Dennis and Eugene

My Texas brother has recently become interested in tracing family history. One of his first projects was to compile a list of the ancestors and descendants of my paternal grandmother, who died in 1928. When he shared it with me, there was an interesting side benefit. I had not realized how many times the descendants have honored my father when naming their male children.

My father’s first name is Eugene, and that’s what he was called when he was growing up. But my mother preferred his nickname, Dennis, and that’s what he goes by. On his sister’s side he’s called Gene or Uncle Gene. To everyone else he is Dennis or Uncle Dennis (or Dad or Grandpa). So really there are two ways to name someone after him: Eugene or Dennis. And it’s been done a lot of times.

If you start counting with the children of my father and his sister, there are 25 male descendants, all living. Of them seven have been given the name Dennis or Eugene either as a first name or as a middle name (or as both in the case of my oldest brother).

Of course in choosing to name their child Dennis, the parents could have been honoring his father and grandfather, both of whom were named Dennis. That’s probably the case with his sister’s youngest son, whose middle name is Dennis. They also could have been honoring later Dennises in the family, like one of my Texas brother’s grandsons, who is named Dennis after both his father and my father. If you take away those two, that leaves five males unequivocably named after my father. Given 25 possible chances, 20 percent of the time the parents chose to honor him.

So why has this happened so many times? My father had a distinguished professional career, serving in the Navy submarine force, from which he retired as a Vice Admiral, and later as president of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. In the latter role he helped restore credibility to the nuclear power industry after the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979. While in the Navy he was the first commanding officer of the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus.

But to members of the family who named their sons after him, his career wasn’t the main reason. His roles as a father, uncle, grandfather, and now great grandfather are much more important. Honest, generous, fun, hard working, smart—his personal traits are what make him a great role model. He is a fabulous card player (especially poker) and the best story teller I know. A man whose entire life is an example of the right way to do things—no shortcuts, no cheating, do your share and then some.

I think those seven family members are lucky to share his names.