For many parents, the name they give their child seems fine until the baby arrives. Then, comments from family members, friends, and sometimes even strangers begin. Parents may start to see that, although unique, the name they’ve picked isn’t all that they thought it would be. The disappointment is real – months of research and planning result in disappointment and heartbreak.
Sometimes, a name suddenly might become associated with something bad if the baby’s famous namesake becomes infamous. For example, fewer parents are willing to name their kids after celebrities. Names like Rihanna, Kourtney, Donald, Zayn, Kylie, Miley, and others are becoming names that parents avoid when picking monikers for their children.
When I had my first son, I was young and naive. My ex, a felon, wanted to make our sons middle name Arian. What I DIDN’T KNOW, was that “a***n” is a prison gang of white supremacists. Well, luckily he misspelled it (He’s kinda dumb), but when I realized what he’d done I had it legally changed to Aaron.
I let my ex pick my daughter’s middle name, since he agreed to the first name I had always wanted for a potential daughter. He choose Isis, after the Egyptian goddess. This was before Isis (Islamic state of Iraq and Syria) was a thing. I never loved it, but I figured it was just a middle name, so who cares? Now I care, a lot.
Luckily, there are ways out. Some parents choose to change their baby’s name a few weeks or months after they’re born. In fact, according to a 2019 survey by Channel Mum, 20% of parents who weren’t happy with their kids’ names call them by a nickname or a different name altogether. And 14% have considered legally changing their names.
Some cultures have solved this conundrum by using “temporary” names and nicknames upon birth. In China, for example, a baby is given a “milk name,” a familial nickname before birth. As time goes by, the milk name might be forgotten as the real first name takes its place. But it’s a good chance for the family to see if the name the parents picked sticks.
If parents realize they don’t like their baby’s name after they’re born and have already been named, they most likely need to act fast. Pamela Redmond Satran, co-founder of Nameberry.com, told TODAY.com that the cutoff for changing a child’s name is around one year. Another important element is not to get stuck overthinking.
“Sometimes I want to say to parents, ‘Just pick something!'” Satran said. “Whether you name her Jennifer or Gentry or Eugenia, it’s not really going to determine how good her life is. You can overthink it too, because every name has advantages and disadvantages, and it can really be impossible.”
My MIL’s name is Candy, or so I thought. When we were expecting our second child (daughter) I said to the SO, why don’t we give the MIL’s name as our daughters second name, as this was my family tradition. We called the MIL and announced the news and this is when I found out that Candy was actually the shortened version of Candida!! For anyone not knowing, Candida is a yeast infection… a type of thrush!! I tried my hardest to back track and keep it at Candy but to no avail!! My 4 year old daughter is very proud of the fact that her Grandma and her have the same name… little does she know!!
A friend of my soon to be in-laws is a geologist, and married another geologist. They named one of their daughters Crystal-after the geological phenomenon. Now that they live in Vegas they’ve realized how popular it is as an [exotic dancer] name and they completely regret it. Especially since their other daughter is also an [exotic dancer] name, Diamond I think, and they are religious conservatives. They would like a do-over please.
On the other hand, many parents feel as if they have to bow to external pressure to rename their kids. Granted, some names can really be inappropriate, like one girl’s name on this list that sounds like an adults-only product. However, it should also be said that sometimes, a baby’s name is the parents’ business, not anybody else’s. If they like the name and don’t regret it, they should be able to go about their lives without receiving demeaning comments and criticism from friends and family members.
I regret spelling my 3rd kid’s name the trendy way. It’s Jaxon instead of Jackson, and while I love the name, it really grates on me that I spelled it like an [idiot].
All of my kids have fairly classic names, and verbally they match but then when they’re written out his just looks so out of place 🥲.
We named one of our children after a specific person in my in-laws family. Unfortunately, our child is severely autistic with cognitive disability and the in-laws have never helped. Haven’t been on a date with my wife in two decades. So, I regret putting anyone from their family in a place of honor in mine.
Certified nurse-midwife, pediatric nurse, and founder of Gathered Birth, Diana Spalding, CNM, is a big believer in not saying anything at all. Even when you don’t like someone else’s baby name. “You are not going to like everyone’s baby name decisions and that’s okay. But please, keep your opinions about other people’s baby name choices to yourself,” she writes.
“When a parent tells you their baby name choice, tell them you love it, or don’t say anything at all. ‘I can’t wait to meet them’ is always a lovely thing to say! Anything negative and hurtful needs to be kept to yourself.”
Well I don’t think they regret it or care but my name is Latina and I’m black. I always get asked about it and have to explain that it was completely arbitrary and I speak no Spanish.
Edit: to clarify, I’m not saying I have a Latin name, my name is literally the word Latina.
My name is Jessica, which is the name my dad wanted. Mom wanted to name me Clarissa. I was born early and they hadn’t settled on a name, a nurse suggested combining them… they seriously considered naming me Clarissica. They had even decided my nickname would be Rissy. I am so glad Mom decided Jessica was fine, I never would have forgiven them.
What about you, Pandas? Have you ever been mad at your parents for the name they chose for you? Did you ever consider changing it? Let us know in the comments!
And if you’re looking for some baby name drama stories, check out this one where a dad saves his son from a lifetime of ridicule by giving him a regular name, and this one where the name ‘Luna’ made the dad’s Christian family uncomfortable.
I worked at Disney World a few years ago as a photographer. I was taking pictures of these two little girls with a character and they were really enjoying the experience. The parents were ready to move on and told the girls it was time to go. The oldest one, who was about four, moved but the youngest one, who was two, kept playing. Finally the mom said, “Come on, Elsa.” I looked down and realized she had a pin that said “Happy Birthday Elsa.” I asked the mom if that was really her name. She sighed and said, “Yeah… she’s Elsa.” This was about six months after Frozen came out. You can tell they never expected that name to get as wildly popular as it did.
My Mom def regrets my name. She named me after her favorite aunt that had [passed away] a few years before I was born. The wound was too new and no one wanted to call me by her name. My middle name is Mackenzie after the beer dog Spuds Mackenzie, my dad got to pick that one out. He lied to her and said it was after his ‘Irish heritage’. So I get called by a name that is not on my birth certificate.
My oldest is trans and doesn’t like her birth name. Wish I had gone with something more gender neutral. I loved her birth name and she could’ve used it after she came out. There is no guarantee she would’ve liked a different name once she transitioned. But I would’ve liked to try, I guess.
Meh. My daughter is named Capri and I get asked about Capri pants and Capri Sun all the time. She’s actually named for a Colbie Caillat song. We call her Pri or Pripri.
My son, on the other hand, his first name is Donald. It’s not what he goes by, but I feel like it’s about to become cumbersome.
During my pregnancy, my (now ex)husband wouldn’t agree with any of the names I wanted to give our son.
He liked the name Sapphire.
So now i have a three year old boy named Sapphire and a father who is barely involved.
As much as the name seems to suit him, I kind of wish I’d just told my ex to shove it and named my son what I wanted to.
I didn’t get the chance to name my son; he came pre-named.
I’m always very sad that I wasn’t able to do so, but grateful that he is able to have a gift from his first mother.
I honestly hate his name, but it’s his and we use a nickname that’s more palatable.
Edit to add context: we got placement at 9 months, and recently adopted after 3 years. We were not allowed to name him what we wished, and it would not have been appropriate to do so when he was still not legally our child.
We attempted reunification with the bio parents, who are my husband’s relatives. They were not able to follow case plans in order to get custody back.
I don’t like his name because he’s named after their d**g dealer who passed away, firstly, and secondly because it’s a popular, more common name with the -son, -ton, -den ending. It’s not my thing.
Adoption is trauma, and we don’t think we’re saviors or anything. Just love a little dude and have now promised to be his parents.
My wife and I don’t like all the family politics of naming the children. Someone’s going to get bent out of shape because one family member got used and not another. So, we racked our brains to agree on a name not used on either side of the family.
Didn’t announce the name until the birth. Neither my mother or father said anything for a year. Then, one day they casually mentioned the name of my uncle’s first son that I wasn’t even aware of. He had [passed away] at only 6 weeks old, 15 years before I was born.
I don’t know that I regret the name of my son. But, it would have been crossed off the list of contenders had I known.
I’m the son. My father regrets the name he gave me, because it’s nearly identical to *his* name. Only difference is the middle name / initial- which rarely shows up on paperwork. So almost any time that either of us goes to do any paperwork or sign up for something, we run into issues involving our nearly identical names.
For example: We both face roughly a 20 minute delay when trying to vote because they mix up which of us is which. I receive his best buy receipts. He gets packages and mail meant for me and I for him. His credit card routinely pops up on my credit report, my student loan routinely pops up on his.
My friend’s sister made a deal with her husband; she would name the first child and he could name the second. He has a last name that can be used for a first name and he’d always wanted to name his child lastname lastname. We’ll say Jordan, for the sake of example. He wanted to name his child Jordan Jordan. Everyone told him it was a terrible idea, that he was setting his kid up for mountains of paperwork errors and long explanations, but he was insistent.
The baby was born, he named it Jordan Jordan, but as they were checking out of the hospital the paperwork so confused the billing person and took so long to sort out that he immediately changed the first name to something reasonable.
My son’s middle name is Beren which is a Tolkien reference from the book “the Silmarillion”. While I still love the name and look forward to my son discovering the hero that he is named after, it is a repetitive and painful process explaining the name and it’s origins over and over again to fellow parents and relatives and then feeling their silent judgement upon that level of nerd-dom.
I know a girl named Claire. Her mother got a divorce and married a german whos name is “Anlage”. Those two names together sound like “Kläranlage”, which literally means sewage plant. She didn’t take the name though, but it was a close call.
My middle daughter’s name is Dawn. My mother in law suggested it at the hospital. It’s fine I guess, but I only agreed to it because I had just a cesarean, hadn’t thought of anything yet, and I was too tired to [care]. Now I regret that I didn’t come up with something better ahead of time.
I’m American living in a different country. I gave my child a family name that wasn’t top 100 in the US, since I’d grown up with a top 5 name and it suuucked. Come to find out, the old fashioned family name I picked is actually hugely common here and he will have the same experience I did. Whoops.
Gonna have to name number two KalEl Aubergine or something….
I named my daughter after my [late] mother. I kind of regret it, only because I have a hard time saying it sometimes.
I’m from the north of England, Yorkshire specifically. A girl I used to work with pondered for ages over what to call her kid. She didn’t want anything he could be made fun of for but still something not too old fashioned. She settled on Sol (Pronounced Soul). All was well until her grandmother enquired after the kid in her broad yorkshire accent “How’s ar sol?”.
One of my good friend’s named his son Kale. Not after the vegetable but for some other reason completely unrelated. Two years later…Kale becomes a HUGE hit and becomes the leafy green of choice and now everyone thinks he is named after that.
I regret giving my daughter my mom’s name as a middle name. It’s a regret due to my mom being an evil person, though.
We changed my son’s middle name because we didn’t realize the family member he was named after was traumatically [mistreating] my aunt/mom. Took forever and he has an “amended” birth certificate.
Right after I gave birth I was still very [medicated] and they brought the birth certificate, big mistake. My son’s name was to be Joseph but I misspelled it and it is now Joesph (Joe-sffff). We didn’t know until he was 16 and went to get his driver’s license😂 He loved the story so much He’s kept it and he’s 30 years old now 😂 I can’t believe it took us 16 years to realize it was the wrong name. It actually legally turned out to be a huge deal when he went to go get his passport and his school records did not match his birth certificate. The spelling, it turns out, have to be identical. It was a mess lol 😂
I named one of my kids a name that I knew from childhood, but is french. Because I am so used to the name it didn’t occur to me that everyone is going to mispronounce it for the rest of their life.
We gave my son the middle name of “Danger” thinking it would be bad a** when he was a high school QB, or make him look cool at college parties. But now that he’s a teenager I think it’s safe to say that if my son ever even attends a football game it will be because he’s playing the Tuba there (not that there is anything wrong with that but probably wouldn’t associate the middle name danger for someone on marching band.
I used to have some regrets about my daughter’s name. When she was 3 years old her name skyrocketed in popularity and has been a top 3 name in my country ever since. So much for me choosing a fairly unique name.. I struggled with it for a while, but I got over it. It just fits her perfectly.
My youngest has changed their name when they came out as non binary, and it felt right from the start. It’s not a name/style I would have picked, but I never had any trouble adjusting, it just clicked straight away.
Their deadname was a lovely name but I cringe whenever I hear it now. That’s not my kid!
Funny thing is, when I was pregnant with my daughter she came to me in a dream and told me her name, so that’s what I went with. When I was pregnant with my youngest I had a dream about a kid, and I asked what their name was, and they responded with “just pick one, it doesn’t matter”.
In retrospect it feels like they told me it didn’t matter because they were always planning on picking their own name when they were ready. It was never supposed to be more than a temporary name.
I regret letting my mum sway my first sons name away from my first choice Thomas. She keep saying you can’t call him Tom-Ar$e emphasising the ending with incorrect pronunciation 🙄 I went with a more modern name which is often slammed for being “bogan” if you are Australian for reference 😞
He is 30 now and likes his name so no big deal but it is a regret for me I let her get in my head.
I still love my daughter’s name but it is 1 letter off from a really popular name for her age. She started going by her initials because even though she likes her name she gets really frustrated with people not listening to her when she says it. If I had known how popular the other name would be I wouldn’t have used hers.
We went with less common-in-their-generation ‘normal’ names. Older child got called the trendier similar name quite a bit, but was ferocious about correcting people.
Younger child we gave a girl a more common boy name. It works, she likes it enough, despite’s years of people reading it and saying “he” until they knew. This bit us back in a humorous way last year. We had a new calf born while she was home. We asked for names. She suggested Daisy. “Well it’s a boy” “you named me —————-“. Ah, yup. We have bull named Daisy. :D.
Not me but my SO teaches two sisters named Princess with their middle name as the differentiator. If they haven’t regretted it they will when both ‘Princesses’ grow up………..I hope (gulp).
I dont *mind* my sons name but I regret that I didn’t stand my ground and insist that his middle name be my great grandpa’s name. I really wanted to honour my opa who was a big part of my life and my ex insisted it was “too German” and insisted he have a “good Irish name” and “allowed” my alternative. My ex is like a quarter irish through his grandma that he never met, meanwhile my German dad literally didn’t speak English til he was 7 and my mom is German and I grew up in a household where German was spoken too but go off i guess.
My friend named his daughter Randy, which is fine in the US, however when she was about 10 they moved to the UK. Apparently being named Randy is not a good name for a girl or anyone else in the UK. Dad had to explain to her very gently why she had to go by her middle name while they lived there.
My daughter was born in 2012. We named her Piper. In 2013 Orange is the New Black premiered and got big. People assume that we named my daughter after the character from the show. I’m always pointing out that the show wasn’t out yet. I think Orange is the New Black is a great show but the character Piper isn’t a great person. She’s very naive and selfish. Not at all someone I would name a child after. I wouldn’t say I regret it but it’s annoying.
Regret’s not the word, but I am surprised at one particular thing we didn’t consider. We named my son Brendan, which I did not think was going too far out of the box. But you know how every gift shop in the country has racks and racks of personalized nonsense with every name under the sun, and how your kids will always flock right to it and try to pick out their names? Try to find a Brendan. “Brandon”, yes. “Brenda”, yes. Brendan? Nope. Almost never.
He eventually got used to the disappointment of knowing his name would never be there (he’s 9 now), but it doesn’t stop me from looking every single time. I once found a fake street sign thingie that said Brendan St. so I grabbed it immediately. The next year we were vacationing in the same general area and I saw it again and bought it again, forgetting that I’d gotten it the first time.
Oh, and also his initials end up being BM. We didn’t think of this at all until a baseball game when one of the players wanted to be called by his initials, so then they all wanted that, and the next thing you know my kid is up and the coach is yelling “Way to go, BM!”
For those missing it, “BM” is a common abbreviation for “bowel movement”.
My gf named her daughter Lera, but she admitted she made a mistake once she realised it the full version of it was Valery (which is both male and female name in Russia), and that was the name of her step-father, whom she hated her entire life.
On a whim I gave our oldest son the middle name “Rainier” (pronounced like the mountain, not the French way). For a long time I wondered if I’d made a mistake but now he is 7 and when he has to give his middle name he proudly adds, “Like the VOLCANO.” So that worked out well.
I wanted to name our daughter River after the character in Firefly. Wife vetoed that said no one would name their daughter that. She wanted Taylor after Taylor swift. I vetoed that. Settled on Siena. Later we ran into a couple with a daughter about the age of our daughter. Husband says we named her River after the character in Firefly. Cue me staring at wife…. Any way we have a lovely daughter and she loves her name so all good!
I don’t regret giving her the name, but my daughter has told me she wanted to change it for several years during her childhood. (Thanks to a certain pop star who shaved her head).
I was very young when pregnant with my daughter, my mom a teen mom herself suggested she raise her as her own as she had just given birth to a little boy earlier that year. So I went through the state required counseling etc and was fully prepared for this to happen. Because of this agreement my mother named my daughter. It’s a very dainty girly name. And the middle name is kinda odd. Well cut to a month before the birth and my mom changed her mind about the whole thing and said it was just an inconvenience and she wouldn’t take her. (Yea I was a little inconvenienced too now thanks mom) so I for some reason (probably in hopes my mom would change her mind) kept the name she chose. My mom didn’t stop the disappointment there though and we stopped talking for good at around the time of my daughters first birthday. Her name reminds me of the unfortunate way that I came into motherhood. It reminds me of how I felt that I didn’t have a choice in any of it. And it’s so feminine that I worry it may be overlooked in the professional world.
Sometimes, yeah, but whenever I see little Adolf’s eyes light up when I call him to pick up his toys, I know I made the right choice.
This reminds me of the local newspaper article about the Peacock family who changed their son’s name from Drew to David by deed poll a week after registering him.
Think about it…
While my name is perfectly fine in my own language, it spells out as “Imad” in english. I’m so tired of all the “IMAD? HAH, U MEN I MAD HAHAH ARE U MAD HAHAHA LOLOL”.
You would surprised how many people think they were the first to discover that joke.
My friend is legally named “Dennisdennis” because of a typo.
Collin Pope said by a two year old sounds an awful lot like “colon p**p”. If that weren’t bad enough his first name is really John, another name for the throne.
Sorry little guy. :(.
I almost divorced my wife each time we went to name our kids. They were that bad. We landed with Hayes and Beau.
I regretted what I named my fourth son, so I changed it when he was nine months old. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life calling him a name I hated. It was Xander and I changed it to Jonah.
I had my daughter at 21. There is nothing wrong with having kids on the younger side, but sometimes you end up naming them like a baby doll or pet, I named my daughter Khloe. I still love that name. But here is where it gets a little weird. In some lame attempt at being quirky and original, I ended up giving her two e’s. And I decided she needs an apostrophe. She needed to be Khloe’e. It needed to be extra spicy.
We gave our sons similar sounding names, and the same initials. Now I want to go kick my 9 month pregnant self that thought that idea was “So cute!” I love their names individually though.
My son is Something Something Something IV. Though it’s a normal, solid name, his father and I were already on shaky grounds relationship wise and I didn’t like the whole passing on the name principle and how much stock him and his family put into it. It was clear he cared more about his first son being named after him, his father, and grandfather than he did about taking on the actual role of fatherhood.
Being young, having more important things to stand my ground on, and trying to be as mature as possible while not feeling like I was I let his dad win that debate. Predictably, sadly, my son barely ever sees his real father but is still very close with his father’s family which is nice. But his name doesn’t define him and I use his nickname which I prefer anyway.
Yep. We named our daughter a boys name, although it can also be considered gender neutral. I feel like the biggest piece of white trash now when I tell people her name…
When my sister was 5, my parents adopted her from Russia, and decided they wanted to change her name. My dad wanted Kelly. My mom thought Kelly was too boring and insisted on sticking “Ann” onto it. My dad thought this was stupid-sounding but my mom is bossy as fuck so they changed her name to Kelly Ann. When she started high school, people started calling my sister by just “Kelly” and it stuck. My mom is pissed and my dad feels like he won.
Also, I was adopted too and they decided not to change my name. It’s Mariel, but when I went to college people started calling me “Ellie” for short. My sister and I are now Kelly and Ellie. Our mother hates this.
My parents regret naming my brother Chandler, because there’s a handful of Chandlers in every class he’s ever been in.
“Friends” generation.
I centered my husband and let him veto a name I loved. When she was two he casually said “(name) would have been fine, I don’t know what my problem was.” I cried for two days. Lss: men suck.
My daughter’s middle name is Willow. She is the least Willow like child ever. Dragon Fire, Savage, Wildfire, Lady of chaos … all would be more appropriate.
Only my daughter’s middle names a little.. yes names.. I love giving my kids long names so they have 2. Anyways it’s Ezmay Rose. So pretty! Didn’t know it was the names of the moms on Twilight until someone told me and I watched the movie….. that bothers me a little….but I loved the name rose and couldn’t find names that I liked to go with it until Ezmay. Taylin Ezmay Rose.
My mom regrets my name. They thought I was going to be a boy, and had a boy’s name picked out. I arrived, very much not a boy, after 12 hours of labor and no epidural (sorry, Mom). She told my dad to just pick a name, so he named me after his sister. My mom and my aunt don’t like each other. At all.
Dad did not get naming privileges for my siblings, and Mom made sure to pick one name for each gender well before they arrived.
Before my son was born, my husband and I were having a lot of problems picking boys names. Everyone in my husband’s family has two middle names so that made it a lot harder.
After a few days, we landed on a name we loved. Harrison Atlas Henry Ames.
After a few hours of blissful happiness, I stopped in my tracks, telling my husband we can’t name our son that.
His initials would’ve been HAHA.
Didn’t anticipate spelling her name every single time you need an appointment, prescription. It’s a strange but known spelling of a common name. Used it television, fashion, and an author with it.
Like Cierra for Sierra kind of difference.
I was also unaware of how people butcher my now husbands last name (German but short). We werent married at the time. So this kid has to spell out her first And last names every single time usually twice.
She just starts spelling now vs saying then spelling bc people still get it wrong.
Yup. Named him, literally rolled out of the operating room and a nurse said she just named her kid that name. It exploded and now it’s everywhere. My first name was the most common the year I was born and I hated it and never wanted that for my kids. My maiden name was 13 letters and can barely be pronounced so didn’t want to go that route either. Easy to spell, easy to say, not common that was all I asked. And I failed.
My ex and I couldn’t agree on names, so he picked boy names, and I picked girl names. He named our son after his role-play character. I wanted to make him something normal like “Michael”. This is reddit, so I’m not going to say the actual name, but it would be like naming your child “Agamemnon”. Poor kid got teased for his name all through school.
Not full regret but my daughter’s name is Lucia. Lou-C-uh. But we slid into calling her “Lucy” and I just like Lucia so much more. She’s in kindergarten now and almost exclusively goes by Lucy.
My dad regrets my name. He wishes he had named me after his father. When my parents had me both his younger brothers were engaged, so he figured they’ll probably have sons and name him after their dad. Well one had two sons and the other had one. None of them need after my grandfather. My dad regrets picking the name he preferred and has said, “If I could go back in time, I would name you Thomas.”
My mom wanted to name me Maggie May or Bradlina. She went a completely different way after my godmother threatened her.
Yup,I really dislike my older sons name now that I’m no longer friends with the person I named him after.
Let me preface by saying that every name I came up with was shot down & she eventually named my 2 for her mothers plea of happiness .. but my 2 are named Olivia Peyton & Eli Cooper .. good combo’d names RIGHT??? … but .. her mum is a football mark “colts especially” & if you add the last name “Manning” to each first & middle name you’ll see a pattern develop .. :-z
I named my child ” Camille.” Asked my English husband to say the name and somehow he NEVER said it the way anglophones say it. Noticed the first time we went to the 🏨. Now I hate it 🤣🤣
I named my first son Declan and the only reason I regret it is bc I never expected the mispronunciations we’d get at doctor’s offices.
Not the name, changed the spelling because I thought I was being cute & it ended in years of mispronunciation. I couldn’t bear the thought of her needing to correct people for the rest of her life.
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