world [specifically Italy, France, Switzerland, Michigan and Montreal], but my specific branch in the tree will be completely unable to move forward if I do not create a human male capable of creating other human males. I find this to be an immense amount of pressure. it always has been a topic of jokes [from my uncles/dad towards me], but I can tell that when my dad jokes about it, he isn't only joking about it.

So then I started wondering how many other people are also the last hope of their family, and if it means anything to them.

[Angrist]

So you have 2 uncles who also failed to reproduce? And your father only got 1? I wouldn't feel TOO guilty.

Hm I think I might have 1 little cousin, but we don't see him that often. It might actually be a girl.
So beside that it's just my brother and me.

[Bond]

Originally Posted by Angrist

Hm I think I might have 1 little cousin, but we don't see him that often. It might actually be a girl.

???

[Angrist]

Hm cousin is a unisex word, right? Unlike niece/nephew, which is something else.

[Combine 017]

Im my families only son, and my uncle is gay so theres no children coming from him, think im the only male with my last name on this side of the world so ya, ive thought about this kind of thing before and it has made me feel a bit pressured.

[Vampyr]

I often wonder if this "guilt" is tied to the social pressure to carry on the line, or more biologically based in our animal need to reproduce in order to carry on as a species.

Either way it's not a big deal. It isn't like you're killing off an ancestral line of organisms that dates back to some microbe that crawled out of the primordial ooze.

Actually you are.

[Teuthida]

My last name is pretty uncommon but I do have one male cousin on my father's side who already has kids so I'm off the hook.

That said, do you consider the name or the genetic code to be more important? I think my sister is more likely to have kids than I. She's gay though, so there's a chance the kid won't be related but could still have the last name.

[Bond]

Originally Posted by Angrist

Hm cousin is a unisex word, right? Unlike niece/nephew, which is something else.

Oh, gotcha. "It" just confused me there for a minute.

[BreakABone]

I already have like a dozen nieces and nephews

My nephews will obviously carry-on our name.
Not to mention the 7 other brothers I have.

So I think the Rufus name is good to go for a bit.

[Typhoid]

Originally Posted by Angrist

So you have 2 uncles who also failed to reproduce? And your father only got 1? I wouldn't feel TOO guilty.

Only on my father's side. I have a large family, but all the family comes from my mother's side, so it's irrelevant to the point of carrying on "my family name", so I just didn't mention it.

Either way it's not a big deal. It isn't like you're killing off an ancestral line of organisms that dates back to some microbe that crawled out of the primordial ooze.

SEE! SEE!

[Combine 017]

Originally Posted by Teuthida

My last name is pretty uncommon but I do have one male cousin on my father's side who already has kids so I'm off the hook.

That said, do you consider the name or the genetic code to be more important?

Im more concerned with spreading my genes that continuing my name, although id rather have a son than a daughter, ive seen what a daughter can do to a man.

[Typhoid]

I missed this post:

That said, do you consider the name or the genetic code to be more important? I think my sister is more likely to have kids than I. She's gay though, so there's a chance the kid won't be related but could still have the last name.

Carrying on the name itself is the only thing that weighs on me. Both of my sisters already have kids, so the family genes are already beyond me - but the last name (at this branch) would end with me.

Like I said before though there are obviously other people with my last name in the places the name stemmed from - but in North America, there are maybe 6 families. And that's it. They apparently have an incredible knack for having more girls than boys.

I find it an incredibly depressing prospect to be the last line in carrying on the family name. Heritage is important in my family, knowing where you came from, that sort of thing. We actually have our family tree. It's a massive amount of papers that dates back 500+ years. One of my relatives wrote the first History of England (In French), Some were humble Italian cabbage farmers - others, Jesuits, who escaped from Italy -> France - > Montreal, over the course of 500 years.

I just really, really don't want my last name on my branch of the tree to die off and morph into something else. In some families "Jones" may turn into "Smith", and suddenly the family name is 'different' just due to the fact that their might be a generation of all-females, or the males don't have males. But to be the one to stop a 500+ year branch on a family tree would be horrible.

I need to start looking for some suitable mates.

[KillerGremlin]

The solution is simple: become Mormon. Polygamy baby.

If it makes you feel any better, we are at a strange point in evolutionary history where the guys are going against ALL of our natural urges to fuck as many women as we can. A few thousand years ago you were painting as many uterine walls as you could. Nowadays you're lucky to be an alpha male hooking up with, what is the average amount of casual flings, like 7?

Also, in the evolving progressive world, many women aren't donning their husband's last name or are going with the hyphen hybrid.

But I get it. You want to fell like a champion while you do your thing.

[Angrist]

Oh by the way, can't girls keep their name in the Americas? Here in the Netherlands a man can decide to adopt his wife's name. Also even when he doesn't do that, I think the kids can take the mother's name.

So there's your solution! Pressure your sister.

[Typhoid]

But I get it. You want to fell like a champion while you do your thing.

I mean, I totally get the joking point you're making. It didn't completely go over my head or anything, But it's not about how many vaginae I can get inside of, or how many different women I can pump out some kids with. I simply don't want to be the end-point of my name. Now, clearly banging a lot of vaginae and trying to produce a lot of children would quell that, but I would argue that if I was promiscuously pumping out kids, they wouldn't have my name anyways - as I'd be an absent father due to the fact I'm too busy trying to impregnate the planet. Plus Mormons are lame. I don't know why you'd want 5 wives. Power to them though, they only seem to be marrying the fat and the ugly ones. I've never really seen a 100% attractive polygamist family. That's okay by me.

Oh by the way, can't girls keep their name in the Americas? Here in the Netherlands a man can decide to adopt his wife's name. Also even when he doesn't do that, I think the kids can take the mother's name.

You bet they can. Although it's an extremely rare thing. (Around here, anyways)I'm basing that on absolutely no factual evidence other than the fact everyone I know who is married doesn't have a hyphenated name. Most people probably don't do it because they get bugged about it all the time. That said there obviously are women who choose to hyphenate instead of solely take the husbands name - but those women are usually the self-proclaimed business-woman-types.

One of my sisters actually was one of those "I'm going to keep my name/hyphenate my husbands name" chicks. But upon getting married she decided to take the husbands name for tradition, but also because if she hyphenated her name she thought she'd seem like an unloving cold bitch (towards her husband) who didn't want to constantly explain why mommy and daddy have different names.


I know a name is a trivial, stupid, traditionalist thing to worry about. I mean, a name can easily be changed, right. You can just head down to your local courthouse, fill out a document, and suddenly you can be 'Eggely Baegalface', or 'Humorous T. Buttsniff' if you want. I just really, really want to carry on my family name.

In related news : *aneurysm*