Picking a name that makes people frown - Page 4

[happysmileylady]

It doesn't matter what name you pick there will always be folks who have to comment on it. Before the baby is born, they comment to your face, after the kid gets here, they comment behind your back. It's the way of the world.

My second dd is Raeanna Paige. My mom's comment? "Her name is SO long! She won't ever be able to spell it in Kindergarten"

Um, our last name is 10 letters, eastern european and difficult to spell AND pronounce. Even if we used Mia Li, she would still have a difficult time with her full name.

[mynaturalbaby]

I think it's a beautiful name

My son's name is Iggy and EVERYONE has something to say about it. When I was in the hospital and told my Mom, she said "Well, it's not too late to change it" but she's come around now.

Other people ask if we named him after Iggy Pop (NO!!!). We just really liked the name and it suits him.

I say, just go for it. People will always have their opinions, but as long as you and your DH are happy, that's all that matters.

[trekkingirl]

I love classic names. My daughter's name is Clara and if we have a girl she will be Aubree.


Ophelia makes me think of the color purple. Was there an Ophelia in that movie? I loved that movie!

Who cares what others think. I have an extremely unusual name and people give me grief all day long because I work with the public. I take it all in stride. Who cares!

[lilmiss'mama]

Originally Posted by lotusma

i'm actually considering telling folks that her name is Jezebel. wouldn't that be fun?

My DP suggested this as a possible name! Um...No!

[Anouk]

I have a friend who chose pet names for both her pregnancies, making it clear that they wouldn't be sharing the real name, but if in the meantime you'd like to refer to her baby as something other than "it," there you go. It worked well and kept it light-hearted.

I have a friend who had infertility issues for four years and finally just had a daughter. Before she got pregnant, though, one of her friends stole her girl name. That was quite the falling-out.

I really like Ophelia. I worry about nicknames, too, with names I like. But I agree with PPs who shared that sometimes nicknames that occur don't have to be related to the real name. I also really like Persephone, but have gotten some really weird looks from people when I shared that.

I have two friends with daughters named Fiona, and neither has ever mentioned any problems with the recent popularity of the name from the Shrek movies. Lia is a great nickname, too.

[mizznicole]

As someone who grew up/has an unusual name, I can say that it's a mixed bag from the child's perspective. Everyone. always. gets. it. wrong. So. annoying. But I also get enough positive comments to balance the awkwardness.

That said, Ophelia is not too unusual, though she'll have to spell it her whole life.

And in fairness, I also butcher other people's unusual names. Just part of being human, I suppose!

[MsStarbuck]

Originally Posted by lotusma

i'm actually considering telling folks that her name is Jezebel. wouldn't that be fun?

We're considering Jezebel as our daughter's Hebrew name. It was in the running except neither of us liked the potential nicknames.

We've been calling the baby Hieronymus since we found out we were expecting. There was no break in asking what the names were going to be from when we announced it. I don't know if lots of people have names stockpiled, but we were never the kind of couple who sat around discussing what we'd call our future kids.

Had the baby been a boy, we were going to name her Sparrow, which is a (surprisingly popular) family name on my side. My mother spent weeks trying to convince us it was a really bad choice.

[eakelly5]

Easy, we just aren't telling anyone the names we choose until after the baby is born!

[nova22]

Beautiful name! Like others have said, telling people the name before the birth seems to be an open invitation for criticism. I have taken to waiting until AFTER birth to share my names (which are uncommon) and haven't heard any negativity. I think people attach the name to a baby and don't want to insult the baby...before birth, they haven't attached the name to a baby yet so they're only insulting the name (or so they think...really they're insulting the person who chose the name!!!).

Lots of names rhyme with a negative word, contain a negative word, etc. One of my kids' names almost rhymes with "disgusting." At least one of my kids' names is constantly mispronounced by friends and strangers alike. One of my daughters has a Slovak middle name that was Americanized when we took her to the ER recently and I was mildly annoyed that they'd taken liberties with her name. We have two name choices for this baby if it's a boy, and both of them would give him the same initials as one of his other siblings. Names are such a personal choice, it's really no one else's business why you chose it and it's certainly not their place to make critical comments without having been asked.

[gaudynight]

Ophelia's beautiful!

My DD2 is Juliet. When she was born MIL was panicking that she'd get teased by people demanding to know where Romeo was or that she'd be depressed when she discovered the fate of Shakespeare's Juliet. Well, most names have some negative connotation somewhere (I hate Wuthering Heights with a passion, but I'm Cathy) and MIL (and I guess all the people who didn't comment to our faces on Ju's name) has all gotten over it. None of us could see her as anything other than Juliet.