anyone really regret the name they chose?

Yes. I really can't get used to my dd3's name at all. She is 7 months old.

I don't think it suits her and its just doesn't feel right.

I think its mainly down the fact that i didn't name her, dh did. I named my dd1 and 2 and i love their names!

I'm really really hoping that i grow to love her name, it really bothers me that i may spend the rest of her life not liking her name

My mum always says (rather tactlessly) that she regrets the name she gave my sister and wished she'd gone with something else. My sister is 24 now!

I named DD1 and DS1, and DS2 was a joint decision. 22 years on I still love their names. DS3 I had a name and at the last minute DH said no way. After 3 weeks as The New Baby we were desperate to find a name that neither of us actively hated, and just picked the first one that we both said was "OK". Registered him, had him christened and thought "no actually, there are loads of other names that would have been better".

Same story with DD2. Knew she was a girl from the amnio but couldn't agree. Had 2 names I had set my heart on- DH says no. The DSs didn't like it either and when I mentioned it to my brother he said the same. 2 weeks of unnamed baby. DH finally says "oh call her what you like" so we compromised. (why didn't I go back to my first choice?!) She is 11 months and I still prefer the other name. Trouble is she has a passport and too many people know her to change it now.

just heard someone speaking on our local radio called RUPERT BEARNE ( pronounced bear...ne) siad he got a load of stick when he was younger, but has really helped him in business.

Yes, started to regret DD2s middle name a few days later. Unfortunately only confessed this on the car park of the council offices going to register her birth. Poor DH had me in baby blues tears, said I could change it, then DD1 started howling because she liked the middle name. As a result DD2 has 2 middle names but I refer to her (on those occasions when a full name is called for) by names 1 and 3! And then she spent the first few months being called Bundle....very cold winter, so wrapped up a lot!

All our 3 DCs names were a compromise but I don't think there was any other way round that for DP and me!

Of the 3 of them the name I like the most has caused regret because DS at 4 1/2 still cannot quite pronounce it himself - it has 'L' and 'R' in it - difficult sounds for young children.

Think it is normal to fall out of love with your kids names, when they fail to live up to your view of what a mary is,or a jasmin.

Then you fall back in love with the name when
they become The Mary,or The Jasmin.

Always hated my name when I was a kid, and wanted to be called Maxine ! (really like my name now).

M2bR - give a selection of names then and you can use whichever one suits (either your choice or the DC's) later. I have known several people use their middle names rather than their first names - a doctor I once saw was always addressed and known as J Nigel Thomas (what's the betting his parents had called him JOhn?).

This is what I am scared of - giving my lo a name that I end up regretting...

SPB - I remember mozhe - FWIW I think it's a lovely name.

I love and adore both dses' names still, but I'm beginning to regret them having dh's surname - not because things are bad with dh, but because my surname would have sounded 'stronger' and more striking with their names. Also, because dh's surname starts with a vowel, girls' names for a future hypothetical dd that end with a vowel sound are sadly out.

We compromised on both of our first choices with DD (we ended up with Hannah instead of my choice - Evelyn - and DH's choice - Armelle). Although neither of us really like DD's name still, we still both hate each others' name choices, so I guess it was still the right thing to do. But I do sometimes regret not fighting harder at the time. And I also regret only giving her one middle name (Blue) instead of a whole string of them, from which she could pick a name of her choice at a later stage....

Never ever regretted our choice for DS (Fergus) which we still adore and which suits him to the ground

no I don't, but I do wish that DH had agreed to my first choice name in each case (which I loved) - instead he stood firm and we had to compromise every time (for 4 dcs). Am pg with dc5 now and he is doing it again...

Not regretted as such as it is a lovely name and we would so choose it again but . . . we named our dd2 Grace - she is the least graceful child you could ever hope to meet. We should have called her Storm!! (actually I quite like that name now I've typed it)

in fairness, only one was a friend, that was before he was born. Another was someone i used to work with, bumped into her in the supermarket when he was a few months old. Also on here, but not aimed at my DS - remember mozhe and the waterskiing?

how rude of them stealth

i still like the name we chose for ds but have been told by a few different people that it is 'posh', and not in a good way, which has spoilt it slightly for me

I think Alexandra is a lovely name. Would have had it for DD, I think, had we not had a nephew called Alexander

We had 2 possibles for DS. On some sort of post birth whim I announced one of them to the assembled grandparents when we brought him home from hospital. It's a good name, and it suits him, but very, very commonplace, and I spent a lot of time wishing I'd not blurted it out and had spent more time actually choosing.

For the first six months I was very unsure about our daughters name, it seemed too long and too big a name for a baby, and the short form seemed too toddler or teenage. Now she is 4 it really suits her

Its Alexandra btw, and gives her the options of a pretty princess name or a tomboy fun short name. We make a point of using her full name often so its not alien and, as someone mentioned above, giving rise to feelings of apprehension.

I'm really happy with it now

Message withdrawn

I love DD's name. We didn't, however, give her a middle name. There is a 'family name' on DH's side but it is a boy's name. We decided that, if we have a DS in the future, we'll give him the family name as a middle name. If we have another DD or we don't have anymore DC then we're seriously considering giving DD the female version of DH's 'family name' as a middle name. We wouldn't do it officially, we'd just start using it. We had a friend a few years ago who did this; she just started putting another middle name on her DS's forms and no one questioned it. He is NA on his birth certificate and NAM on everything else!

I know several other people who are commonly known by names that are not their given first name ... DH's Nan was Christened 'Clipsy', which she hates, so is known as 'Peggy'; I used to work with a lady called Felicity who was actually a Barbara and a family friend is called Anne but was Christened Elizabeth. None of them have changed their names officially, they just use the alternative.
I know that this isn't directly in response to the OP but I thought it might be interesting if anyone is considering changing their DCs' names

My brother's step son had one of these "unusual" names people are always discussing so fondly on here. He had always hated it so when he was 11 he changed to to a name he chose himself - which turned out to be a very ordinary, conventional one.We had a special celebration and a party. There were a few legal hoops to jump through, but nothing too taxing - and he was so much happier afterwards. He went off to secoandary school with his new name, there were two others in his year and he was delighted!

my nan moved at 6 and when she moved she dropped her first name and took up her middle name. my grandpa was known as B when in fact his name was wg (iswim)my grandparents called my ma fs and from 6 weeks old she was only s when she was 17 my da started calling her an abbrivation of s which i always thought was cheeky. i on the other hand regret not calling dd the middle name of my choice, luckily at confirmation that was the name she chose.

Well I have always hated my own name and rarely use it ( I do more these days as a way of having a Secret Identity) so gave DS 3 first names (so he can choose when he's older), the very first one of which a lot of the family don't much like, but he has been addressed by his initials since he was about a day old.
Names have power, though. ON the simplest level, if you are normally addressed by a short version of your name, hearing the fullversion generally makes you sit up and shudder in apprehension.