Baby Name Anxiety

Eleanor is a lovely name. I personally think Leni is really cute, and the other NNs are nice too. So many options, depending on her character/looks as she develops.

I wanted to name dd1 and dd2 eleanor but my dh vetoed it (has a second cousin called eleanor). Love the name and all the nicknames and i know a wildly talented beautiful girl called eleanor who goes by Leni which i think is so cool. I have had decision regret over both my daughters names and then they bed in and the baby grows into them and now i love them so am sure that will happen for you

It's a lovely name. I know several lovely Eleanors. I also love all the nicknames (particularly Elin).

Why not keep it 'officially' but allow yourself the openness to change it 'unofficially' if it doesn't gel?

DH chose DS1's name and even though I loved the name I just couldn't use it for the first year. He was 'baby', 'little man' etc until he was big enough to fit his name iyswim.

With ds2 I insisted on a middle name in case I struggled again, but I've never used it. Ds2 just immediately fit that name.

I guess what I'm saying is to be kind to yourself (it's perfectly normal to worry about this huge decision) but not to stress too much. Loads of people go by different names to the ones on their birth certificates.

Eleanor's a lovely name. And Nell is the best shortening ever........

I think you're probably reading too much into it now (sorry). Eleanor is a nice name, and when you get used to it, it will just be normal and you won't even think about other names.

I called my DD baby for about the first 3 months of her life, and then just gradually started using her name.

I know it's easier said than done, but I honestly wouldnt worry too much about it. You both obviously like the name Eleanor otherwise you wouldn't have chosen it in the first place and it really won't take long before it feels natural (after you've decided you're sticking with it).

Good luck!

It's a lovely name- and was on our shortlist. We ended up with 2 DSs, so never had to decide on a girl's name. We liked Eleanor because it is classic and elegant but not overused or "try hard"; we wanted a name that would not label a child as being from a particular time or class. Nell would be a good nn, but I could imagine using the full version as it is easy to say.

FWIW, the other 2 names that we thought met our criteria were Honor and Anna. Not sure if that's helpful or not....

The meaning of the name Eleanor is: Shining light. The bright one.

I think it's a beautiful name and you've chosen well, as your daughter grows you we see her shine and her name will be just right

I know an Eleanor- Norrie for short. I love it

Call her Nell, which is lovely, for short? Eleanor is gorgeous, in my opinion.

But take the pressure off - you can change her name for an entire year without incurring any cost, so don't beat yourself up. Your husband needs to work out his own bonding issues - I very much doubt they are linked to her name or namelessness. We only decided finally on our son's name on the way to register him when he was eight weeks, and went on calling him 'the boy' or 'the princeling' for ages.

I'm from York and I think Eleanor is beautiful! Just keep using it! I had to keep overusing my DDs name to make it set in my head. It's a lovely, classy, understated choice .

My nine-year-old is called Eleanor and we called her Ella from birth (just seemed right and it wasn't that popular right then - still isn't in our area now). She could also have been an Elle or any other of the nicknames but she had this beautiful round face and little turned up nose and seemed to suit Ella. I don't regret it because it gives her tons of options when she is older and it's very strong and classic. AND it became obvious that she was very much an Eleanor - she really is! Now she is starting to call herself Eleanor sometimes and we see it written on her stuff so she must like it. Maybe you should trust your gut instinct? after all you rejected all the other names for a reason.

If you are still thinking 'agh' but want to keep Eleanor how about announcing her name like this "Introducing baby Ella (Eleanor ........., officially), born ..... etc..." or "Eleanor ...... is finally here, Ella to her friends, born......" type of thing (sorry, I'm bad at birth announcements but you get the general idea!). Good luck!

My dd's name felt weird for a while until I got used to it. I called her 'Mrs Mop' for at least 6 months!
She's a Tess and of course I love it now and can't imagine her being called anything different. Eleanor's lovely btw....

We only had one name for DS when he was born so it was 100% decided in advance. BUT it's quite a "grown up name" if that makes sense and it took a while for me to think that it actually suited him. But he has totally grown into it and it's perfect for him. I'm sure there are lots of babies who don't really suit their name initially. I also wouldn't worry about its popularity, DD has a top 10 name which we love and in reality we don't meet many kids with her name. As others said there are tonnes of lovely nn's for Eleanor, I particularly like Ellen and Elle, both of which aren't very popular as far as I know. Good luck!

I love Eleanor. It took me ages to get used to ds' name - now I love it.

It's unfair of your day to say that you have to make the decision!

Could you describe her to us? Might trigger something for you / one of us that's 'her'

Should say they (my kids) have developed their own and yours will.

Eleanor is beautiful, stunning,and why 'too long' for daily use? My kids have 3- and 4-syllable names and don't need 'nicknames', at least not parent-imposed ones. They'll develop their own organically. .

It's a lovely name.

I think you can overthink shortenings/nicknames. You could call your child one of the other names and they could end up with a nickname you wouldn't choose. Our nicknames for DD aren't related to her name, theyve just evolved.

I like Eleanor more than Celia, Rose and Alice by miles. I also like Nina. Eleanor is a lovely, classic, underused name.

Eleanor is a lovely name, and like pp have said it has a LOT of great nicknames. Nell, Norah, Nellie, Lin, Elin, Ellie, Ella, El.

As an option, you could name her Elinor and call her Elin, Lin or Nora.

Eleanor is a lovely name, you can always use one of the many shortened versions if they "fit" as she gets bigger. If you had other choices in mind as well, why not use one (or two!) as middle names.

You could use Nell or Norah as nns for Eleanor

I didn't feel like my son's name was really his at first. I kept calling him other names by accident!

Have you spoken to your GP about your anxiety?

I have an Ella, there aren't that many that I personally know of, and it's a beautiful name for my beautiful girl . Eleanor is lovely too.