Giving baby the same name as someone you know...

[summerfruitsalad]

I have a question that has been bugging me...

Has anyone named their baby with a name of someone they know, whether family, friend or aquaintance and that person automatically assumed you named baby after them?

Reason I ask is a lot of the boys names I like but still not mad keen on are all the same as a lot of friends names, or my cousins! Also with girls names, one of the reasons I discounted Emma was I know about 8 through various channels!

So are people odd enough to say 'did you name baby after me/my dc', and you just say 'no, we like the name'! Or does anyone get annoyed if you give your dc the same name as someone else's dc? Is it ever awkward?

Apologies if this is rambling and non-sensical!

[paddypoopants]

We named our ds the same name as a flatmate we had for years as I had always liked the name in question. He didn't think we'd named him after him and only PIL asked and they are mad anyway. I think if you like the name you should call your baby that. No point in picking something you only vaguely like because you don't know anyone called it. Not Harper obviously.

[Marne]

Dd2 has the same name as a close friend i had at school, she's not named after her, i just liked her name so i used it for dd2.

[Happymum22]

I think its fine- depends who the relation is. I love my brothers name and nearly used it for my DS.. But then decided not to because as much as I love my brother, wanted my DS to be unique and not have the awkwardness of people thinking I'd named DS after him. If my brothers name was the one name i absolutely loved, i would have gone for it!

..We had the awkward moment when my brother and SIL emailed to ask if it was ok to name their dog the name I'd given DS when DS was 1 yr old! I was fine with it but it was slightly saddening to think they was DS's name as perfect for their black lab :S

[summerfruitsalad]

Happymum that's odd about the dog name! A friend of mine got a bit annoyed cos I called my cat Poppy and she wanted that name if she ever had a girl, not that I knew though!

We're no closer to choosing a boy's name really, plus we have ages anyway! Then you sort of find a name you both like and it totally doesn't go with your surname, grrr!

I do like Daniel for a name, but our surname starts with D so could he have the initals DD?

[z123]

He can totally have the initials DD. It doesn't stand for anything bad, so long as you don't give him a middles name to make a word, like Aaron or somethign, why not?

If my DD had been a boy she'd have prob had initals SAS.... thought it would have been vaguely ok, but was having my doubts...

[z123]

And yes, I would give same name as someone I know. Hopefully not someone they'll meet on daily basis. I have same name as my aunty, never worried either of us (my parents did ask said aunty first, plus their mother)

[notcitrus]

When MrNC suggested ds's name, I instantly said 'I've got a cousin dsname'.
He replied, 'You've got a cousin everything!'

Which is fairly true, if you want to restrict yourself to trad English names.

When I gave birth and ds popped out they asked if we had a name, and then cracked up laughing - turned out they were convinced I'd named him after the guy who did my epidural! Which was an excellent epidural...

If we have a girl then the name we picked 10 years ago will be very similar but not the same as some friends' daughters. I hope they don't get hacked off.

[summerfruitsalad]

We kind of have to have traditional English names, our surname is very English! So unusual names wouldn't really go.

Haha notcitrus, if someone gave me excellent pain relief I'd consider naming DC after them!

z123 It would be Daniel Robert. Robert is my Dad's and DH's brother's name so very fitting. It seems a lot easier and more acceptable to give middle names from people in your family, much more different with first names! The more I think about it the more I like it.

But that's the thing, I want to have a middle name that means something to the family, but give a first name that is more unique for DC

Decisons, decisions!

[z123]

A lovely name that sounds good to you is a lovely name. I think Daniel Robert is great. And believe me, after a couple of months you won't even think about it, or what people think, and he'll just have become 'Daniel Robert' and it will be impossible to think of him as anything else but himself with his name.

A friend of a friend called her daughter the name we'd thought of (for if our baby was a girl) for months and months, 6 days before our DD was born.... It really put me off, I was so worried this girl I barely knew would think we'd 'stolen' her name even though we hadn't.... DH poo-poohed this and said he wasn't changing for some girl he'd bumped into once at ante-natal class and now, it is my DD's name and suits her well, and we both love it!!

[pinkhebe]

both our boys have the same names as 2 of our close friends, wasn't deliberate, we just liked the names. ds1 uses the full version of his name, friend 1 uses a nickname. ds2 is known as little .... compared to our friend big .... . We did check with friend 2 that it wasn't a problem, because of the nickname it kind of didn't cross our mind until later with friend 1

[BreastmilkDoesAFabLatte]

I used a friend's name for DD's middle name. The name is one the friend chose for herself through deed poll as an adult, and it's a beautiful story of how she came to choose it. The friend was flattered.

[PaperBank]

I don't think it's a problem. With many names, it's not unlikely that you will already know someone with the name.