"Stolen" Baby Names

[Marilynne]

Did anyone listen to Hughsey and Kate this morning?
They were talking about baby names that friends / family have 'taken' after knowing you like them. Or, in a few cases, naming their pets one of these names. Boy, have I seen that happen so many times. My 2nd cousin loved the name "Lucy" and then one of her close friends got a dog and named her Lucy before her little girl was born. Cruel!

[Kazmar]

My mum was going to call me a name. Then her 'friend' had her baby girl a week before mum and named her daughter that name. Knowing that mum had it picked for her girl

[sneakysparkle]

I didnt hear hughsey & kate, but my sister's XH got remarried and called his son what he & my sister were going to call my niece if she was a boy! What the?!

[Tiff+2]

Yeah friends of mine had always LOVED the name Harry for a boy and made this mistake of telling her 'best friend'... Both women were TTC around the same time, the friend got preg first, had a boy , named him Harrison, but they call him Harry... My friend was devisted! She has now got over it and says if her n her DH are ever blessed with a son they are going to call him Harry no matter what!

[Tiff+2]

I didnt hear hughsey & kate, but my sister's XH got remarried and called his son what he & my sister were going to call my niece if she was a boy! What the?!

WOW that is really wrong!!! I just can't believe anybody would do that!

[nickers]

i could never do that to anyone i dont know how so many people do. and if a friend named their child the name the KNEW we were going to pick i would be saying WHAT THE to them, confront them straight up

[paradise lost]

Both DP and I have pretty common names. There were 2 rebecca's in my year in every school i went to and when i was at Uni there were FOUR rebecca's in my corridor in Halls, so i wouldn't consider a name out of bounds just because someone i knew had used it. DD's name was picked from books (though not the same books, it came from books both XP and I liked!) and isn't all that common but i'd be very flattered if someone "stole" it because let's face it, if your friend has a horrible brat that you can't stand the sight of or you know a person with a kid with the name you like and you can't stand the parent at all, you're not likely to use that name are you! There are lots of names all of us will automatically dislike because we associate it with something or someone we don't like in our heads. From that POV i actually think it's quite sweet when a child is named after (or before) someone.

DD's name meant a lot to us, everyone and their dog could have called their kid that and we'd still have gone ahead, because we had our reasons. It's too tempting to get sucked into trying to find a name no other kid you know has! My nephew's parents made up (as in invented) his name and he can't WAIT to change it by deed poll. There was a kid in America recently had her name changed because her parents, anxious to give her an "original" name, called her Tallulah Does The Hula In Hawaii. I'm not kidding!

I have always loved the name Olivia and it's one of the names DP and i have in the backs of our minds for when we have a kidlet or two. My good friend had her baby last year and called her Olivia. She knew i really liked it, but she had her baby first! LOL. TBH i really love her little Olivia and if i had another girl and she looked like an Olivia i'd call her that. I know my friend would be very flattered to know i'd named my girl after hers.

Bx

[nic]

I don't think it would worry me that much, but it does my DH. He told a friend of his a few years ago about a boys name that he loved, and then the friend and wife had a son, and called him the same name that DH wanted.. He still isn't over it lol, and it was about 6 years ago now!

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Bec, I know a girl about your DD's age with the same name! She's so gorgeous though. DH vetoed that name, which is a shame, but he has NO taste in names LMAO - he rejected some gorgeous ones.

This is why we didn't discuss names with anyone. Even though DS is named after a brewery LOL (cheers Google). But I just didn't want to think his name had been "stolen" when in fact I don't own the name nor have I patented it.

If DH re-married and had a girl and used the name we had spent months picking... no big. He really didn't like that many names, there were others I like too. Even if he used the middle names, which are for my family! I can still use the middle names if I wanted and go back to my original girl name list and pick a better name.

I am avoiding a name that's nice that my best friend wants to use at some point... but that's not just because she's my best friend, it's also because it's not in my top 1000 list. Nice name, just not for me IYKWIM.

[Visitor8]

I think its stupid. Names are almost always from somewhere else. You can't steal someone elses name. You would have stolen it from someone else before you if that was the case (most of the time)...
Mel careful cos I am gonna call my next boy Aricyn...

[Mumma2three]

Yes my friend knew my name, I had it for 8 years and then she named her baby something different and then CHANGED it a few weeks later, to the name I had told her in confidence. Luckily I don't see her anymore (I just dont need friends like that) so Im using it for the next bub anyway!! But she did it purely because it was my choice, she was alwa;ys like that, and used to try to take the guys I liked, because i liked them...

[ameylynne]

There is a difference in stealing a name and using the same name. There are always going to people with your name, no biggie. It's when people you're close with and know you like the name use it there is a problem.

When I was ten I picked a name for my first daughter, Ryan Alyce, that has a lot of family meaning. I told my cousin and when she got pregnant she told my grandmother she was going to name her Ryan Alyce, making my grandmother cry, because of my name. I was devastated. She decided not to use it, but now when I announce it, it will seem like I stole the name from that brat.

If any one of my friends said they wanted to use a name, I wouldn't use it. Chances are if they're bringing the name up, they love it.

[SamiH]

Well, I consider this a steal!!!!

A friend was having twins - boy and a girl - she was 33 wks and I was 25 wks with DD. I told her I liked the name Lily at the time - and knew we were having a girl. She said yes that's nice but she's not into all the flower name bit ...

WELL she went into early labour ar 36 wks, had the twins and named her girl ..... LILY ..... I was soooo peeved. And every time I hear the name it makes me cross

However, I was then watching Mona Lisa Smile when I was around 37 wks and liked the name Giselle (which she is ) and only told my husband - everyone else thought we were gunna call her Sienna

My apologies to any Lily's out there.

[Visitor8]

OIC! I misunderstood. Yeah I would be annoyed too!

[Visitor8]

see Sami I would have just called her Lily anyways. Then I would have been like "ner ner you can't stop me" lol

[Macca79]

You can't 'steal' a name. I so often hear stories of some person who liked a name, told a friend and then that friend used it. If you really like a name for your child it shouldn't matter if your friend has used it too. If it makes you upset that is fine just try and get over it. Nothing is worse then hearing the story for the 100th time 10 years after it happened. I use my name as case in point. I was named Jeanette after my grandmother Jean. My aunty wanted to call her daughter Jeanette but had a boy. My whole life all I ever heard was how my cousin would have been Jeanette if he had been a girl. Arrrgh! Besides it is not as if people say "Hey I heard so an so likes the name 'X', lets use it just to **** them off". For all we know the person who used the name we liked put a lot of though and reason into picking the name, same way we did.

[SamiH]

LOL Missy - nah, I don't dwell on it or anything, and Giselle is much better suited to my DD cos she is soooo cheeky and manipulative already

Macca - just a story I shared - I think I have only told a handful of ppl that in nearly 4 years.

[2CheekyMonkeys]

yeah it is annoying. for first pregnancy i told everyone our planned middle name would be the first name and then when bub was born lo and behold we decided we liked hannah as a name better. ;-) this time round i have been quite open with the names i like.

DH and i were going through a name book and came up with a name we liked but it sounded very familiar. i then remembered that a friend of mine who is due a week before me had 3 names that she has loved since highschool and so i emailed her to confirm that it was the name she liked, saying that if it is i would cross if off my list and not think of it again. she wrote back that yes it was the same name and if i really liked it it didnt matter to her if we named our baby the same as hers it just means there would be two ethans coming into the world. i thought that was absolutely generous and lovely!!! we usually cling to our liked names so getting this perspective was refreshing. and truly.. does it matter if there are two babies with the same name? not really.