I know someone who really regrets calling her DD what they did, because it sounds so similar to her DH's name and the only reason why they didn't change it was because they had already started getting cards and gifts etc and didn't want that hassle kwim? I think it's unfair to do it later on once the children are old enough to be able to identify with their name - your name is such a huge part of 'who' you are and I think that you should either just learn to like it or leave it till the child is old enough to decide themselves and legally do it via deed poll, but I guess by then the damage is done after listen to your parents carry on about it for years LOL.

But it is really surprising how many people go via their middle names - especially middle aged people. Years ago I worked as a dental nurse and it really opened my eyes as to exactly what some peoples names really were. I think it must have been a trend for a while to give them a name but only use the middle one - whether it be a family name etc. There is even a boy in the year above my DS who is only known by his middle name - the Birth announcement said "We welcome with love John Callum Taylor, to be formally known as Callum" and the John was a family name and all the men in that family had John as a first name and went by their second names.

I have never had a problem with the moniker we gave our children, but I have namer's remorse about my own name LOL. I have a hyphenated first name and no one has ever used the second name - not at school not anywhere. The only place it appears is on all my bankcards, medicare, licence, birth/marriage cert etc and I actually have to think twice when someone calls me by my full name - which is usually only Dr's. I really think Mum and Dad should have thought a bit harder about that and decided not to use it at all. And even then I only got named what I did because the day Dad went to pick Mum and I up and take us home bloody Frankie Valley and the 4 Seasons came on the radio and changed history LOL (I'll let you have a bit of fun googling to work out what my name is LOL). In Hospital I was Samantha. Mum reckons she couldn't sway Dad to leave it be, so the compromise was the double-banger first name When I was about 9-10ish I went through a stage when I asked everyone to call me Jo, as that was now my new name - coinciding with me finding out I was named after a song (which was soooo daggy) and also that Jo was a character on A Country Practice and I thought she was uber cool ROFL.

ETA - ROFL Goth Mum - you too hey? We should form a support group for that.