7 year old wants to change name

[DryBananaHippyHat]

Have name changed, this is super outing! Have a 7yo dd called Mary. For the last 18 months she has been calling herself Florence and is adamant she wants to change her name. All the kids at school know about this and call her a mixture of the two names. Now she tells me she wants me to tell her new teacher to call her Florence. I signed her up for a sports club this week and, at her request, put her name down as Florence and she's absolutely delighted. They've even sent her a t shirt with Florence printed on it and her face was a picture!

I don't have a problem with this as such, apart from remembering to call her Florence. But my question is, to what extent do we go with this? She seems pretty set on it, as I said it's been a while now. Do I talk to her teacher?

*names have been changed!

I remember at school a girl legally changed her name, came back first day of term and introduced herself using new name. She got quite a bit of stick from other kids but I think that was down to the name she chose (name of a season plus.... kids are mean).

I did this for 9 months when I was 5. My parents were just on the cusp of actually changing my name when I stopped abruptly.

For me, the other name was an alter ego I'd created for myself, I think most likely to process some difficult stuff I'd been going through. I'm very glad they didn't change my name to it 'for real'.

Thanks all. We're going to stick with calling her it at home and her friends use it. If she still feels the same in a few years then we'll see then. She's a determined little beggar so I wouldn't be surprised though...