Namer's Remorse!

[sas85]

HEAPS of people use their middle names instead of their first names - I knew my best friend's name was that way due to adverse family reaction to her first name when she was born, but I didn't realize how common it was until I married my husband who is a tax accountant and started dealing with all these people's tax records, especially quite a few middle-aged family friends, they had these other first names I'd never heard of and were all using their middle name, though I can fully understand why you'd change some of them. Some of them were too foreign for their liking now that Aussie and one of our old church friends REAL first name is William - not funny on its own, but his last name is **** so if he'd gone with that he could have been called Willy **** BA HA HA HA!

I think it's INSANE to legally change a childs name though, call them a nick name or their middle name but to legally change it does sound like such an American thing to do

PS - I just looked at this and it's totally edited out our friends last name I guess in case I was using it as a swear word, but hey, people use it as an abbreviation for Richard all the time so I can't believe it's edited out.

[Muppity]

I have a close friend who took a really pretty timeless name (IMO) and changed it to something quite ordinary when she was about 6 months old. She went through the whole rigramole or getting it properly changed.

It didn't seem to bother the baby but it caused havock for her three year old. The poor boy didn't know what was going on.

Poor thing will always have to fill in that box that says "previous names" and think about what might have been...

[maz]

Nikolaus was ment to have James as his middle name as along cam his aunty and told us if she had a boy (which she did 3 weeks later) that would be his middle name. I was shattered and dont believe in 'sharing' names so jed picked Owen.

Wilhelm's middle name is Tomas after his great uncle and we are so glad we choose it becuase he did a few years later

We let the boys pick VYolett's name....We couldnt decided..I wanted Marni and Jed had no idea. We used BOTH grandmothers names for her middle name...last granddaughter on my side...first on jed's side

mateauz name.......I regreat having the 'u' in it as he gets Mah - tooz alot and his middles names....Joseph after jed's dad (finally) and Memphis cause he was born on the Kings birthday.

No I dont regret calling my children what we have. I look at the names that we would have called them if they were the opposite sex and they just dont sit with me any more

[sneakysparkle]

I have always had a twinge of "I think we picked the wrong name" with DD2 (I actually started a thread here about it!)
We were tossing up between 2 names, finally decided on one - which I love by the way, I just feel like the other one would suit her better.
We wouldnt change it though.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

I have NO remorse. I picked DS's name KNOWING how a stupid name/spelling can affect your life. Yes, it's a little common but rather a name everyone can spell than what I went through as a teenager. People assumed I'd spelt my name wrong and were very rude about it. Less so as an adult: maybe they assumed I was a teenager and therefore being stupid about my name?

But then my parents had no remorse either!

I'd also be happy for DS to use his middle names if he'd rather. And I know my parents were upset when I'd rather use my middle name, although that was the name Mum had originally picked out for my first name. And we use a nickname for DS that no-one else does for that name. A few, actually. DS is Liebling, the Sweetness Swoozle and Wellie. Or Duke of Wellington, as one friend calls him. Duke does rather suit him too!

I also love the girl's name we'd picked out more and more each day, to the point where I really want a daughter now so we can use that name! If I'd agreed to DH's suggestion of Sophie Tamzin then I'd be on a boys-only mission.

I wouldn't change the name, but if DS really felt strongly about it then I'd let him change it. I really wanted my great-grandmother's middle name added to my name but my mum never let me. She's sorry now... but now I'm saving it for my daughter. Or DS's daughter... middle name only, I'm not going to have my DiL on here whinging that her MiL has picked their daughter's name already!

Actually, I may wait a couple of years and see what happens and then look at adding it to my name. I really love Grandma N's middle name and I'm having it! It's a family name and would encourage Liebs to use it in the future too.

[blackduckies]

Interesting thread, I would'nt go as far as saying i would change any names but I wish I had thought harder or perhaps I thought tooo hard?? about them. My oldest DD was going to be Lucinda or Luci as an everyday name, but it seemed to out there and we went with Tegan, which is a " boring name" according to her and I suppose it does'nt have the ring to it she got it as a middle name but strangely we would'nt use it unless she desperatley wanted to. Our sons name jsut suited him and we are very happy with it, picked it before he was born and did'nt really have much of a back up, luckily we had no other sons (would have been in big trouble) it was hard enouhj to agree on one!!! Then Sophie came along she did'nt have a name for 3 weeks DS got sick the day she was born and spent 10 days in Royal Childrens a name was'nt that high on the priority list for us. Anyway, there was pressure from outside sources though??? Finally on a shopping trip DD came home and said there was a naughty/cute little girl down the street her name was Sophie, I think we should call our baby that!!!! I have a bit of (((((((("buyers remorse"))))))))) about that one, suits her but jsut so many and Soph looks wrong as a short/pet version???? Baby girl is Poppy we had other names picked as well, but..... it just fit.....little omens cam eour way like poppy's on a card from Canada, poppy's in the garden then the little ones called the baby in mums tum Poppy on video, sealed the deal. So 2 names we love and 2 that are okay, would'nt change it though!!! Poor kids when their parents do it, different if they feel the need to themselves I think.

[Antheia]

I wish i had stuck with DS1's original name i had for him when i was pregnant. I was going to call him Roman but everytime i said it to someone they would screw their nose up at it and i was in a very fragile state then so i decided to chuck it. I didn't name him until after hewas born and all i could come up with that i would even consider was Charlie. But it is so popular and i don't like that. But i would never legally change it because he looks like a Charlie and that's who he knows himself as. I also wish DD's name was not so popular but i love her name. And i adore DS2's name. I have never heard another child nor adult named Orson (except for Orson Wells). And i hope it stays that way.

I don't like my name either but i hate my middle name even more so have just put up with it. My godmother on the other hand changed her name to her middle.

[Sequoia]

And i adore DS2's name. I have never heard another child nor adult named Orson (except for Orson Wells). And i hope it stays that way.

On Desperate Housewives, Bree's DH is called Orson.

For me, I've never had 'buyer's remorse'. I still think DS's name is the coolest and best boy's name I've ever heard. I was unsure of the girl's name we had picked out but since then, a few of our friends have picked names I consider even more unusual than what we have picked out so I feel more confident next time if we have a girl. Yes, I know I shouldn't care what others think!

[beau_9]

my brother is named barry james after my father but mum always wished she had put it as james barry on the birth certificate cause barry was an older fashioned name and he suited james far better, so for that reason we've always called him james since he was born.
now he is 22 he still gets james however if he does sign any legal documents he has to remember to put it as barry james.

[*Belle*]

Julia was going to be called Emily! but there were so many Emily's about at the time of her birth we picked Julia and it suits her so well! We both chose Tara's name to be Tara. No regrets at all here with either girls names! We still have Luke picked out if we have a boy!

[Glamourcide]

^ Lol I admit I almost had a change of heart before I was discharged from hospital with DD - I had her on Friday afternoon and a woman was admitted early Sunday morning (like 2am) and when she got into the ward after delivering (she was put in the bed next to mine) I overheard her saying she'd decided on 'Emily Faye' for her baby - and DH and I had pickd out 'Emily Paige' (which obviously sounds almost identical!) months before her birth... I freaked out and thought, 'Ah, this cow stole my name, I need to pick a new one!!' but DH and I really love Emily Paige so we stuck with it - I figure 'we had it first, she's the big copycat, not me!!'... it is very popular, but that doesn't really worry me, it was more the fact that the middle name as well sounded so similar!!

[widdly]

My youngest sister was named Jessie, for the first few days of life, but mum didn't think it suited her cause she didn't look like any of her other babies, and when she picked the name Jessie she was picturing a baby that looked like her others. She changed the name to Tessa. Jessie would not have suited her at all!

We named DS Archie Connor. Archie after DH grandfather and Connor is my maiden name. I love that we used my maiden name, but I have often thought I would have perferred the name Alex for him, which is what I had picked. We ended up going with Archie cause of the sentimental reassons. He is an Archie and I love it, but he would have been a great Alex too.

[Curly]

My great-aunty wanted to name her son Robert. He was born...and her hubby went off and registered him as Anthony. She hit the roof and refused to call him Anthony...so he was always Rob. I could never understand as a kid why the whole family called him Rob but his wife called him Tony.

I never met my great-uncle so I have no idea if he called his son Rob or Tony. I'll have to ask my mum that one actually, now that I think about it.

I have no regrets with my kids' names. We spent pretty much the whole pregnancy discussing it and didn't ask for anybody's input so that there would be no "ewww I don't like that name" comments that would put us off. I more or less picked out DS' name and DH picked out DD's...but with the 100% agreement of each other.

Having said that, I don't like DD's middle name at all, it's DH's mum's name. But his mum died when he was young and it was so important to DH...and I thought "well, it's only a middle name." DD can take it up with Daddy in the future if she hates it.

[Kailani]

I don't regret any of DS's names - in fact, he has two middle names because we couldn't decide between the two and didn't want to regret our choice if we only chose one!

DP has always been known by his middle name...no idea why his parents even chose his first name

[Glamourcide]

... I could never understand as a kid why the whole family called him Rob but his wife called him Tony.

Lol nobody ever understands why I refer to DH (and previous boyfriends) as their nickname rather than their given name (unless they're in trouble, and then they know it, the way the kids know they're about to get an earful when the middle and/or last names are used!)... Even my parents refer to DH as his nickname 'Chief' because I barely ever use the name on his birth certificate.
With me, it's simply that the guys I used to date, and the one I married, started out being friends first, so I've always called them by whatever those in their social circle call them - whether it's their last name, first/last name with '-o' or '-ie' tacked on the end, or another nickname that their mates refer to them as.

Maybe I'm weird But it will be interesting to see in a few years what the kids think of mummy always calling daddy 'Chief' when it's not his real name lol The situation you described is pretty funny though, good on his mum for sticking to her guns and calling him the name she intended for him!!

[summerluven]

Wow...10% considered changing the name. That is a lot! I am surprised by that, considering, as the article points out, most people give it a great deal of thought, have a lot of discussions/arguments.

I wish DS' name wasn't so popular, but I wouldn't change it in a million years, it suits him, it has very very special meaning to me.

Interesting article...thanks for sharing!

[Glamourcide]

I think it's INSANE to legally change a childs name though, call them a nick name or their middle name but to legally change it does sound like such an American thing to do.

I'd be inclined to agree... I mean, if you name a child something and then decide within a few weeks that it just doesn't fit, to the point that you *really* want it changed, then I suppose that's not too bad, but if you were to leave it go until your child was old enough to recognise their name and be confused over a change, then yes, that is something I wouldn't personally agree with. I couldn't imagine trying to change the name of a child who is, say, 3 or 4 years of age, kwim?? It would be very hard for them to comprehend - at that age, a name is just something you *have*, something you *are* and to go through such upheaval would be weird for them. I too would choose a nickname if I weren't happy with my child's name later on - yes, that would open the door for confusion/hardship later on when they start having to fill out things like driver's licence applications etc using their 'official' name, but I suppose that's something they can deal with when they're at an age to decide whether to put up with using their legal name on forms and going by their 'pet' name informally, or whether they change it of their own accord.
I think I got really lucky with DD because we'd chosen the name just a few weeks after our 19-week scan (when we determined it was a girl), and I have never had an ounce of regret - right from birth, everybody said, 'Oh, she looks like an Emily' or 'It suits her perfectly' and the flow of her name sounds nice. It's a bit harder trying to choose a name this time around (I woke up this morning and decided I want to discuss choosing a different first name with DH), but I'm confident that whatever we come up with will stick and we won't wish we'd chosen differently.

[meow]

I have often doubted the name we called our son. My H LOVED the name and I was a bit meh on it and he felt the same about my favourite girls name so we laughed and said depending on the baby's sex one of us would get our fave. So then he was born and my H was itching to call him the name he had picked. I ummed and ahhed for a couple of hours then agreed because his excitement was infectious

I REALLY longed for my favourite boys names for some time after but now I'm over both of them because I think they're too common and I think our son really suits his name. I'm still not 100% on it to be perfectly honest, but I'm getting there. I get full naming rights for the next baby and almost every day I think of what names I'll choose so I guess that will be my 'closure'.