Me [37 M] with my wife [32 F] who wants to name our son after her deceased ex-boyfriend.

She is expected to give birth in September, and we've been thinking of names to give our son. One of her current favourites is "Nathaniel Lee". We already have two children, a son and a daughter. The son was named after my great-grandfather who fought in World War I. The daughter was named after my mother.

I asked her why she liked it, and she said that it was the name of one of her old friends from university. We had this conversation about three months ago. I thought nothing more of it, agreed that it was a good name, and told her that we could consider it seriously.

Last week, I was going through some of our old stuff. I came across a box of my wife's things from university. There were papers, marked exams, a lot of photos, just random stuff. I snooped around a little because she never really talked to me about her life in university before. I came across a photo album and some yearbooks. Wanting to kill some time, I flipped through them.

I found out that she had a boyfriend in second year (junior year in the U.S.), but after that year, there were no more pictures of them. I guessed they'd broken up. But then I flipped through her yearbook and on the last page, there was an "In Memoriam" page about her boyfriend. His name was Nathaniel Lee Wilson (surname changed for privacy reasons). Turns out, he had died towards the end of second year, after suffering a brain injury while playing football.

My wife and I knew each other since she was 14 and I was 19. We dated on and off for years before we married three years ago. I vaguely remember her telling me about her boyfriend that passed away, but that was almost thirteen years ago so I all but forgot about it.

My concern is that she's still dwelling on this guy, thirteen years after his death. I get the feeling that maybe she's not completely over him, since they technically never broke up. Also, I'm a bit hesitant in giving my future son the name of her mom's dead ex-BF. It just doesn't seem...right.

What do you think, Reddit? Should I be concerned, or is it understandable that my wife wants to name our son after her ex?

TLDR: Wife wants to name son after dead ex-boyfriend from university. I feel slightly concerned that she's still dwelling on him.