"There are Some Patterns in Taking After a First Name"
By David Chapin,
Austin Texas
April 8, 2002
For instance, it is common practice among Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews to name a child after the closest relatives who most recently died. Thus for instance, I was named David after my maternal Uncle who died about three years before I was born and was childless. Among Ashkenazi Jews, it is considered bad luck to name after a living relative. One old superstitious story I heard was that when the Angel of Death comes for the older person by that name, he might be confused by a child with the same name and take him instead.
Among Sephardic Jews, there are different traditions. They like to name after living relatives, typically the god-father, or god-mother who participated circumcision. Among Israeli Jews, they threw out the older traditions and do their own thing. Often, they invent heroic names - Ben Gurion (son of lion), Ehud Barak (first blessing), for instance.