Can't shake name regret of my 4 year old

If it helps, my name is Lily and i absolutely love it, always have.

I am a teacher OP and while yes, I have over the last eight years taught a few Lilys, they have all been adorable. That certainly cannot be said for all popular names!

Lily is lovely and timeless. My dd has a more typically foreign name associated with a certain country and there there out to be 3 in her nursery due to the demographic of the area however they both moved so now she's the only one in her school of 600+ pupils. As far as I know there are no Lily's in the school but 1 Lilliana. I now work over 3 year groups so have 110 children age in my care aged 3-6 and we don't have a lily. It's not hugely common but with any name there will be pockets or coincidences even with a more unusual name so don't worry about it being over popular she could easily be the only one with that name in school

My god please don’t change her name at that age.

My middle dd had a name that wasn’t even top 50 (is now but she is 14). However, it was more popular in the socioeconomic demographic we lived in, so she ended up with several in her school.

Lily is a beautiful, classic name. And nicely, now it's hers rather than yours if you know what I mean? If it gets changed it will be if and when she decides to because of how she feels about it, the same way parents who call their child something exceptionally unique has to deal with it if the child tells school and their friends that they're done with being Lightningz and want to be known as Tom.

At school there will be several Harrys, Graces, Olivias, Charlies, Lilys and other names. I've never yet run across kids who mind, and school is a fairly short part of your life where you're in a large group all the time of people the same age. If it helps, I grew up with a unique name and was the only one all my childhood. I hated it, I would have much preferred a usual name. It's now become a popular one that lots of kids of a certain age have, and I often think how different school would have been if I hadn't grown up with the identity of having the weird standout name!

People attach too much importance to names. As long as you avoid something stupid like “Tree” or “Marshmallow” or “Pineapple”. Actually I quite like Tree. But people stand out by virtue of their passion, hard work and accomplishments, not their names.

Can you not just start using a nickname For her that you like.

Both Dd and Ds have nicknames we call them at home and Friends/Teachers call them their actual names.

I love that name!!

My friend has a daughter called Lily, they often call her Lilybet and Lilyanna - neither are anything close to her second name, her name has just evolved. My niece is called Amelia, most people shorten it to Milly, her friends at school call her Lilia. Lily is a beautiful name and if you want to expand it you really can do it quite easily, so she keeps her name but it can become as creative as you both like.

Honestly if someone was going to name me I would much much rather be Lily than an Alice or Thea. I’m not a conventional type either

Could you change it to a longer name where lily could be the nickname then she has the option to use a longer version later? Eg Delores, Lisbeth, Emmeline, Lillith, Elizabeth, Cecelia?

I have a lily and sort of regret allowing dh to bombard me to agreeing. Every name I suggested he said he preferred lily. At the time we thought we would have a third so i kind of thought I would be able to get my way the next name. We didn't and I still don't love her name. But over the years I have gotten used to it. Before she started school we couldn't seem to go anywhere without hearing another lily but it has settled down and at school there aren't as many. U like Isabel and its many spellings of which I know 4 in my own circle and know of many others!

You just choose the name YOU like and don’t worry about anyone else. DD1 is called Hannah, a name which I love. I didn’t know any other Hannahs when she was born. She’s a teen now and there are Hannah’s everywhere. 🤷‍♀️ She can change it if she wants to but I still love it!

I like Lily

You never know what’s popular and what’s not till you start school.

My dd is a Molly. When she was at her previous school, no one in her year group had the same name and I wasn’t aware of other child called Molly in the school either but it was a big school.

Moved house and therefore moved schools and now she is known is Molly X (x being the initial of the surname. Not really X btw).

The other Molly is even in her class! It’s just luck of the draw

Lily is a lovely name. Yes it probably is too late to change it, and what would your husband think. Does he know? Sorry if I missed something! If she doesn't like it when she's older (but I can't imagine any reason why not) has she a middle name she could use? Either way when she's older IF she wanted to change she could to a middle or anything else, but I think you'll find your concerns are unfounded.

You could always change it to Liliana or make Lily her middle name and choose one you like better as a new first name. I remember more than one kid at primary school having a given (official) name completely different to the name they were known as. Crucially though, at 4 years old she will want to be involved, so you may end up regretting this even more...

Lily is a beautiful name!

Or you could add her middle name in there too, one of my friends daughters is called Josie, and when there was another Josie in the class they started calling her Josie Mae, her middle name as well, because they hated her having to have the same as someone.

I think that you might just have a bit too much time on your hands to think OP - I certainly have!!!

Lily is a lovely name and quite popular too. My DD has a very uncommon name, never met another.... she's had another girl start in her class with the same name!

I love the name lily, it’s so sweet and pretty, though I personally would have it short for something like Lilian or Lilia, no one will know whether or not it’s her name anyway. If it helps, if kids find it too confusing it’s possible they will call her by her last name instead, thought it’s definitely more of a boys thing, I know loads of people who’s kids get called by their last name at school, and then their normal name at school. Or if there is another Iily one of them could be Lily and the other Lil or Lils and that’s another way to tell them apart.

I like lily
I have one child with a slightly uncommon name and another with a top 5 name.
Doesn’t really bother me that the other has a really common name!
I do have massive regrets about one of their middle names so I do 100% understand how you feel.