I promised DH he could name the baby. Now I've changed my mind.

[JakeyMom]

When I was pregnant with DS1 I had my heart set the name Jacob. DH hated it and used to come up with all these alternatives but I had my heart set and I promised him that if he let me call DS Jacob he would pick the next DC's name. I PROMISED.
So fast forward and I'm pregnant with DC2 and naturally DH has been considering names. He was under the illusion that we would be having a boy and had already picked out the name Adam which I was fine with. However, it turns out we're having a girl which has totally thrown DH off course.
He's now decided he wants to name DD after his GRANDMOTHER(!!!) as she brought him up. It's an AWFUL name for a child (Blanche) and I just can't bring myself to agree. The name makes me shudder, it reminds me of coronation street. I've told him I hate the name and it's disgusting for a baby but he won't budge on it and is digging his heels in. AIBU to go back on my promise for the sake of our DD?

Waspie sums it up perfectly: you will each have one child with a name you love and one with a name you hate.

It's not an arrangement that most people would want- but it was YOUR arrangement op so you can hardly whinge now.
It sounds like you were so determined to get your own way first time that you didn't think ahead at all... Or maybe you secretly hoped your dh would just happen to pick a name you liked too... Well it's come back to bite you on the bum now..

I think we should try and come up with some nice nicknames for Blanche, I like the earlier suggestion of Bibi. I really don't like Bianca though, reminds me of Eastenders, and I don't even watch eastenders.

Okay, nicknames.

I like Blake?

I hated the name Blanche when you first mentioned it, OP, but in the time it has taken to read this thread it has grown on me. It is quite pretty really. I am trying to think how it could be contracted though - Laney? Suppose it is not essential to contract a name though (my daughter is Eleanor - I named her with a secret desire to actually call her Nora, which was MY grandmother's name and which MY husband hates - but she stubbornly remains Eleanor and declines any form of truncation. She won't even be an Ella).

I think you could apologise profusely to your husband for your stubbornness and selfishness over naming your son, and try to appeal to his better nature in finding some form of compromise. But if that doesn't work I think you are going to have to resign yourself to having a Baby Blanche. It isn't an awful name, and you will (have to) get used to it.

I am sure you will come to love Blanche. It is a lovely name. Jacob and Blanche.

And if you dont love the name you are in the same position as he was before with the name Jacob.

Serves you right for being so controlling over names, to be honest!

Blakes good, Blinny? It's actually quite hard to think of any.

Good idea TeWihara - OP could say to her husband - "Blanche- - what a lovely name! I think I will shorten it to Blake though, when I am talking to the baby. It is so sweet."

Bet that'll get him changing his mind...

It does grow on you, doesn't it? When I read the OP, I thought yuk, but it's actually really rather pretty, once you throw off the silly 'old lady name' prejudice and focus on the sound it makes as it rolls off your tongue.

Show him this Blanche has 0 on record since 1960, Bianca is a variant or go with something that has the same meaning.

When I hear the name Blanche I can't not think of the Golden Girls.

So, you forced your DH to accept a name he hated with the promise he could chose the next one? However, you don't find it at all acceptable into being made to have a name you hate...?

TBH, tough.

Or OP could over use the word blanch.

"I will just blanch these parsnips before roasting them"

"Could you blanch the beans for me please"

or "I told her the price of the fish and she blanched at it"

Blanche is far, far, far nicer than Bianca.

Hope baby Blanche apprecaites all the enthusiasm I'm trying to drum up for her lovely name.

I don't use the word blanch enough. I shall attempt to get it into a conversation today.

Jacob is a horrible name, and your poor DH had to put up with his child being called a horrible name like that.

Now you have a taste of your own medicine. Good on your DH for not letting you push him around.

How completely barmy to haggle over names like this.

These are your dc and your dcs names for life. How can one of you name a kid something the other one hates?!

You are insane and rather childish.

The more I think about it the more I like Blanche! Don't go thinking DD will be the only one with that name OP, when we told everyone DD2's name we hadn't heard of any other girls locally with the same name. Turns out there's 5 of them!

It is a bizarre way of doing things - surely would have been better to compromise and pick names you both liked for both children? Seriously though Blanche is not a bad name, you will get used to it!

The OP could casually mention a random and little known medical fact that she found interesting in a "Did you know" kinda way;

"Blanching is prevented in gangrene as the red blood corpuscles are extravasated and impart red color to the gangrenous part."

With a 'isn't that interesting' sort of expression.

Call his bluff. Tell him you love it and what a great choice he's made.

You've said yourself he's stubborn so he's obviously sticking with this name even if he has second thoughts.

Buy Streetcar Named Desire from Amazon
and make him watch it. In my experience males hate Blanche Du Bois and it might put him off.

YABVVVU. You insisted on a name that your DH hated for your first child and are now wanting to renege on the promise you made regarding the naming of your second. I cannot believe that some people on this thread are calling your DH a twat in these circumstances.

Anyway I don't think Blanche is so bad. (Tho' I never watch Coronation St so don't know who this character is)