Jewish naming customs. Can we not name our child after my grandfather because it’s the same name as a living relative?

Quick notes: I’m not Jewish. My wife is Jewish but only in the cultural sense of the word. We are both atheist. We are having a son.

My grandfather died back in March and we found out we would be having a boy a couple months later. I want to name my son after his grandfather. Unfortunately, it’s a common name and one that is tied to my wife’s uncle. My wife loves the name but says we can’t use it because it’s her uncle’s name. I’m pretty annoyed because everything is always about her culture. In my family it’s common to name children after relatives, whether dead or alive. I don’t see why her customs override mine. I think she’s partial afraid of them not being seen as fully Jewish since I’m not Jewish and the kids will be mixed race (so not “obviously” Jewish to most onlookers) and she doesn’t want to push that further away by breaking tradition but I think it should be fine since we aren’t naming our son after her uncle. We are naming him after my grandfather, who happens to have a common name.