I give-up, after 9 months and hundreds of these threads, we settled on a name only for a close friend to call her baby the same thing.

Always fancied Lydia for the daughter I'll never have...you are welcome to have it for your DD2 Artichokes

mia or lilly

I would stick with it too. you've thought long and hard and chosen a name you love! why should you change it?
I would def say to the friend, wow, what a coincidfence because thayt's what we'd decided to call dd

see what she says?

you like Nina, how about Nella?

oh - what about Nancy. My DD has the sweetest friend called Nancy.

RipMacWinkle

I know how much people think about names. Names are very important to me (can you tell? )

DH and I had picked a name I thought (and still think) is perfect name for our DD but if a friend had used that name before she was born I would have changed to something else.

TBH I'm quite shocked at how many people are saying "sod her, do what you want, your feelings are all that count here".

I've always thought it was a given that you wouldn't use a name one of your friends had used for one of their DCs. Certainly with my friends there has been some "Oh god, that was meant to me MY name" based on the assumption that you wouldn't actually go there an use it too.

Skidoodle, I do agree with you up to a point. If the name were say, Margot or Penelope eg, and a friend named their baby the same name within weeks. I don't think I'd believe that they had inadvertently chosen the same name! So I feel sorry for OP, becuase this has happened.

Skidoodle, not fishing for your children's names, but how did they rank the years your children were born?

My dd's name wasn't even in the top 300 the year she was born, so if another baby with same name had cropped up in my circle within weeks, i'd have been a bit

Annoying but I think definitely necessary to choose something else if you envisage been friends for a long time. How about -

Ione
Aoife
Iris
Kyla
Carme
Xanthe

Mimi

Nena with an e would that help?

I agree you should stick with what you have chosen - you may not even know/see them in 10 years time but your daughter and her name are for life.

wow. Bummer. Nina is beautiful.

Names I'd categorise in the same style as Nina; simple, beautiful, underused..

Eve, Annie, Anya, Ellen, Thea, Joy, Beth, Thea

I also like Rachel, Greta, Lois, Polly, Ruth and Susie.

I can see what you're saying skidoodle but most couples don't pick a name in the last couple of days before their baby is born.

Most have sweated over baby books, MN forums (!), debated, considered and compromised to get to the name.

You might only have one name you agree on, so should you discount that to leave yourself in a cold sweat 2 days before the baby is due to find another name you both agree on, love, etc etc

Sorry for your dilemma artichokes. I honestly don't know what I'd do in your situ

I think thats wrong. If you have spent your entire pregnancy planning on calling your baby X then someone you know calls their baby X why should you have to change your mind?

I know I wouldn't change my mind if my friend chose the same name.

Oh that is an absolute nightmare. We have 3 close friends due before our next DC is born so I am really trying not to get too attached to any names.

I couldn't use a name that a close friend had already chosen despite what people are saying here.

How about Anya - a similar feel to it?

Will keep my name-brain thinking and get back to you with some more ideas.

Yes really rubyslippers, I wouldn't be flattered at all. I've never bought the whole "copying is the most sincere form of flattery" thing anyway. Even as a child it was obviously a pile of steaming poo your parents used to try to make you not hate crap children with no imagination.

I hope that the children of my friends will see lots of my DD growing up. I don't want her to be "doodle surname" with friends and family.

It's not like a coat or a lipstick or a perfume where you can laugh about shared good taste if someone buys the same thing as you.

A name is an important part of your identity. Making the choice that someone else's child is going to be one of two people in a close circle with the same name is just an anathema to me.

Saying to a friend, "yes, we've decided that your child and our child are going to be called the same thing" and you get no say in the matter because you've already name your child and we don't care is something I would consider to be so obnoxious I would probably start the cut the person off and I never cut people off.

People get pissed off if someone chooses a MN name similar to their own, so I think it's really off to deliberately do this to two children.

I would use it Arti. If it is what you have your heart set on then still use it.

Jessica
Niamh (pronounced Neave)
Fiona
Molly
Annie
Lucy
Hannah
Faye
Amelia
Georgia
Gemma
Amy
Sophia
Rosa
Grace
E lla
Catherine
Florence
Eleanor
Tessa
Olivia
Lauren
Charlotte
Emily
Elizabeth
Lily
Verity
Sophie
Claudia
Beth
Phoebe

Irene
Irina
Ina
Cristina
Indie
Antionette
Petra

Your friend is a bloody nuisance.

Stick with it arti, if you think about it logically you are not going to avoid becoming friends with someone who has a dd of the same name in the future are you? It doesn't matter, if she is feels like she is a Nina when she is born then call her it, I'd never give my child a name that didn't feel right just because someone else had it

How annoying!!!
Kara
Mia
Nancy
Elise
Tora
Sasha
Lily
Ellie/Ella
Suzi
????????

Mirren

Depends how much you see her. Nina is lovely and I would probably still want to use it but would chicken out! Talk to your friend, if she really is a good friend she would understand.

If not:
Lena,
Lana,
Clara (Clary)

"If a friend of mine gave her child the same name as I'd just given my baby I would be absolutely FURIOUS.

It's a horrible, selfish, weirdo thing to do. Seriously, don't do it."

I would think a furious friend a bit of a nutjob tbh.

I'd stick with Nina. Even close friends come and go, especially after kids. We almost used the same name as my closest lifelong friend (we've been friends since we were 1). I told her it was on the list and she was really keen for me to use it. I felt bad telling her we'd decided against it!

I know it is a bit of an odd choice but I really like Elaine