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

I think you shoudl choose a name that you think your son or daughter will love

So if you have always wanted to be called after a fruit, then change YOUR name to peaches apple.or if your DP wanst to honour his favourite football team, then he can change his. If you want to be individual or unique, then do so yourself.dont impose it on a child.

Please think carefully about giving your child a name that might become a burden to them, embarass them or make them a laughing stock.

It's also so much easier to be critical of names when their use is theoretical. My sister gave my niece a name I wasn't really familiar with a few months ago, with unusual spelling, and my first thought was "?!?!?!" But, because it's my niece's name and I love her, I got over it within hours of finding out, and now I think it's a fabulous name and can't believe I didn't love it from the start - especially the spelling, which really works. Had it been thrown into conversation while my sister was pregnant I may have been critical too, and it would have been a shame if that had mattered to her.

Also, the discussion about Aurora got me thinking about associations (ie Disney) and how those change too. People who have never met an Aurora may think about the Disney princess, but as soon as they know someone with that name, that will be flipped on its head and when they hear of the princess they'll think about the girl if that makes sense. So something like that isn't a reason not to use a name IMHO.

The family will simply have to get over it. Your child. Not theirs. As long as you are not calling s/he "Kleeneze" or something utterly ridiculous ignore them.

I genuinely could not care at all what family thought of my children's names, but DH and I both put a lot of stock in the Eddie Izzard principle, of calling your kids names which wouldn't get them beaten up in the school playground. So we have two children with old testament and mid-top 100 names, which we also happen to love.

We didn't discuss names with anyone beforehand, because frankly it wasn't their business and wasn't up for negotiation. And if anyone had questioned the names we chose I would just have chided them for being so rude!

Aurora is lovely. I was really jealous of a girl I knew as a child, who was called Aurora. It's gorgeous.

We are not telling anyone until baby is born and decision made. If they then make rude comments they can gtfo! :)

Bloody sisters eh, she'll no doubt call him that in adulthood.

applepie - nice to hear of another baby Cassius! We call ours Cass but his big sis calls him Cassie poor boy

Dont kill me with curiosty Seaweedy.

My mum hated Ds's name and told me constantly all though my pregnancy and begged me to change it I didn't and she likes it now.

My theory is if you love the name then nothing and no one will put you off, if other peoples opinions make you think twice about it then maybe it's not the right name anyway. I'm as stubborn as a ox though once I decided something no one will change my mind.

Aurora and Cassius are both very nice.

No, I didn't play it safe either. We told no one the name we had chosen (which came to me in a weird moment of clarity while I was throwing up on the way hime from work in my first trimester!) until he was born, when we said 'X born at 10.20 am, 8.5 pounds etc, and presented it as a fait accompli. All four grandparents were embarrassed by it, though it's far from 'out there', one of the less common Biblical names. They never said a thing, though. I adore his name still, and I love that it is uncommon.

withdrawal My ten month old is called Cassius too. I haven't had any negative comments yet, most people say it's a really cool name. Unusual but everyone has heard of it and can spell it and pronounce it (well..except my American uncle who says over there it's pronounced Cashus )

I always used to worry what people would think of the name we had chosen but when we came across DS's name I didn't care anymore. That's how I knew it was the one. I decided if anyone said they didn't like it my response would be 'You had your chance to name your children and I don't like their names either'.

We had some unusual choices/preferences for names before DS was born. We told our friends and most of them slagged them off which annoyed me

However what in the end made us go with a traditional name was DMIL saying that in hindsight she really wished she had given her 3 children traditional names (they all have unusual ones) as they all got a bit of stick (well DBIL got bullied heavily) because of their names.

If you told me 5 years ago that DS would have such a traditional name I would've been shocked and horrified. Future DCs will have traditional names too.

But basically you should name your children what you like and rude people can nob off...

And Aurora is lovely

When we first told people our sons name(Elijah) they were horrified and made some not great comments but he is 5.5 now and all family got used to it even liking it now. We had safe names for both our children but decided to use the names we loved not please other people.

My mum spent most of my pregnancy saying that she didn't like the name we had chosen (since we were 17) for ds1. Lets say Bob for ease, the second she saw him she said "he looks like a bob"

its not popular on here at all,in fact it was discussed on here not long ago on the cutesy thread.I am trying to think if there is another name i can give her on the birth certificate in case she hates it when shes older,but the 2 full names its known as a nickname for,she will hate,if she hates the nn,if that makes sense!

Aurora is a fab name! It was a very close second choice for our dd!

Btw LOVE Aurora and Cassius and agree cass is such a cool nn, my pe teacher at secondary school was called cass and all the girls fancied the pants off of him

My ds1 has a very 'quirky' name (not liked on MN) and an unusual middle name. Some of my and DHs family were aghast, but I didn't care.

When ds2 was due everyone was sooo nervous about what we would choose I think they were expecting something much more out there than we chose. It's still not a run of the mill name mind you, but more ordinary than ds1. We still have raised eyebrows over it though.

You simply cannot please all the people all the time. We had a job agreeing between the two of us!

Go with your gut and sod the rest of 'em!

My 2 dds have fairly mainstream names - not old lady chic and not boring, they are Katherine (13) and Rachel (9). I've loved dd1s name all my life and she's very happy with it, dd2s name is after dh's grandma, who died 3 weeks before she was born. The last time Grandma showed any emotion as she faded away was the last time we saw her, when we told her (she was the only one who knew) that it was a girl and her name was Rachel.

Ds doesn't have an unusual name either, not really, he's Aidan. However, same grandma was a very knee-jerk Northern Ireland presbyterian unionist, and it took her 3-4 days to say the name - because it's a "catholic" (mouthed, not pronounced audibly!) name. We didnt care, it's a lovely name.

Having read this thread I realise I am still annoyed and hurt that someone was about my daughter's middle name. I still can't see what the issue was.

My dd is called Isabella and we naturally have called her bella for short EVERYONE calls her that apart from my dm who insists on calling her izzy because she hates the name bella....how can you hate a name that literally means beautiful?! Anyway shes been forced to call her bella now as dd won't answer to izzy as shes not used to being called that.
Bottom line call your children names you love everyone else will have to fall in line eventually

What was the name she laughed at?

Koala lovely that you feel like that, it is obviously the right thing.

I am currently pregnant with b/g twins and EVERYONE asks what we will be naming them. We have a short list of 2 names for both but will not be telling as we know family will not like, especially the boys names. I don't care, they will have to get used to it. Our babies so we name them what we want.

Hope you do the same OP