Worried we chose a bad name!

It's a lovely name but I completely understand. Dh chose a name I wasn't 100% convinced of for dd and it took me about a year to accept it!

That's a really pretty name!

I went through a similar stage with my eldest, Lottie, as it had been my husbands first choice and not mine. I think hormones have a lot to answer for. The feeling faded after a while and I love her name now

Sophie nn Sonia or Sage or Sagacity is a beautiful name.
Annabelle is beautiful too.
Sometimes there is more than one right answer

I think that’s why I may be having a wobble too, as I agreed to a top ten name... My preferred, less common choice gets so much love on here too which doesn’t help matters! I almost want to say to people when I meet them “her name is X but she was nearly a Y” just so I get it in there and people don’t think I have zero imagination.

Sophie is currently at 26 so it’s more likely there will be another Sophia in the class rather than a Sophie. If you go on the ONS website you can look at the top names for your area too. We have a pocket of Florences where we live surprisingly!

I guess to help matters one has to look at it logically - it’s a nice normal name, she won’t get bullied for it, it will age with her nicely, it’s pretty without being twee and she can always use her middle name if she really hates it, which I doubt she will.

I hope these comments help you to feel better about it, if not then feel free to PM me, I’d be more than happy to chat name woes with you!

Sophie Annabelle is really lovely. It's not groundbreaking admittedly, but it's a very pretty, very classic name that will endure and not date too badly, and no-one will hate it, which is not something you can say about more trendy/edgy names.

It's a lovely name, and for what it's worth, I think she will be grateful for being Sophie rather than Annabelle (also a nice name but a bit of a mouthful).
DS, age 14, is genuinely grateful we gave him a 'normal' (top 10 baby names) name and says it is one of the few things we have got right....

@Classica, Annabel is fine, but I'm not keen on the Annabelle spelling.
If she prefers Annabelle then maybe she could swap the names around.
Annabelle will probably get called Anna anyway.
I'd stick with Sophie

For what it is worth I love it!

Sophie's definitely the nicer of the two names.

If it helps, I still doubt our name choice for 15 week old DD even though we decided when I was about 24 weeks pregnant!

By the time she's 9, you'll just be referring to her as "Soph" anyway, as you bustle her out of the door. You can call her something else, Annie maybe, if you prefer. I had a nickname that I used for our girl when she wa a baby - Zi Zi. It's not related to her name, but has similar sounds and only I used it, but it helped me to connect to her. You could do the same.

Sophie is lovely. Annabel isn't my style but it's perfectly fine and a middle name doesn't get used much

Sophie Anna Annabelle is a lovely, inoffensive name
Annabelle always makes me think of the lovely baby dolls instead of the horror one if that helps x

"What’s troubling me: I think I wanted Annabelle and my husband wanted Sophie and the final decision was made whist I was being stitched up (literally!)"

Not Ok!!!

So this would upset me a lot and most of all I'd feel that I'd been taken advantage of whilst in a diminished state. After doing 99.9% of the work by being pregnant and giving birth, I was then cajoled into using a particular name by someone getting me to agree to it while my oestrogen and progesterone levels crashed back down from the 100s of X their normal levels that they are at whilst pregnant, and at the same time the oxytocin was at a euphoric high and I was suffering from exhaustion?

No, that wouldn't fly.

I would explain that to DH and then see if he'd agree to us changing the name on the birth certificate and swapping the order of the names to Annabelle Sophie.

I don't think that's unreasonable at all.

I think asking such a newly postpartum woman to make any intellectual or impactful decision at all is unreasonable and for me it would seriously affect our whole relationship.

I (mother) called my two by pet names for ages when they were small - think "Snugglyboo" type of thing. I swear I only used their given names when talking to the elder about the younger and vice versa. I was told that my father also called me by a pet name for ages. Babies definitely grow into their names.

It's lovely. I'm biased. If I'd had a daughter she would have been Sophia nn Sophie as I think it is the most beautiful girl's name ever.

Sophie is a lovely name and not common anymore. Sophia is much more “fashionable” so there are loads. Annabelle is fine. I think you’re stressed and tired and over thinking.

I know an annabel. She was shortened to Belly as a child and it's stuck. Not the best nickname and it's ruined the name for me slightly as it's all i think about when I meet another one!

I really like it

Sophie is gorgeous

This time you decide the first name and DH decides the middle name

It's fine and it's not overly popular with babies right now, I don't think. She probably won't have another in her class.

I can see why you are feeling this way though - rushed into a decision while literally being stitched up, and letting go of the name you really wanted! Not really fair on you.

Honestly?

Sophie is a million times better than Annabelle, especially spelled that way! It's Annabel.

Sophie is beautiful, classic, timeless. And really pretty. And while Sophia seems to be everywhere (far less nice imo), I don't know any young Sophies at the moment.

Annabelle spelled this way looks unnecessarily fussy and just isn't in the same league. It's not terrible. But it's not classic.

You made the right choice.