If your parents didn't bestow you with some new-age name like Flower or Tree, chances are you're named after a loved one. Many times it's in memory of someone that has passed on, to have their name live on. There's an actual term for this, and it's got a creepy sound to it—a necronym.
It comes from the Greek terms for nekros, or dead, and onoma, or name. Many differing cultures have different views on how to treat the name of the deceased. Some never speak their real name again, seeing it as a taboo. Instead, they use a circumlocution to refer to them after their passing.
Other cultures commemorate the names and continue to name children, and even things, after the dead person.
The use of necronyms leads to a lot of confused historians. Birth certificates may have the same name at a given time, and with poor record keeping it's tough to differentiate between them. The best example of this is of Shigechiyo Izumi who died in 1986 and was apparently born in 1865. He received the Guiness Book Record for oldest man, but he may have been born in 1880, being named after his brother who had died.
