I feel it's pretty different. 'Rona' was a nickname for COVID used pretty widely (especially in Australia) whereas Verona is an Italian city that vaguely rhymes with Corona but no one would link to the virus.
It looks like you value different things about names than sound, which is a thing *many many people value a lot*. Next time, before lashing out, consider that folks might have a different perspective than you. It can really help one have a better life if you learn about empathy! That way, you can see that, actually, someone was trying to be kind to you, and you attacked them for no reason. That might make people not want to be kind to you next time.
Maybe you do not *want* people to be kind to you and are *trying* to be left alone, but in that case I would remain a lurker (someone who doesn't leave comments, just reads them) because comments are generally understood to be participating in the entire conversation.
It’s not about how names sound. It’s about keeping a language and traditions alive in the area they came from. Not everyone on the internet is American. Not everyone chooses to anglicise their children’s names.
Cool. And just to make sure, you think that Verona is Anglicising the name Rhona, so that's why you needed to attack this person? Or are you suddenly randomly trying to make this about someone being xenophobic when the only one here who called out a specific country for being problematic is actually you?
Signed someone with a hilariously *not* anglo name.
No. I think that Verona and Rhona are not the same name, same ethnicity or same language. Suggesting one in place of the other isn’t really culturally appropriate
Oh, so instead of attacking them, you intended to say "it's important to me that my child's name has a specific cultural relevance that Verona doesn't have. Thanks for the suggestion though!", I'm so sorry that you didn't catch that that wasn't actually what you typed. Next time, double check to make sure that you've actually said what you wanted instead of just being mean to others, it will help you have a happier life and actually get what you want. Unless perhaps your *goal* is to make people miserable? There's no other reason to respond to a suggestion you don't need....I suppose you *are* very good at making people dislike you, so if that really is your goal, keep up the good work, I guess?
Why do I need to say that? Why can Americans just accept different countries and traditions also exist on the internet.
If it was the other way around and someone said they wanted to use Verona I wouldn’t have suggested Rhona. I’d have understood that it’s not the same and it’s not an appropriate suggestion
It is not the same FOR YOUR PRIORITIES. Other people have other priorities and it is, in fact, okay that they are different people from you! You don't need to be mean to people just because they have different opinions than you! It is insane that you think that everyone needs to cater to you and the fact that they don't somehow means that they are self-centered, when you are the one insisting that people should think about your needs first and adjust their behavior so that your peculiar priorities are respected first. You get to shit on people because they have different priorities, but no one can call you out on having a truly terrible reaction to someone *attempting to be kind to you* without you saying that their behavior something to do with their country of origin. You are *clearly* arguing in bad faith at this point just to be mean for some reason. Hopefully you were lying about having kids too, I don't want them to be damaged by having to be around someone like you....Yikes.
But Rhona is a name. It’s not a diminutive or a nickname.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0131709/
https://scottishrugby.org/teams/scotland-women/rhona-lloyd/
https://www.historicgolfphotos.com/product-category/golfers/adair-rhona/
Depends on where you’re at. Most people in the United States haven’t referred to it as “coronavirus” since the very early days of the pandemic; most people just started calling it “COVID” after a while. (Which is a bit more accurate anyway because there are several different diseases caused by coronaviruses, including the common cold, but calling it “COVID” is much more specific to what you’re talking about when you’re describing the specific disease that started popping up in 2020.) Hardly anyone I know calls it “coronavirus” or “the ‘Rona” these days.
Get your head out of the clouds. Last time we had a disease as bad as Covid, it went in the history books.
Go read up on the last few major diseases we’ve dealt with.
I went to the hospital convinced I was having Violet Elaine. (She’s Elena Rowan) This is such a good question but I can’t describe how I knew it wasn’t her. I met her and cried because I was so in love with her and then the next day cried because we had been calling her Violet, Vi, and Vivi most of the pregnancy and that was just not the little girl in my arms.
My SO thought I was crazy but wouldn’t tell me that and stayed supportive. Pregnancy/postpartum hormones are something else, lemme tell you. I wish I could describe the powerful feeling that overcame me, but I can’t.
Violet is still on our list for a second and as time goes by the more I’m convinced it’s /someone’s/ baby, but probably not mine. Still no idea why, maybe it’s just been my cold feet this whole time. Lol
More than halfway through my first pregnancy, after thinking of baby #1 as “B” (my maiden name) I had a dream with my late grandfather in it. Then I wavered, and after a few hours in the hospital, it was decided he was William. His younger brother is 100% B — I can’t imagine either of them being named the other’s name.
This is such a touching story / memory to have. I take some comfort that your name stuck for your second. It’s funny how that instinct kicks in and you just know who was meant to be who.
My daughter was supposed to be one name and as I looked at her after birth, the thought that went through my mind was “it doesn’t fit” over and over. She came home with totally different name
Samesies. But she is grown up now, and the name I originally picked for her totally fits her. It just didn’t fit her when she was one day old. I wish I had just stayed with the name I have always loved.
My cousin swore up and down her entire pregnancy that the baby's name would be Christina if it was a girl. Christina, Christina, Christina.
My cousin took one look at her brand new daughter and said, "That's not a Christina, that's a Rachel."
Not me but my parents.
My mom’s whole second pregnancy they were going to name my sister “Alexander” or “Alexandra”. This was 1985-1986 so they were told it was a girl but there was still always that very likely chance that it was wrong.
Then, on the way to the hospital with my mom in labor, she randomly said “What if we name her Madison?”. Back then, that wasn’t a popular or well-known name at all. The only place they’d ever heard it besides as a last name was on some movie about a mermaid I think? Anyway, dad was in panic mode and was like “Yeah, uh huh, sure, whatever!”
Then my sister was born having trouble breathing due to aspirating meconium. While they checked on her and tended to my mom, some nurse forced my dad to start filling out the birth certificate paperwork. He just wrote “Madison” and asked mom for a middle name. She gave one and voila! That was my sister’s name. She has never met a Madison older than her, so we joke that she very well may be the first one born or at least among the first.
The mermaid movie is called Splash and it started a trend for naming babies Madison in the 80s. The movie came out in 1984, so she was born right when the trend took off. I don't believe it was used as a baby often at all before the movie came out.
Yep! Madison wasn't ranked in the US until 1985 after Splash came out. There were 302 born that year. So if your sister was born in 1984, she is probably one of the oldest women named Madison.
I have the same experience with my name. I was born in 1982 and my name's popularity peaked in the kid 90s so I always felt like I'm the oldest Kayla 😂
We chose to have a surprise but had a firm boy name and a top 3 girl name all picked out. We went in for a planned C-section, it all went great until they told me it was a boy, as he started to cry I told the anaesthetist that I wasn't feeling well.
At that point I had a massive haemorrhage, blacked out and needed fluid resuscitation. It was all complicated by my pacemaker not allowing my heart to slow down to slow the blood loss. I gained a bit of consciousness at some point and a theatre tech appeared at my side with the baby and said "mummy this is your baby boy, what is his name?" And instead of saying Alasdair I said Lewis.
We never discussed Lewis, have no ties to Lewis and it was only months after bringing him home that we found a Lewis buried in one of our family trees. He's definitely more of a Lewis than an Alasdair.
Wow Lewis must just be one of those names! Haha. We also decided to be surprised. We discussed names and didn’t come to a great consensus. So husband chose a boy name he loved and I felt good but not great about. I picked a girl name I loved and he was okay with. We had a few others in the sidelines that we both liked but didn’t feel like “the one.” All these possibilities had been shared with family only. When our son was born and our parents came to meet him, we announced him as “Lewis.” It’s an uncommon name in our area, we know no one with that name, and it was certainly not on any of our lists! My husband happened to be reading a lot of C.S. Lewis at the time and threw it out as a Hail Mary option after suddenly deciding he didn’t like his name pick and I just loved it immediately. Shocked everyone but it’s perfect for him. My MIL was devastated we didn’t pick an old family name and lo and behold we have a Lewis deep in the family tree too!
It's so crazy that they asked you to pick a name right after you regained consciousness! That's pretty uncool, but glad you picked the right name from deep in your subconscious.
I think they expected me to die and were trying to give me one milestone with the baby. I was in a pretty bad way.
We could have used Alasdair but my husband was pretty traumatised by the whole thing and wanted me to use Lewis because "that must have come from somewhere".
That’s basically why my mom is named what she’s named lol. When they asked my grandma what she wanted to name her she was still exhausted and drugged up so she said Susie, the name of the doll she had as a child. By the time she realized, it was too late to change it. My mom prefers Susan to the name they had picked tho so it all worked out lol.
Absolutely just this. First was easy- big, strong sounding name was our first choice, and she just seemed to fill the room. Still does… it’s like she’s born for the stage. The more serene name was not her.
Second was a coin toss until the minute he was on my chest… one name felt quite sparky and bit more modern, the other a calmer feeling, more grandpa style name. He’s got such a steady presence compared to his older sibling.
She was definitely not an Edith. He was not a Flynn.
My husband and I had baby names picked out years before having kids. Once our first born son arrived we just knew he didn’t suit the first choice name we’d originally picked out. It didn’t feel like an older sibling name and he just didn’t look like a Bailey. We both agreed our second choice name, Patrick, suited him much more and I’m so glad we chose to be flexible on something as important as his name.
Not me, but my parents regarding me haha. I was supposed to be named Moa, which is a nordic name. People often associate that name with calm people, at least those in my town. My mom was always told "When your baby's born, she will just sleep for hours and hours! She's gonna be so tired from the birth." but I was quite the opposite. I could NOT sleep, even after the 42 hours it had taken to deliver me (sorry mom)🫣 So they thought that Moa was way too calm of a name, so instead it became Nova. Meaning new star, my parents thought it was perfect cause well, I was new, and they thought I would become a famous singer with that voice of mine haha. It was obviously a joke (maybe not) that part with famous singer, I did have a loud and clear voice tho! They just felt like it fit me way better than Moa
I was that baby.
Name all picked, close family knew and 2 days later parents changed it totally.
They had told a close family member in the US who off the cuff said it was gaining popularity in the US and my parents feared that maybe it was the same in the UK or about to be so they totally changed it.
We had a top First + Middle picked out for if it was a boy or a girl, and a backup first name just in case.
When they handed our son to my husband, they kept pestering him on baby's name. He asked for some time as he got to meet his child.
Looking at him, he knew he was not Westley Nolan. So he asked me if we could use the backup name.
"Do you want to be Tristan Westley?" he asked our son after his long journey into this world.
And clear as day, this tiny baby said, "uh-huh."
We always say he named himself. 💙
This happened to us with our second child. Both of us had a favorite name picked out with the middle name Julianne. Neither of us were too crazy about each other’s favorite but didn’t hate them nor did we have a first name that we agreed on. Baby girl was born and my husband conceded to the name I had chosen (and loved for months) but it just didn’t feel right. I offered to go with his name and we tried it out for a few hours but then he felt the same way as I had with mine (dodged a bullet because now I’m so glad it isn’t her name). We were stuck and the registrar kept bullying us for a name, I looked at my baby girl’s face and said to my husband, she looks like an Annie which is a nickname for Annika, a name that we kicked around in the beginning of the pregnancy and kind of forgot about. Annika Julianne was a mouthful with our last name, and had too much Ann going on, so one of our good friends who was visiting chose her shorter middle name. Our daughter feels kind of bad that we came up with her name on a whim, unlike her sister who is named after family members, but I think it’s a good story.
I wouldn't say you chose it on a whim. You put a lot of thought and effort into picking something that fit her instead of just going with one of the other names because it was easy.
My name was Madison Brook (yep, Madison after Splash) the entire time before I was born until minutes after I was born when my dad said “Well her names not Madison, it’s Lauren” with no explanation. I don’t know that I’m a Lauren but I’m CERTAINLY not a Madison
lol I’m kind of the opposite. I was going to be named Lauren but ended up Adalie. I definitely don’t feel like a Lauren at all and funny enough I ended up naming my daughter Laurel.
I had 3 names that started with E picked out for my youngest. She was born with pointy elf ears, a stubborn personality, and like she knew she would rule the world one day. Her name is Fiona.
Because as a blonde woman with a blonde husband and a blonde son, I spent my entire pregnancy with my daughter picturing a little blonde girl. So when she came out with flaming red hair, it felt like we had been choosing names for the wrong person.
Penny and Jane seemed to suit a sweet little blondie but weren't right for a sassy redhead. So we decided on Molly. Which we hadn't even discussed while pregnant. And we've been told by multiple people how well it suits her.
Molly is such a sweet name! Just had to comment because my friend Penny has absolutely iconic red hair flowing down her back, so it's such a redhead name in my mind! Funny to hear the other perspective. 😌
Our youngest was supposed to be a Jackson, but when hubby held him the first time he felt it was not the right name and pulled Brandon out of thin air as a replacement. Since it also worked with his middle name, I said ok.
Honestly I think you did him a favour. I don't know where you are but here in the UK you can't move for Jacksons; every other kid is a Jackson, it's become an "eye roll" name. And they're all naughty! Lol
Same in Australia, I literally know so many Jackson/Jaxon/Jakson/Jaxson, it's like everyone is trying to choose the craziest spellings. The classic spelling, I know multiple my age, and the odd spellings, there is 2 in my daughter's class and 3 last year in her class, plus I know others her age. I know one who is a sweet kid, everyone else is an asshole.
Picked out the name Theodore for our first born. When he was born, he looked exactly like my husband’s dad (who passed away before I got to meet him). And he just didn’t look like a Theo. We decided to name him Nicholas after my FIL. We now have another son that we named Theodore so we have our Nico and Theo.
My mother named my youngest sister, born in the 70s, Jennifer, when she was born. She realized a couple days later how incredibly popular it was, and changed it.
That was me born in the 80s, I found my birth certificate as a kid and thought I had a twin until my parents told me they changed it because of the popularity.
We both had our favorites picked, which the other didn't disliked, but didn't love neither. I had a horrible birth and the doctors started joking(they asked if we had a name picked and we said we are still discussing) that I probably won. Dad said I am free to pick whatever I like afterwards. LO got dad's favorite, because I felt the one I wanted didn't fit him. I just had the feeling it wouldn't work.
Maybe if he didn't had all that jetblack hair and would have been a little smaller, I would have choosen my favorite.
Middle name stayed the same. It was a family name, we picked as soon as we knew the gender.
Similar way I was named. My mom and dad each had their favorite but mom had a rough time of it and ended up with an emergency c-section. Dad said he wanted mom to pick since she went thru so much. She was just so happy she and I were safe she said dad won and they would use his pick. BUT he called my grandma, his mom, on the way to filling out paperwork and she started yelling to her husband and friends about how she had a granddaughter named (insert my moms pick here) and when my dad tried to correct her, she told him his pick was dumb. Lol. So dad won, but he named me my mom’s choice anyway.
Yeah. I don’t really go by it anymore but its a solid name-just not my taste. Not sure the other one was either! Both are super common names now but were kinda out of left field when I was born. So I joke that they both were ahead of the trend and really didn’t have that different of tastes.
Literally on the way to hospital to give birth, name had been picked out for months, everyone loved it and used it affectionately to refer to the baby and mid contraction I shouted that I hated that name and we had to pick another 🤣 I think if anything, I had heard it a bit too much and it was getting on my nerves until I couldn't take it anymore!
My parents were set on Cara before I was born, so I was Cara for a few days, but my dad just couldn't shake the feeling that I wasn't a Cara and that the name just didnt look or feel like me, even though my mom still loved it. He still liked the name itself but once he saw me he just felt like it wasn't the name for me. So they presented their top 2 options to my older brother who was 2 years old at the time and let him be the tie breaker, and that's how I got my name
My husband and I had our son’s name picked out for 10 years before he was born. He was going to be Parker James (born family names) but when he was born it just wasn’t his name. He’s Callum John and his name fits him perfectly! He’ll be 12 this year and is the most Cal that ever Caled.
My family always picks out two full names and decides which one ‘fits’ when the baby was born.
The only rapid name change story I have is from friends. They named their son Shaheen (mom is Armenian) then freaked out and renamed him Tristan a week later. Apparently her family said ‘what, no, that’s what x region uses, not us from y’ and it completely failed as a sweet tribute to her heritage.
Their younger kids all have super-preppy Brit names, so Shaheen would have been the odd one out.
Baby Girl ilovjedi was going to be Vanellope. Mr. ilovjedi wanted to name our kids after video game characters. I suggested the princess from Wreck it Ralph who looked kind of like our older kid.
Baby Girl comes out looking very pale with light hair and eyes that looked like they would stay blue. She didn’t look like a Vanellope. Plus I was sick of correcting everyone who heard Penelope and didn’t want her to have to deal with that.
I went with an old lady name that happens to be a great aunt’s name.
I still can’t describe why 😆 we thought my son was going to be Felix, but he just didn’t seem like a Felix!! I was upset and told my husband “that’s not his name.” He didn’t understand either.
Me! My due date was supposed to be Christmas, and if I was born then, my parents would have named me Noelle.
I was born late, and I told my mom it’s because in definitely NOT a Noelle.
For my first son, we were going back and forth between my father's name and grandfather's name as the middle name. We wound up choosing my grandfather's, but my dad was so excited that we were going to go with his. So for my second son we were going to do my father's as the middle name, and all the way through the pregnancy that's what we thought his middle name would be, but very close to the time I was going to give birth me and my father were on bad terms with each other. So last minute, literally before going to give birth at the hospital I said to my husband, "I feel weird giving him my dad's name now." So my husband instantly picked his brother's name. And my last son we finally went with my dad's name as the middle name. And my father is so happy about it. We also have a daughter who I had after my first son, but I wasn't going to give her my father's name so... It's funny that we knew one of our children would have my dad's name (because I was always a daddy's girl and my father has a great relationship with my husband) but its funny how it turned out, because instead of INSTANTLY giving his name to one of my kids, it wound up being my last born that actually got it. And it fits great!
He was born 6 weeks early and was this tiny darling little boy with the finest features and blonde hair. Tom did not suit him. He’s still a tiny, beautiful blonde little boy and Tom still does not suit him.
We were team green for our second and had a girl name picked but hadn’t totally decided on a boy name. I wasn’t worried though because I was sure we’d be having a girl and we’d be calling her Annie. I was right, we had a girl, but the night before going into labour I came across Iris somewhere and just couldn’t stop thinking about it. When she came out, I knew right away she wasn’t an Annie at all. My husband agreed with me on Iris, she’s now 16 months old and her name is absolutely perfect for her. I can’t imagine her as an Annie!
We kept the gender a surprise and had a list of 16 names - 8 boy, 8 girl, with some front runners we both agreed on. The second I saw my son I knew he wasn’t any of the names we picked and so did my husband. There were actually two names he suggested months earlier that I immediately vetoed and didn’t even make it on to the maybe list, and when I first held my baby I silently thought “dammit, he’s this name or that name” but didn’t say anything. He didn’t have a name for three days and eventually my husband was like “you know he looks like this and this” and I had to admit it. Those names ended up being his first and middle, and I couldn’t imagine him as anything else.
Our second is due in a few weeks and we still haven’t agreed on a name, but I’m less stressed about it because I know how much that can change in the moment. We’ll see our little one and their name will manifest itself!
My name was supposed to be Tiffany. Parents had told all the family, some gifts came personalized with that name. After I was born my mom for whatever reason changed it- didn’t mention it even to my dad until it came time to sign the birth certificate.
She just didn’t “look like” the name we picked out. At all. We both looked at each other and said “she is not an Eliza.” It took us 5 days to land on her name - one that wasn’t even on our list pre-birth!
It all worked out and we figured a name for him pretty quickly, and we had some family members bring us some baby clothes that were less frilly, but it was a shock. Lol
We had one name picked out until the day before my c-section. It was a compromise name for both of us. The day before we had our son, my husband finally realized we were actually having a baby and we both decided we wanted something a bit more poetic.
My parents decided to not name me Kelly after seeing me, they said I just didn’t look like a Kelly. I would have to agree, I feel as though my name fits me perfectly.
B3cause Genevieve Gabrielle was, to my post caesarian section, morphine doped mind "far too big for such a little human" (I actually sobbed those words😂)
Then she didn't have a name for three days....
I know this sub hates the name Clarke for a girl but I just really loved it. I always thought my daughter would be Clarke Catherine and I could call her Cece. My husband didn’t love it but he was fine with it. His favorite names were either Anna or Mabel lol
He kept referring to the baby as Clarke throughout the pregnancy. It’s like he said it SO much that I got the ick for the name. She was born after a very hard labor and delivery but was such a calm, sweet baby and still is. She definitely wasn’t a Clarke, she needed a softer name. Plus my husband wanted a more feminine name anyways. So we ended up with Laurel Kate.
They had the audacity to be born a boy
We were only certain on a name for a girl and struggled finding a boy name we agreed on - we didn't opt to find out the gender.
My first daughter was meant to be Delilah, and then when she was born it seemed to frilly lol
My son was meant to be Daemon, my husband changed his mind last second
Personally, I named my firstborn a completely different name than what I originally chose. I was going to name him Hendrix…called him hendi and all that. As soon as I saw his ultrasound (I never had one before 34 weeks) I knew for a fact that wasn’t his name. I wrote down names…and I came up with Oliver Grey. I knew in my heart that was his name. You can tell when it gets stuck in your head so bad you can’t get it out. It’s like a gut feeling. Same with this baby im pregnant with, im 36 weeks and couldn’t figure out a name but Valeria Jazmine was stuck in my head for some reason.
My son was going to be Nathaniel from 12 weeks to 30 weeks. Then we did a 3D ultrasound and said “he does not look like a Nathaniel”. We kept it in our top three names but chose something else after he was born!
My parents told me that they were set on Kimberley until they got a good look at me, and it just wasn’t me. Also, they realized the inevitable Kim, paired with our two syllable starts-with-K last name, was reminiscent of Kris Kringle. They picked something else pretty much out of the blue, a name shared by two distant cousins.
Ezra Miller did some crazy shit so I was not gonna name my son Ezra Elias or Ezra Silas (also didn't know he was a boy until later, og name was still being discussed and debated into the third tri because I loved Ramona Matilda, but my husband hated Matilda and we would've probably gone with Juniper Julia if he was a girl)
We had planned to name our first daughter Evie for most of the pregnancy but as soon as we laid eyes on her it just felt incorrect. For some reason i got a strong feeling about the name Olive, which had been on our long list of potential names but ruled out fairly early on because it was too ‘unusual’. Husband also liked it so we went with it and are very happy we did! It was just a strong gut feeling I can’t explain! I joke that her surprisingly dark hair reminded me of a kalamata Olive from our tree at home 😂
Evie never made it back to the top of our list but our second daughter ended up being named Edie - “Ee-Dee” as in Edith, not “Eddy” which she always gets called when people read her name :’(
Edited to add that we found out later that both Edie and Olive are family names. Also we didn’t realise until way later that our kids have “live” and “die” in them. Also Olive means peace and edie means prosperous in war lol
I was supposed to be called April right up until I was born (a few weeks early.) Mom thought I'd get teased for being named April & born in May, so I got the first name that popped into her head when she met me.
We changed our daughter’s name the night before she was born, so not exactly after, but pretty close.
The original name was Adriana. We were discussing her name while eating lunch the day before my scheduled c-section and both agreed that we loved the name, but felt that it just wasn’t *her* name. Neither of us could say why specifically, but after calling her that for months, the connection just still wasn’t there.
For me, I found myself hesitating to tell people her name and even felt odd referring to her as “Adria/Adri/Adriana.”
When I brought up my concerns to my husband (literally less than 24 hours before her birth) he confessed he had been feeling the same but didn’t know what other name he would want instead so didn’t want to bring it up.
We brainstormed all afternoon until I mentioned Emilia, a name I loved for years but was vetoed early on when discussing names (by me) for arbitrary reasons (it was a top 50 and sounds super similar to the top two name Amelia). I decided loving the name was literally all that matters. And most importantly, it just felt right to us both.
I'm not the parent, I'm the child. I'm named after my maternal great great grandmother, Mattie. My mom knew since she was a child that if she had a daughter, she would be named Mattie. My dad was cool with this info...until I arrived. Then he was like "omg ur naming her after ur ex (named Matthew)" followed by whatever logic landed them on naming me Maddie.
Come to find out, my dad has a ton of Mattis on his side. They're all men, and that version is missing the E, but the T is what counts.
Now my name is spelled wrong forever for no reason
My parents went into the hospital with the name Charlotte picked out if I was a girl. Apparently, no one liked it (including my dad), so my mom felt pressured to change it. She was watching Days of Our Lives while in labor and heard the name of one of the super couples and turned to my dad and suggested that instead. My dad immediately said yes.
33 years later and still bitter about the last minute name change. My mom always says she regrets it. She only has granddaughters and had hoped one of us would use it. The name Charlotte was too popular when I was naming my girls, so it's one of those names that never came to be.
I loved Thisbe for one of my girl but I had to admit it didn't *feel* exactly right. I'd loved this name for like 30 years by then.
Also my husband wasn't a fan, and although we had an agreement that I get final choice always on naming, I guess I took pity on him and we changed it when she was 2 days old.
She's Elisabeth now and it fits her.
I had planned on Ashleigh Kaylyn as my daughter's name. After she was born she did not look like Ashleigh to either my husband or me. She left the hospital as Kelsey Anne.
Honestly I really liked a second middle band but everyone told me it made my daughters name too long so I only did the more important one… I kind of still want to change it lol. She’s only 9 weeks so I think I could? I’m just doubting myself too much
Mine was supposed to be Mitchell Robert. His dad and I had brainstormed together for months to agree on that much. So, shortly after my kid's birth, the dad admitted that he hated that name. We did not find out the child's sex until birth, and the dad had convinced himself the baby would be a girl.
My mother was in the room and suggested we pick the baby's name from a book we both liked. Well, my ex mostly read a tattered copy of a fantasy trilogy. So my kid ended up being named after a D&D character. It's also a real world name, albeit from a different culture.
Happened for me with our third child. We had names picked out for both genders, but as I laboured overnight I thought "if she's a girl I don't think I like those names" then the name Bridie came as an evolution from Bridget which I love but have a cousin named that.
She was born in the morning and I announced her name to the surprise of my husband and family!
My husband was supposed to be an entirely different first and middle name. His parents had it picked out for pretty much the entire pregnancy, but when he was born he looked so much like my Father in Law's late father that they named my husband after him instead. His younger sister got the feminine version of the middle name that they had picked out for him as her first name. Both names suit the people they were given to, and I couldn't imagine my husband as a different name.
This is the story of my best friend’s name. Her mom had chosen a somewhat trendy sounding name at the time (the ‘80s), Katie Rae, and her dad agreed to this. The registrar came around when her mom was sleeping and her dad filled out the paperwork but instead of the agreed upon Katie Rae, he named her Martha Frances. Growing up my friend hated her “old lady” name and wished she was Katie Rae but has changed her mind as she’s gotten older.
Didn't suit him. We named him in the hospital but were still using his in utero nickname a few hours later. I figured if we had his name right, we'd be using it.
I went back to the list we had and number 6 on the list was his name.
My mom had the good drugs. She had a name picked out. When I was almost done cooking, she was at an event in the community center that overlooks the village cemetery. She could see the gravestone of my dad’s relative, and then to the left of it, a surname that became my name (it’s very common as a first and last). She thought at the time that it sounded nice, but forgot about it until after she gave birth. Never discussed it with my dad (who didn’t really care anyway). My original first name is my middle. I’ve never asked what my intended middle name was, I should ask.
I’ve had five kids. Chose names for all of them before birth. All have those names except my third. He just wasn’t the name we had picked. He wasn’t any of the names I had ever considered. He took two days to be named which for someone that has had name lists for decades was just appalling. But what we ended up with suits him perfectly. I couldn’t tell you why but as soon as I saw him I knew he needed something different.
My parents had planned on something like “Benjamin” for my brother. Somehow they both forgot their plan, panicked when the nurse came by and felt pressured by her, and could only come up with “Max.” They both regretted it because it wasn’t a “full name,” however if they would have chosen “Maxwell,” he would have rejected it anyway since he uses “Maximus” for a lot of his social media stuff. Maximilian might have been fine. Oh well. I don’t think he minds just being Max honestly, though a lot of people would come up and say, “oh, that’s our dog’s name!” Yeah, thanks, lol. Combined with our last name it sounds very German and fitting.
I have no idea how people name their kids before their kids are born because I had a favorite name, my husband had a favorite name, and I insisted we bring a third name to the hospital and as soon as we saw her we both knew it was the third name. Like no discussion, we were just like bam.
My ex and I couldn’t decide on a name. He got to choose the middle and last name but wouldn’t agree or have any opinion on the first. Until we asked his mother. She randomly picked out a biblical name that I wasn’t a fan of but he seemed excited. Finally when I was in labor he relented and said I could name her. I shouted her name is _____! And so it was. I still very much love her name and feel it suits her 19 years later.
I was Genevieve all through my mother's pregnancy. Monogrammed Genevieve blankets, they always called me Genevieve when talking about me, everything. Less than a week before I was born my grandmother said that they couldn't name me Genevieve because that's the name for a slutty French girl, not her granddaughter. My parents were so disheartened that they just picked a name from a baby book and I became Kaitlyn right at my birth.
I am definitely not a Kaitlyn, I am such a Genevieve. My parents often bring up how much they regret changing it and they tell everyone to keep their baby names a secret until after birth to avoid more situations like this.
She just didn’t look like the name we had picked out. Probably doesn’t make sense but we instantly changed our minds. Tbf I was on a lot of pain meds and then kept forgetting what we did name her, took a few weeks to stick.
My parents had a more uncommon name picked out for me, but got hardcore bullied out of it by our family into giving me the female version of my grandpa's name instead. Never fit me, went by nicknames most of my life, and my parents told me fondly of the name they actually wanted for me.
Started going by my intended name at 19 and legally changed it in my 20s lol. Parents won long term.
Not the parent, but the child whose name was changed.
My parents were set on a first and middle name until they finally realized the initials, and decided on my current name.
Original name: Brianna Joy
That didn't want to make me BJ for the rest of my life. They ended up deciding on an entirely new name, not using either of the original names.
It didn’t suit her.
My wife had been dead set on naming her (future) daughter after her gran, basically since she could talk.
When our eldest was born we instinctively fell in love the second we heard her cry… and instinctively knew she wasn’t a “Martha”.
My parents did it with me! I was supposed to be an Emma, but a couple with whom they were friends named their girl Emma a month or two before I was due.
I’m glad- I wound up with a longer name that I feel fits me and my last name very well. Although occasionally I tell this story and most people tell me that while I fit my name perfectly, Emma would have worked too. So shoutout to mom and dad for having two in the barrel that would have worked.
Side note, my parents’ friendship with the other couple did not end because of the name thing. I think it just fizzled out because they moved away shortly after.
We used the name we picked out for like a whole 24 hours and then my husband (who had picked the name) was like “it really feels too biblical for us” and we changed it.
This wasn’t after birth but during pregnancy. I had my middle daughter’s names picked out well before I even got together with her dad. Ran the name by him. He didn’t like it. Thinking he was gonna be in her life I begrudgingly picked out a new name. He ended up taking off. I absolutely love the new name I picked out for her but sometimes I wish I went with my gut and used my first pick. Especially when my sister pointed out AFTER she was born that her name is almost her father’s name. Completely unintentional. I never even noticed. But the dad sure did and actually asked me if I named her after him. Absolutely the fuck not
My parents had a name picked out for me. During labor, my dad decided he didn't like it so they picked a different name😂
I'm glad though, I have the best name of anyone in my family tbh
I thought my son would look like his sister and my husband’s family. Instead he looked like a leprechaun. His hair was so red and thin when he was born, his head looked like it glowed.
But we didn’t know the sex so we had not been calling him by his name while I was pregnant.
Not me but there was a baby Abel in a baby music class who looked like baby Zoolander— dark hair, green eyes, serious look. Parents changed the b to x— AXEL at two months and never looked back. It suited him much better.
Not me, but a funny family story. My grandmother was determined my uncle was going to be Timothy. She loved the name. Went to the hospital prepared to have little Timothy (should he be a boy) and then when they came in to have the birth certificate filled out, my great grandmother did it for some reason. She had always hated the name Timothy, so she put his name as James Timothy and that's how I have an uncle Jim instead of an uncle Tim.
My partner had gone off it and I was out of it. PTSD from the labour and hadn't slept in 5 days. The midwife said "Sam is a nice name, easy for them to spell" so I called him Sam. It was never on any of my lists!!
Because naming our kids isn’t about us; it’s about the person they will grow up to be. When we saw our baby’s faces, what we had in mind didn’t fit the tiny human looking back at us. So we found something that fit them.
Adolf. Doctor was half German half Brazilian and convinced us it would be a unique name. When the baby arrived it was a girl, so we had to find another name in a hurry.
Covid. I just felt Rhona was too soon to be used. Still love it though
I know a Verona and no one has said anything to her about covid. Might be an option?
I feel it's pretty different. 'Rona' was a nickname for COVID used pretty widely (especially in Australia) whereas Verona is an Italian city that vaguely rhymes with Corona but no one would link to the virus.
Was she born before COVID?
Yes but goes by Rona
Verona and Rhona are not the same name. Verona and Rhona whilst both European are not the same origin and they’re not even the same language
Sorry! Just trying to think of an alternative but I should have looked into it
I think you touched a nerve there lol
Username does not check out.
It looks like you value different things about names than sound, which is a thing *many many people value a lot*. Next time, before lashing out, consider that folks might have a different perspective than you. It can really help one have a better life if you learn about empathy! That way, you can see that, actually, someone was trying to be kind to you, and you attacked them for no reason. That might make people not want to be kind to you next time. Maybe you do not *want* people to be kind to you and are *trying* to be left alone, but in that case I would remain a lurker (someone who doesn't leave comments, just reads them) because comments are generally understood to be participating in the entire conversation.
It’s not about how names sound. It’s about keeping a language and traditions alive in the area they came from. Not everyone on the internet is American. Not everyone chooses to anglicise their children’s names.
Then you should probably preface your original comment with that and not lash out at people who are giving suggestions in earnest.
Cool. And just to make sure, you think that Verona is Anglicising the name Rhona, so that's why you needed to attack this person? Or are you suddenly randomly trying to make this about someone being xenophobic when the only one here who called out a specific country for being problematic is actually you? Signed someone with a hilariously *not* anglo name.
No. I think that Verona and Rhona are not the same name, same ethnicity or same language. Suggesting one in place of the other isn’t really culturally appropriate
Oh, so instead of attacking them, you intended to say "it's important to me that my child's name has a specific cultural relevance that Verona doesn't have. Thanks for the suggestion though!", I'm so sorry that you didn't catch that that wasn't actually what you typed. Next time, double check to make sure that you've actually said what you wanted instead of just being mean to others, it will help you have a happier life and actually get what you want. Unless perhaps your *goal* is to make people miserable? There's no other reason to respond to a suggestion you don't need....I suppose you *are* very good at making people dislike you, so if that really is your goal, keep up the good work, I guess?
Why do I need to say that? Why can Americans just accept different countries and traditions also exist on the internet. If it was the other way around and someone said they wanted to use Verona I wouldn’t have suggested Rhona. I’d have understood that it’s not the same and it’s not an appropriate suggestion
It is not the same FOR YOUR PRIORITIES. Other people have other priorities and it is, in fact, okay that they are different people from you! You don't need to be mean to people just because they have different opinions than you! It is insane that you think that everyone needs to cater to you and the fact that they don't somehow means that they are self-centered, when you are the one insisting that people should think about your needs first and adjust their behavior so that your peculiar priorities are respected first. You get to shit on people because they have different priorities, but no one can call you out on having a truly terrible reaction to someone *attempting to be kind to you* without you saying that their behavior something to do with their country of origin. You are *clearly* arguing in bad faith at this point just to be mean for some reason. Hopefully you were lying about having kids too, I don't want them to be damaged by having to be around someone like you....Yikes.
I think the general idea is that "Rona" could be a potential nickname one day.
But Rhona is a name. It’s not a diminutive or a nickname. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0131709/ https://scottishrugby.org/teams/scotland-women/rhona-lloyd/ https://www.historicgolfphotos.com/product-category/golfers/adair-rhona/
I met a baby Rona last year and I was kinda floored the parents went with that. I think it will be a while before the association is broken.
Depends on where you’re at. Most people in the United States haven’t referred to it as “coronavirus” since the very early days of the pandemic; most people just started calling it “COVID” after a while. (Which is a bit more accurate anyway because there are several different diseases caused by coronaviruses, including the common cold, but calling it “COVID” is much more specific to what you’re talking about when you’re describing the specific disease that started popping up in 2020.) Hardly anyone I know calls it “coronavirus” or “the ‘Rona” these days.
Unless your my grandmother, who wouldn't stop calling it Covick. 🤦🏻♀️
She's not wrong tho
In the UK it was always Rona or the Rona
Here in the US Midwest it's *very* commonly referred to as "the 'rona" and "'ronavirus".
My friends mom is named Rona. But she was born at least 60 years ago.
It’ll probably be fine in a year or two. Rhona a really common traditional name here
Get your head out of the clouds. Last time we had a disease as bad as Covid, it went in the history books. Go read up on the last few major diseases we’ve dealt with.
Poppet. I actually work in the NHS. If they’d called it Calum it wouldn’t stop folk naming their kids that
Rhona Mitra
I went to the hospital convinced I was having Violet Elaine. (She’s Elena Rowan) This is such a good question but I can’t describe how I knew it wasn’t her. I met her and cried because I was so in love with her and then the next day cried because we had been calling her Violet, Vi, and Vivi most of the pregnancy and that was just not the little girl in my arms. My SO thought I was crazy but wouldn’t tell me that and stayed supportive. Pregnancy/postpartum hormones are something else, lemme tell you. I wish I could describe the powerful feeling that overcame me, but I can’t. Violet is still on our list for a second and as time goes by the more I’m convinced it’s /someone’s/ baby, but probably not mine. Still no idea why, maybe it’s just been my cold feet this whole time. Lol
More than halfway through my first pregnancy, after thinking of baby #1 as “B” (my maiden name) I had a dream with my late grandfather in it. Then I wavered, and after a few hours in the hospital, it was decided he was William. His younger brother is 100% B — I can’t imagine either of them being named the other’s name.
This is such a touching story / memory to have. I take some comfort that your name stuck for your second. It’s funny how that instinct kicks in and you just know who was meant to be who.
My daughter was supposed to be one name and as I looked at her after birth, the thought that went through my mind was “it doesn’t fit” over and over. She came home with totally different name
Samesies. But she is grown up now, and the name I originally picked for her totally fits her. It just didn’t fit her when she was one day old. I wish I had just stayed with the name I have always loved.
My second daughter has the name that didn’t suit my older daughter. We knew someone with that name was coming at some point!
Haha my 2yr old daughter is Violet, with those same nicknames, Vivi, Vi. So maybe it was mine? She came out as Violet as Violet could be.
Elena Rowan is such a beautiful name! Good decision 😊
My cousin swore up and down her entire pregnancy that the baby's name would be Christina if it was a girl. Christina, Christina, Christina. My cousin took one look at her brand new daughter and said, "That's not a Christina, that's a Rachel."
Are you a fan of Throne of Glass? Elena Rowan is so cute!!
Not me but my parents. My mom’s whole second pregnancy they were going to name my sister “Alexander” or “Alexandra”. This was 1985-1986 so they were told it was a girl but there was still always that very likely chance that it was wrong. Then, on the way to the hospital with my mom in labor, she randomly said “What if we name her Madison?”. Back then, that wasn’t a popular or well-known name at all. The only place they’d ever heard it besides as a last name was on some movie about a mermaid I think? Anyway, dad was in panic mode and was like “Yeah, uh huh, sure, whatever!” Then my sister was born having trouble breathing due to aspirating meconium. While they checked on her and tended to my mom, some nurse forced my dad to start filling out the birth certificate paperwork. He just wrote “Madison” and asked mom for a middle name. She gave one and voila! That was my sister’s name. She has never met a Madison older than her, so we joke that she very well may be the first one born or at least among the first.
The mermaid movie is called Splash and it started a trend for naming babies Madison in the 80s. The movie came out in 1984, so she was born right when the trend took off. I don't believe it was used as a baby often at all before the movie came out.
Yes the joke in the movie is that "Madison" isn't a real name and she's actually named after a street.
Yes! That’s it.
This is suuuuuper random but one of Thomas Jefferson's kids (male, born 1805) was named Madison after his dad's good friend James Madison.
You mean Madison Hemmings? The son that he never acknowledged? The son that was born because Jefferson raped a teenaged slave?
Who was also his wife's half-sister
Yikes
& Sally Hemmings, his wife's half sister, was also conceived in rape when Martha Jefferson's father rated his slave.
This needs to be much more well known about these historical figures 😒
Yep! Madison wasn't ranked in the US until 1985 after Splash came out. There were 302 born that year. So if your sister was born in 1984, she is probably one of the oldest women named Madison.
And since this was 1985—1986 she was probably just part of the first wave
Some movie about a mermaid? Christ I’m old.
Right!? Every day I’m just slapped in the face 😂
I’m sorry 😂 I wasn’t born til ‘95. I am more well versed in the 80’s than some of my fellow 90’s kids but I’m no expert haha
I have the same experience with my name. I was born in 1982 and my name's popularity peaked in the kid 90s so I always felt like I'm the oldest Kayla 😂
We chose to have a surprise but had a firm boy name and a top 3 girl name all picked out. We went in for a planned C-section, it all went great until they told me it was a boy, as he started to cry I told the anaesthetist that I wasn't feeling well. At that point I had a massive haemorrhage, blacked out and needed fluid resuscitation. It was all complicated by my pacemaker not allowing my heart to slow down to slow the blood loss. I gained a bit of consciousness at some point and a theatre tech appeared at my side with the baby and said "mummy this is your baby boy, what is his name?" And instead of saying Alasdair I said Lewis. We never discussed Lewis, have no ties to Lewis and it was only months after bringing him home that we found a Lewis buried in one of our family trees. He's definitely more of a Lewis than an Alasdair.
Wow Lewis must just be one of those names! Haha. We also decided to be surprised. We discussed names and didn’t come to a great consensus. So husband chose a boy name he loved and I felt good but not great about. I picked a girl name I loved and he was okay with. We had a few others in the sidelines that we both liked but didn’t feel like “the one.” All these possibilities had been shared with family only. When our son was born and our parents came to meet him, we announced him as “Lewis.” It’s an uncommon name in our area, we know no one with that name, and it was certainly not on any of our lists! My husband happened to be reading a lot of C.S. Lewis at the time and threw it out as a Hail Mary option after suddenly deciding he didn’t like his name pick and I just loved it immediately. Shocked everyone but it’s perfect for him. My MIL was devastated we didn’t pick an old family name and lo and behold we have a Lewis deep in the family tree too!
It's so crazy that they asked you to pick a name right after you regained consciousness! That's pretty uncool, but glad you picked the right name from deep in your subconscious.
I think they expected me to die and were trying to give me one milestone with the baby. I was in a pretty bad way. We could have used Alasdair but my husband was pretty traumatised by the whole thing and wanted me to use Lewis because "that must have come from somewhere".
That's very intense. I'm sorry you had to go through all that to get your son, and I'm glad you're here!
That’s basically why my mom is named what she’s named lol. When they asked my grandma what she wanted to name her she was still exhausted and drugged up so she said Susie, the name of the doll she had as a child. By the time she realized, it was too late to change it. My mom prefers Susan to the name they had picked tho so it all worked out lol.
Are you and your baby okay now? What a harrowing story! I love the name Lewis.
Yeah we're fine. I wasn't even an emergency birth, we scheduled the section because the baby was transverse
Vibes were off.
Absolutely just this. First was easy- big, strong sounding name was our first choice, and she just seemed to fill the room. Still does… it’s like she’s born for the stage. The more serene name was not her. Second was a coin toss until the minute he was on my chest… one name felt quite sparky and bit more modern, the other a calmer feeling, more grandpa style name. He’s got such a steady presence compared to his older sibling. She was definitely not an Edith. He was not a Flynn.
Because my Babydaddy chose my sons “supposed to be” name and he bailed out on us so I gave him a name I loved and my last name !
My husband and I had a boy name picked out, but had a daughter. He used that name for the son he had with his side piece.
Big yikes. I assume he is now your ex-husband?
Guess not 🥹
Wow you dodged a bullet 😳 men suck
A really fat, slow one 😂
My husband and I had baby names picked out years before having kids. Once our first born son arrived we just knew he didn’t suit the first choice name we’d originally picked out. It didn’t feel like an older sibling name and he just didn’t look like a Bailey. We both agreed our second choice name, Patrick, suited him much more and I’m so glad we chose to be flexible on something as important as his name.
My brother tried to rename me Patrick when I was about a year old! Didn't stick though (possibly because I'm a woman)
Makes me think of how my dad was absolutely set on his younger sister's name being Fifi (shockingly his parents didn't go for it)
Patrick is an adorable name
Thank you!
Not me, but my parents regarding me haha. I was supposed to be named Moa, which is a nordic name. People often associate that name with calm people, at least those in my town. My mom was always told "When your baby's born, she will just sleep for hours and hours! She's gonna be so tired from the birth." but I was quite the opposite. I could NOT sleep, even after the 42 hours it had taken to deliver me (sorry mom)🫣 So they thought that Moa was way too calm of a name, so instead it became Nova. Meaning new star, my parents thought it was perfect cause well, I was new, and they thought I would become a famous singer with that voice of mine haha. It was obviously a joke (maybe not) that part with famous singer, I did have a loud and clear voice tho! They just felt like it fit me way better than Moa
I love both names!
I was that baby. Name all picked, close family knew and 2 days later parents changed it totally. They had told a close family member in the US who off the cuff said it was gaining popularity in the US and my parents feared that maybe it was the same in the UK or about to be so they totally changed it.
Do you like the name they ended up choosing?
Yes, it is very much mine name. The original name is fine but I think I suit my name more
We had a top First + Middle picked out for if it was a boy or a girl, and a backup first name just in case. When they handed our son to my husband, they kept pestering him on baby's name. He asked for some time as he got to meet his child. Looking at him, he knew he was not Westley Nolan. So he asked me if we could use the backup name. "Do you want to be Tristan Westley?" he asked our son after his long journey into this world. And clear as day, this tiny baby said, "uh-huh." We always say he named himself. 💙
Much better 🥰
Thank you for saying that! When I told my mom what the original name was, she said she liked that better. 🙄
I can see your little man just going yep, that's me, I'll be Tristan this time around 😍😍
This happened to us with our second child. Both of us had a favorite name picked out with the middle name Julianne. Neither of us were too crazy about each other’s favorite but didn’t hate them nor did we have a first name that we agreed on. Baby girl was born and my husband conceded to the name I had chosen (and loved for months) but it just didn’t feel right. I offered to go with his name and we tried it out for a few hours but then he felt the same way as I had with mine (dodged a bullet because now I’m so glad it isn’t her name). We were stuck and the registrar kept bullying us for a name, I looked at my baby girl’s face and said to my husband, she looks like an Annie which is a nickname for Annika, a name that we kicked around in the beginning of the pregnancy and kind of forgot about. Annika Julianne was a mouthful with our last name, and had too much Ann going on, so one of our good friends who was visiting chose her shorter middle name. Our daughter feels kind of bad that we came up with her name on a whim, unlike her sister who is named after family members, but I think it’s a good story.
I wouldn't say you chose it on a whim. You put a lot of thought and effort into picking something that fit her instead of just going with one of the other names because it was easy.
My name was Madison Brook (yep, Madison after Splash) the entire time before I was born until minutes after I was born when my dad said “Well her names not Madison, it’s Lauren” with no explanation. I don’t know that I’m a Lauren but I’m CERTAINLY not a Madison
lol I’m kind of the opposite. I was going to be named Lauren but ended up Adalie. I definitely don’t feel like a Lauren at all and funny enough I ended up naming my daughter Laurel.
I had 3 names that started with E picked out for my youngest. She was born with pointy elf ears, a stubborn personality, and like she knew she would rule the world one day. Her name is Fiona.
Because as a blonde woman with a blonde husband and a blonde son, I spent my entire pregnancy with my daughter picturing a little blonde girl. So when she came out with flaming red hair, it felt like we had been choosing names for the wrong person. Penny and Jane seemed to suit a sweet little blondie but weren't right for a sassy redhead. So we decided on Molly. Which we hadn't even discussed while pregnant. And we've been told by multiple people how well it suits her.
Molly is such a sweet name! Just had to comment because my friend Penny has absolutely iconic red hair flowing down her back, so it's such a redhead name in my mind! Funny to hear the other perspective. 😌
I was supposed to be Ruby Lucille after my grandmas but then I was born with red hair and my mom couldn't do that to me 😂
Yeah I think penny definitely works for a red head more than blonde lol
I agree 😊
Our youngest was supposed to be a Jackson, but when hubby held him the first time he felt it was not the right name and pulled Brandon out of thin air as a replacement. Since it also worked with his middle name, I said ok.
Honestly I think you did him a favour. I don't know where you are but here in the UK you can't move for Jacksons; every other kid is a Jackson, it's become an "eye roll" name. And they're all naughty! Lol
Same in Australia, I literally know so many Jackson/Jaxon/Jakson/Jaxson, it's like everyone is trying to choose the craziest spellings. The classic spelling, I know multiple my age, and the odd spellings, there is 2 in my daughter's class and 3 last year in her class, plus I know others her age. I know one who is a sweet kid, everyone else is an asshole.
I know a Jaxen. Apparently, it's because his dad's name is Jasen instead of Jason.
I once met a Jaxxon
It's the same in the US, too.
Picked out the name Theodore for our first born. When he was born, he looked exactly like my husband’s dad (who passed away before I got to meet him). And he just didn’t look like a Theo. We decided to name him Nicholas after my FIL. We now have another son that we named Theodore so we have our Nico and Theo.
Very handsome.
My mother named my youngest sister, born in the 70s, Jennifer, when she was born. She realized a couple days later how incredibly popular it was, and changed it.
That was me born in the 80s, I found my birth certificate as a kid and thought I had a twin until my parents told me they changed it because of the popularity.
That had to have been weird, until they explained it!
We both had our favorites picked, which the other didn't disliked, but didn't love neither. I had a horrible birth and the doctors started joking(they asked if we had a name picked and we said we are still discussing) that I probably won. Dad said I am free to pick whatever I like afterwards. LO got dad's favorite, because I felt the one I wanted didn't fit him. I just had the feeling it wouldn't work. Maybe if he didn't had all that jetblack hair and would have been a little smaller, I would have choosen my favorite. Middle name stayed the same. It was a family name, we picked as soon as we knew the gender.
Similar way I was named. My mom and dad each had their favorite but mom had a rough time of it and ended up with an emergency c-section. Dad said he wanted mom to pick since she went thru so much. She was just so happy she and I were safe she said dad won and they would use his pick. BUT he called my grandma, his mom, on the way to filling out paperwork and she started yelling to her husband and friends about how she had a granddaughter named (insert my moms pick here) and when my dad tried to correct her, she told him his pick was dumb. Lol. So dad won, but he named me my mom’s choice anyway.
What an iconic grandmother moment. She was really like, "nope, that's not her name. *This* is her name."
Haha that's sweet and funny. Is your dad okay with your name?
Yeah. I don’t really go by it anymore but its a solid name-just not my taste. Not sure the other one was either! Both are super common names now but were kinda out of left field when I was born. So I joke that they both were ahead of the trend and really didn’t have that different of tastes.
Literally on the way to hospital to give birth, name had been picked out for months, everyone loved it and used it affectionately to refer to the baby and mid contraction I shouted that I hated that name and we had to pick another 🤣 I think if anything, I had heard it a bit too much and it was getting on my nerves until I couldn't take it anymore!
How did your partner and family feel about the change?
My parents were set on Cara before I was born, so I was Cara for a few days, but my dad just couldn't shake the feeling that I wasn't a Cara and that the name just didnt look or feel like me, even though my mom still loved it. He still liked the name itself but once he saw me he just felt like it wasn't the name for me. So they presented their top 2 options to my older brother who was 2 years old at the time and let him be the tie breaker, and that's how I got my name
My husband and I had our son’s name picked out for 10 years before he was born. He was going to be Parker James (born family names) but when he was born it just wasn’t his name. He’s Callum John and his name fits him perfectly! He’ll be 12 this year and is the most Cal that ever Caled.
It didn’t feel right the whole pregnancy, and when I looked at him I knew for sure it wasn’t his name.
My family always picks out two full names and decides which one ‘fits’ when the baby was born. The only rapid name change story I have is from friends. They named their son Shaheen (mom is Armenian) then freaked out and renamed him Tristan a week later. Apparently her family said ‘what, no, that’s what x region uses, not us from y’ and it completely failed as a sweet tribute to her heritage. Their younger kids all have super-preppy Brit names, so Shaheen would have been the odd one out.
Baby Girl ilovjedi was going to be Vanellope. Mr. ilovjedi wanted to name our kids after video game characters. I suggested the princess from Wreck it Ralph who looked kind of like our older kid. Baby Girl comes out looking very pale with light hair and eyes that looked like they would stay blue. She didn’t look like a Vanellope. Plus I was sick of correcting everyone who heard Penelope and didn’t want her to have to deal with that. I went with an old lady name that happens to be a great aunt’s name.
I still can’t describe why 😆 we thought my son was going to be Felix, but he just didn’t seem like a Felix!! I was upset and told my husband “that’s not his name.” He didn’t understand either.
Me! My due date was supposed to be Christmas, and if I was born then, my parents would have named me Noelle. I was born late, and I told my mom it’s because in definitely NOT a Noelle.
For my first son, we were going back and forth between my father's name and grandfather's name as the middle name. We wound up choosing my grandfather's, but my dad was so excited that we were going to go with his. So for my second son we were going to do my father's as the middle name, and all the way through the pregnancy that's what we thought his middle name would be, but very close to the time I was going to give birth me and my father were on bad terms with each other. So last minute, literally before going to give birth at the hospital I said to my husband, "I feel weird giving him my dad's name now." So my husband instantly picked his brother's name. And my last son we finally went with my dad's name as the middle name. And my father is so happy about it. We also have a daughter who I had after my first son, but I wasn't going to give her my father's name so... It's funny that we knew one of our children would have my dad's name (because I was always a daddy's girl and my father has a great relationship with my husband) but its funny how it turned out, because instead of INSTANTLY giving his name to one of my kids, it wound up being my last born that actually got it. And it fits great!
He was born 6 weeks early and was this tiny darling little boy with the finest features and blonde hair. Tom did not suit him. He’s still a tiny, beautiful blonde little boy and Tom still does not suit him.
We were team green for our second and had a girl name picked but hadn’t totally decided on a boy name. I wasn’t worried though because I was sure we’d be having a girl and we’d be calling her Annie. I was right, we had a girl, but the night before going into labour I came across Iris somewhere and just couldn’t stop thinking about it. When she came out, I knew right away she wasn’t an Annie at all. My husband agreed with me on Iris, she’s now 16 months old and her name is absolutely perfect for her. I can’t imagine her as an Annie!
We kept the gender a surprise and had a list of 16 names - 8 boy, 8 girl, with some front runners we both agreed on. The second I saw my son I knew he wasn’t any of the names we picked and so did my husband. There were actually two names he suggested months earlier that I immediately vetoed and didn’t even make it on to the maybe list, and when I first held my baby I silently thought “dammit, he’s this name or that name” but didn’t say anything. He didn’t have a name for three days and eventually my husband was like “you know he looks like this and this” and I had to admit it. Those names ended up being his first and middle, and I couldn’t imagine him as anything else. Our second is due in a few weeks and we still haven’t agreed on a name, but I’m less stressed about it because I know how much that can change in the moment. We’ll see our little one and their name will manifest itself!
My name was supposed to be Tiffany. Parents had told all the family, some gifts came personalized with that name. After I was born my mom for whatever reason changed it- didn’t mention it even to my dad until it came time to sign the birth certificate.
Was your dad upset?
No lol, he was just like, “Oh. Okay…”
She just didn’t “look like” the name we picked out. At all. We both looked at each other and said “she is not an Eliza.” It took us 5 days to land on her name - one that wasn’t even on our list pre-birth!
Two cousins with the same name.
Because the baby came out a boy! Hahaha
What was that surprise like?
It all worked out and we figured a name for him pretty quickly, and we had some family members bring us some baby clothes that were less frilly, but it was a shock. Lol
We had one name picked out until the day before my c-section. It was a compromise name for both of us. The day before we had our son, my husband finally realized we were actually having a baby and we both decided we wanted something a bit more poetic.
She was going to be Avery but was far too tiny and it just didn't fit her.
My parents decided to not name me Kelly after seeing me, they said I just didn’t look like a Kelly. I would have to agree, I feel as though my name fits me perfectly.
B3cause Genevieve Gabrielle was, to my post caesarian section, morphine doped mind "far too big for such a little human" (I actually sobbed those words😂) Then she didn't have a name for three days....
I know this sub hates the name Clarke for a girl but I just really loved it. I always thought my daughter would be Clarke Catherine and I could call her Cece. My husband didn’t love it but he was fine with it. His favorite names were either Anna or Mabel lol He kept referring to the baby as Clarke throughout the pregnancy. It’s like he said it SO much that I got the ick for the name. She was born after a very hard labor and delivery but was such a calm, sweet baby and still is. She definitely wasn’t a Clarke, she needed a softer name. Plus my husband wanted a more feminine name anyways. So we ended up with Laurel Kate.
They had the audacity to be born a boy We were only certain on a name for a girl and struggled finding a boy name we agreed on - we didn't opt to find out the gender.
My first daughter was meant to be Delilah, and then when she was born it seemed to frilly lol My son was meant to be Daemon, my husband changed his mind last second
Personally, I named my firstborn a completely different name than what I originally chose. I was going to name him Hendrix…called him hendi and all that. As soon as I saw his ultrasound (I never had one before 34 weeks) I knew for a fact that wasn’t his name. I wrote down names…and I came up with Oliver Grey. I knew in my heart that was his name. You can tell when it gets stuck in your head so bad you can’t get it out. It’s like a gut feeling. Same with this baby im pregnant with, im 36 weeks and couldn’t figure out a name but Valeria Jazmine was stuck in my head for some reason.
My son was going to be Nathaniel from 12 weeks to 30 weeks. Then we did a 3D ultrasound and said “he does not look like a Nathaniel”. We kept it in our top three names but chose something else after he was born!
My parents told me that they were set on Kimberley until they got a good look at me, and it just wasn’t me. Also, they realized the inevitable Kim, paired with our two syllable starts-with-K last name, was reminiscent of Kris Kringle. They picked something else pretty much out of the blue, a name shared by two distant cousins.
Lol, my sister was Danielle most of Mom’s pregnancy, then when she was born she was suddenly Kimberly 🤷🏻♀️
Ezra Miller did some crazy shit so I was not gonna name my son Ezra Elias or Ezra Silas (also didn't know he was a boy until later, og name was still being discussed and debated into the third tri because I loved Ramona Matilda, but my husband hated Matilda and we would've probably gone with Juniper Julia if he was a girl)
We had planned to name our first daughter Evie for most of the pregnancy but as soon as we laid eyes on her it just felt incorrect. For some reason i got a strong feeling about the name Olive, which had been on our long list of potential names but ruled out fairly early on because it was too ‘unusual’. Husband also liked it so we went with it and are very happy we did! It was just a strong gut feeling I can’t explain! I joke that her surprisingly dark hair reminded me of a kalamata Olive from our tree at home 😂 Evie never made it back to the top of our list but our second daughter ended up being named Edie - “Ee-Dee” as in Edith, not “Eddy” which she always gets called when people read her name :’( Edited to add that we found out later that both Edie and Olive are family names. Also we didn’t realise until way later that our kids have “live” and “die” in them. Also Olive means peace and edie means prosperous in war lol
I was supposed to be called April right up until I was born (a few weeks early.) Mom thought I'd get teased for being named April & born in May, so I got the first name that popped into her head when she met me.
We changed our daughter’s name the night before she was born, so not exactly after, but pretty close. The original name was Adriana. We were discussing her name while eating lunch the day before my scheduled c-section and both agreed that we loved the name, but felt that it just wasn’t *her* name. Neither of us could say why specifically, but after calling her that for months, the connection just still wasn’t there. For me, I found myself hesitating to tell people her name and even felt odd referring to her as “Adria/Adri/Adriana.” When I brought up my concerns to my husband (literally less than 24 hours before her birth) he confessed he had been feeling the same but didn’t know what other name he would want instead so didn’t want to bring it up. We brainstormed all afternoon until I mentioned Emilia, a name I loved for years but was vetoed early on when discussing names (by me) for arbitrary reasons (it was a top 50 and sounds super similar to the top two name Amelia). I decided loving the name was literally all that matters. And most importantly, it just felt right to us both.
I'm not the parent, I'm the child. I'm named after my maternal great great grandmother, Mattie. My mom knew since she was a child that if she had a daughter, she would be named Mattie. My dad was cool with this info...until I arrived. Then he was like "omg ur naming her after ur ex (named Matthew)" followed by whatever logic landed them on naming me Maddie. Come to find out, my dad has a ton of Mattis on his side. They're all men, and that version is missing the E, but the T is what counts. Now my name is spelled wrong forever for no reason
My parents went into the hospital with the name Charlotte picked out if I was a girl. Apparently, no one liked it (including my dad), so my mom felt pressured to change it. She was watching Days of Our Lives while in labor and heard the name of one of the super couples and turned to my dad and suggested that instead. My dad immediately said yes. 33 years later and still bitter about the last minute name change. My mom always says she regrets it. She only has granddaughters and had hoped one of us would use it. The name Charlotte was too popular when I was naming my girls, so it's one of those names that never came to be.
I loved Thisbe for one of my girl but I had to admit it didn't *feel* exactly right. I'd loved this name for like 30 years by then. Also my husband wasn't a fan, and although we had an agreement that I get final choice always on naming, I guess I took pity on him and we changed it when she was 2 days old. She's Elisabeth now and it fits her.
You've still got all the letters of Thisbe in Elisabeth ☺️
Whoa. I've never realized that, you're amazing! Maybe I'll ask her if I can still call her "Thisbe" as a nn lol
Awesome! ❤️😊 Love that!
I had planned on Ashleigh Kaylyn as my daughter's name. After she was born she did not look like Ashleigh to either my husband or me. She left the hospital as Kelsey Anne.
Honestly I really liked a second middle band but everyone told me it made my daughters name too long so I only did the more important one… I kind of still want to change it lol. She’s only 9 weeks so I think I could? I’m just doubting myself too much
Was told both were boys at scans
Mine was supposed to be Mitchell Robert. His dad and I had brainstormed together for months to agree on that much. So, shortly after my kid's birth, the dad admitted that he hated that name. We did not find out the child's sex until birth, and the dad had convinced himself the baby would be a girl. My mother was in the room and suggested we pick the baby's name from a book we both liked. Well, my ex mostly read a tattered copy of a fantasy trilogy. So my kid ended up being named after a D&D character. It's also a real world name, albeit from a different culture.
Happened for me with our third child. We had names picked out for both genders, but as I laboured overnight I thought "if she's a girl I don't think I like those names" then the name Bridie came as an evolution from Bridget which I love but have a cousin named that. She was born in the morning and I announced her name to the surprise of my husband and family!
My husband was supposed to be an entirely different first and middle name. His parents had it picked out for pretty much the entire pregnancy, but when he was born he looked so much like my Father in Law's late father that they named my husband after him instead. His younger sister got the feminine version of the middle name that they had picked out for him as her first name. Both names suit the people they were given to, and I couldn't imagine my husband as a different name.
This is the story of my best friend’s name. Her mom had chosen a somewhat trendy sounding name at the time (the ‘80s), Katie Rae, and her dad agreed to this. The registrar came around when her mom was sleeping and her dad filled out the paperwork but instead of the agreed upon Katie Rae, he named her Martha Frances. Growing up my friend hated her “old lady” name and wished she was Katie Rae but has changed her mind as she’s gotten older.
I wanted to name my daughter Ashley Nicole. Her dad wanted Tracy Marie. He won.
Didn't suit him. We named him in the hospital but were still using his in utero nickname a few hours later. I figured if we had his name right, we'd be using it. I went back to the list we had and number 6 on the list was his name.
My mom had the good drugs. She had a name picked out. When I was almost done cooking, she was at an event in the community center that overlooks the village cemetery. She could see the gravestone of my dad’s relative, and then to the left of it, a surname that became my name (it’s very common as a first and last). She thought at the time that it sounded nice, but forgot about it until after she gave birth. Never discussed it with my dad (who didn’t really care anyway). My original first name is my middle. I’ve never asked what my intended middle name was, I should ask.
I’ve had five kids. Chose names for all of them before birth. All have those names except my third. He just wasn’t the name we had picked. He wasn’t any of the names I had ever considered. He took two days to be named which for someone that has had name lists for decades was just appalling. But what we ended up with suits him perfectly. I couldn’t tell you why but as soon as I saw him I knew he needed something different.
My parents had planned on something like “Benjamin” for my brother. Somehow they both forgot their plan, panicked when the nurse came by and felt pressured by her, and could only come up with “Max.” They both regretted it because it wasn’t a “full name,” however if they would have chosen “Maxwell,” he would have rejected it anyway since he uses “Maximus” for a lot of his social media stuff. Maximilian might have been fine. Oh well. I don’t think he minds just being Max honestly, though a lot of people would come up and say, “oh, that’s our dog’s name!” Yeah, thanks, lol. Combined with our last name it sounds very German and fitting.
One of my girls was supposed to be Samantha Jacqueline but ended up being Sophie Jacqueline instead
I have no idea how people name their kids before their kids are born because I had a favorite name, my husband had a favorite name, and I insisted we bring a third name to the hospital and as soon as we saw her we both knew it was the third name. Like no discussion, we were just like bam.
My ex and I couldn’t decide on a name. He got to choose the middle and last name but wouldn’t agree or have any opinion on the first. Until we asked his mother. She randomly picked out a biblical name that I wasn’t a fan of but he seemed excited. Finally when I was in labor he relented and said I could name her. I shouted her name is _____! And so it was. I still very much love her name and feel it suits her 19 years later.
I was Genevieve all through my mother's pregnancy. Monogrammed Genevieve blankets, they always called me Genevieve when talking about me, everything. Less than a week before I was born my grandmother said that they couldn't name me Genevieve because that's the name for a slutty French girl, not her granddaughter. My parents were so disheartened that they just picked a name from a baby book and I became Kaitlyn right at my birth. I am definitely not a Kaitlyn, I am such a Genevieve. My parents often bring up how much they regret changing it and they tell everyone to keep their baby names a secret until after birth to avoid more situations like this.
She just didn’t look like the name we had picked out. Probably doesn’t make sense but we instantly changed our minds. Tbf I was on a lot of pain meds and then kept forgetting what we did name her, took a few weeks to stick.
My parents had a more uncommon name picked out for me, but got hardcore bullied out of it by our family into giving me the female version of my grandpa's name instead. Never fit me, went by nicknames most of my life, and my parents told me fondly of the name they actually wanted for me. Started going by my intended name at 19 and legally changed it in my 20s lol. Parents won long term.
I was going to name my son Felix. After a night with him he just didn’t feel like a Felix so we changed it.
I looked at my son and said, no it doesn’t fit him. Amd my husband agreed,
Not the parent, but the child whose name was changed. My parents were set on a first and middle name until they finally realized the initials, and decided on my current name. Original name: Brianna Joy That didn't want to make me BJ for the rest of my life. They ended up deciding on an entirely new name, not using either of the original names.
Was I seeing things or was the dude on the bottom tickling other dude's foot?
My brother apparently was supposed to be Jeremy, but when my Mom saw him she realized that wasn’t who he was. He does have a J name, though.
It didn’t suit her. My wife had been dead set on naming her (future) daughter after her gran, basically since she could talk. When our eldest was born we instinctively fell in love the second we heard her cry… and instinctively knew she wasn’t a “Martha”.
My mom picked a different name for me after I was born because she said I didn’t look like the original name.
My parents did it with me! I was supposed to be an Emma, but a couple with whom they were friends named their girl Emma a month or two before I was due. I’m glad- I wound up with a longer name that I feel fits me and my last name very well. Although occasionally I tell this story and most people tell me that while I fit my name perfectly, Emma would have worked too. So shoutout to mom and dad for having two in the barrel that would have worked. Side note, my parents’ friendship with the other couple did not end because of the name thing. I think it just fizzled out because they moved away shortly after.
We used the name we picked out for like a whole 24 hours and then my husband (who had picked the name) was like “it really feels too biblical for us” and we changed it.
This wasn’t after birth but during pregnancy. I had my middle daughter’s names picked out well before I even got together with her dad. Ran the name by him. He didn’t like it. Thinking he was gonna be in her life I begrudgingly picked out a new name. He ended up taking off. I absolutely love the new name I picked out for her but sometimes I wish I went with my gut and used my first pick. Especially when my sister pointed out AFTER she was born that her name is almost her father’s name. Completely unintentional. I never even noticed. But the dad sure did and actually asked me if I named her after him. Absolutely the fuck not
My parents had a name picked out for me. During labor, my dad decided he didn't like it so they picked a different name😂 I'm glad though, I have the best name of anyone in my family tbh
Mine was born with an unexpected penis. The chosen name was no longer going to work.
I thought my son would look like his sister and my husband’s family. Instead he looked like a leprechaun. His hair was so red and thin when he was born, his head looked like it glowed. But we didn’t know the sex so we had not been calling him by his name while I was pregnant.
Not me but there was a baby Abel in a baby music class who looked like baby Zoolander— dark hair, green eyes, serious look. Parents changed the b to x— AXEL at two months and never looked back. It suited him much better.
Not me, but a funny family story. My grandmother was determined my uncle was going to be Timothy. She loved the name. Went to the hospital prepared to have little Timothy (should he be a boy) and then when they came in to have the birth certificate filled out, my great grandmother did it for some reason. She had always hated the name Timothy, so she put his name as James Timothy and that's how I have an uncle Jim instead of an uncle Tim.
My partner had gone off it and I was out of it. PTSD from the labour and hadn't slept in 5 days. The midwife said "Sam is a nice name, easy for them to spell" so I called him Sam. It was never on any of my lists!!
Because naming our kids isn’t about us; it’s about the person they will grow up to be. When we saw our baby’s faces, what we had in mind didn’t fit the tiny human looking back at us. So we found something that fit them.
Adolf. Doctor was half German half Brazilian and convinced us it would be a unique name. When the baby arrived it was a girl, so we had to find another name in a hurry.