Did you/would you go for a 'safe' name so as not to upset ...

My oldest goes by Kate these days. And I love 'Rory' as a shortening of Aurora. Just fabulous.

My eldest 5 have pretty safe names. My 6th does not. You either love it or hate it. Bit of a controversial name in a very middle class family and school

weegiemum that is scary! Mine are Katherine (12) and Rachel (10).

They both have middle names which belong to various grandparents, aunts etc., but their first names are new to the family. I just wanted something everyone could spell and pronounce and which would not indicate to anyone how old they are so they can lie about their age if they want to.

Too many 'also'

Four DC (and one DSS) and only one of them has appeared in the top 10...nay, the top 100.

Thomas (Tom) is now in his mid twenties and I think it's been popular pretty much in the top 10 for most of those years. It's a lovely classic name but also contemporary also.

As for the others they have what a lot of people would view as boring (i.e. non fashionable) Not that I'm worried

It's very unlikely that you'll share the same taste in names as parents/ in-laws. Names go in cycles and what appeals to us is unlikely to appeal to the last generation or one before that.
Just pick what you like, they've had their turn!

Middle names were our mothers, so that was easy.

I love the name Agnes, btw. It's not ugly at all, and means lamb. Ada is short for Adelaide, which is also lovely.

We horrified our respective families with our baby name choices. They're unusual and very old fashioned. And ugly, according to everybody in our families.

I got my Dad to calm down about them by telling him that a) Mil hated dd1's name and b) is is the name of the beloved of his favourite Renaissance poet. DD2 has a virtue name and I was able to point him at a very beautiful (now elderly) famous actress & an aristo model with the same name, indicating a glamorous & beautiful context. Don't remember how DH pitched them to his family, except that we were asked why we couldn't use pretty names like Tiffany and Mackenzie.

Don't really understand the fashion for Victorian names either - Maud, Ada, Agnes, Agatha (know all these). These are just ugly.

Aurora is a lovely name, it won't date and it can travel anywhere, career-wise. This is important IMO.

I know girls named Heliotrope, Apricot and Flame - all girls.

Personally I detest sentimental names that make children sound like toys - I also know a Dolly and a Tinkerbell and a Blossom. Sadly Tinkerbell is a bit of a lump which makes it even more inappropriate. I think even Daisy, Maisy, Milly and Poppy lack enough gravitas - sorry if they are anyone's choices.

Better hope none of these girls want to be a barrister, an acccountant, a doctor or a pilot, or really any job that requires being taken seriously in what is still, unfortunately, a man's world.

Is it Ryan TheOnly? Seems to be considered a naughty boys name round our parts.

Apparently DS has a " naughty boys name " WTF?!! And that comes from friends, not family.

Definitely go for the names you love. I reluctantly agreed on a 'safe' choice for our eldest when he was 10 days old and to this day (he's almost 8) i hate to admit but I wish we'd used his middle name, although I can't imagine him being called anything else now! I then firmly chose and stuck to our other two and love both their names, despite sometimes getting mixed reactions!
My sister's niece (on her hubby's side) is called Aurora. She is 9 and is a lovely, confident very pretty little girl. It's a lovely name! And Cassius was on our short list for our thirds middle name - great name too :)
Good luck with everyone choosing their names, it can be very difficult! :)

We told people our name choices at the same time that we said we were pregnant.

DD has a fairly 'safe' first name and two unusual but not way out second names (both greek goddesses).

If we had had a DS then we had very traditional family names for first and middles.

We told people early for several reasons -

a) they could get over any dislike long before the baby arrived and

b) a lot of my family were pregnant at the same time, and while I don't agree with 'booking' a name - we were quite happy if someone else used any of ours - we didn't want to be thought to have 'stolen' someone else's choice should they choose the same.

In the event, only grandmothers expressed issues about the choices... one said she didn't understand why all her grandchildren chose names that in her day belonged to housemaids (there's a Polly, a Tilly and a Daisy and she was in her 90's).

The other thought we planned to use the first and second in combination - eg Lily-Grace - and said she felt sorry for our child. When she realised that only the first would be used she decided she liked them.

We had Edward picked out for a boy, but not liking Ted, Teddy, Ed, Eddie etc were planning to use Bear as a diminutive and got a few raised eyebrows over that. I know 5 'Bears' of varying ages - and there is always Bear Grylls - so I didn't see why it was considered so weird.

Aurora is a beautiful name - 4 year-old DD says she wishes she had been called Aurora!

Btw, I love Aurora. Just beautiful, but not overly girly. I won't be able to use it for my dd though, due to an 'r' related speech impediment!

And Cassius is cool. Strong and classic.

I am horrified at the rudeness of people who criticise the names people choose for their children! I really don't understand what gives them the right to impose their taste on you as if they are the arbiter of taste in baby names...

Dh and I will not tell people our name choice until DC arrives. Anyone who doesn't like the name can go swivel

I put safe names in the 'booooooring' box. My husband and I both had slightly different names and loved it, it was nice not having 5 others of the same name in our classes at school.

Aurora was my favourite Disney princess

We discussed the names we liked with parents. Erik was one possibility, but MiL hated it, so we dismissed that option and picked another name we liked. Didn't want any unnecessary bad feeling.

Aurora is an absolutely lovely name!!

Ok, yes, it is the name of a Disney Character, but how extremely beautiful was Aurora??! Sleeping Beauty was always my favourite Disney film, I would have loved to have been called Aurora!

We had a name we loved for a girl, including the names of both great grandmothers, but couldn't even agree on a shortlist of names for a second boy! In the end we waited till DS 2 was born and named him for his looks and his emerging personality. Sure, both our DS were 'baby boy X' on the paperwork for a few days, but they both have names that suit them as individuals, since we didn't choose names till we met them!

Only an idiot judges someone by their name.

Aurora is gorgeous! My friend has a lovely little Aurora, she's currently a bit of a tomboy and all her friends call her Rory, which is also cute

I chose a 'safe' name for my baby.

The reason why I did this is because I don't want my child to be shoved into a 'box' and to be judged by his name.

I did not want him to have a name which gave away his social class or the education level or beliefs of his parents. Also I didn't want to stamp him which was more about me and how I viewed the world than thinking about what he might like as an adult and what would be positive for him.

I wanted him to be, if you like, a 'blank slate' so that he would be judged on his own personality and what he does rather than by a first impression which may be erroneous.

To give an example tonight it has been reported on the news that a boy called Macauley has been done for murder. He is 18 so he was born in 1995 when Macauley Culkin was quite famous and I had instant visions of a 16 year old in a council flat calling her baby after the celebrity of the day. I did this in a 'feeling quite sorry for him because he never really had a chance' way.

But I also don't want him to have a middle class name so he looks like a tit if he ends up a tattooist in Brixton or an alternative name like 'Neon' etc, etc.

Each to their own but I wanted my son to transcend his name rather than be defined by it, if that makes sense.

First child, very traditional name ( quite common from 60's -80's) not so common now. Royal family name, with a Scottish middle name beginning with D. My parents hated it. Not the name - the fact that I'd used a middle name. None of our family have middle names. Utter rubbish as it turns out after researching family tree!! D Twins, extremely premature, were given both dad's names as middle names, 20 mins to name them as hospital chaplain was on the way!! ( so no pressure!!) parents loved the names, even though one has an unusual first name and the middle name is very similar in origin to child one. Just go with what you like at the end of the day they will get used to it and there are more important things to worry about at times!! Story ended well and all three have a " strong, solid, classic" name. Two with very special family connections ( middle names) in very pressurised, emotional circumstances. The weird thing was after - the meanings of their names which I never knew were perfect and everyone agrees they suit their names.