To wonder about baby names...

[NoTeaForMe]

So the people out there who say 'you don't own a name' and you can pick a name regardless of other peoples names and children's names, does this really include everyone? Would you happily name your child the same/very similar to your niece/nephew, best friends child, neighbour, acquaintance? Where is the line drawn? Would you be happy the other way round? If your sister used your child's name etc etc?

I don't have any contact with my father anymore, but he remarried, and named my half sister almost the same name as my mum! Just changed the e at the end to an a! Very strange.

Well, you can't own a name. But I wouldn't call my DC's the same name as anyone else, no matter how much I liked the name. If it was Top 100 it wasn't an option either.

hairygrotter She actually asked me if she could use DD's name as a middle name. I wasn't happy about it because we don't really get on but the inlaws talked me round saying it would hardly be used anyway as a middle name. Apparently because I said I didnt mind that she took that to mean I wouldnt mind her using it as a first name either.

We don't talk to them anymore, she tells people it's because I'M unhinged and jealous

I also think it depends on the name. If it's in the top 500 names or whatever then you can't be upset if anyone uses it. If it's very unusual like my DD's then it's reasonable to be a bit miffed I think. A family member used my DD's name, so did one of her nursery workers. I was miffed and a couple of people told me I didn't own it. I know I definitely wouldn't have had a problem if they had asked me, I wouldn't have said no! It was that they went ahead after blatantly copying without warning.

At Christmas dinner this year there will be two of one name and two of another, all quite closely related. We've got a habit of using family names across the generations. It's rather nice, we're used to it, and it rarely causes confusion. You just say Big xxx and Little xxx if aunt and niece or granny and granddaughter are both present.

I know of 2 brothers with the same name, John. One is known as Big John and the other as Little John.

When I hit the 3 months pg mark last year and started letting my friends know, one friend who's moved away and I hadn't known he was becoming a dad for the 2nd time had a DD and they gave her the same first name as I had chosen for a girl. I sent him a mock indignant message for nicking "my" name, especially as I'd had the name picked out since my teens (combination of GGM's name & my late sister's name). Well, DD was born this year and I stuck with my chosen name - as my friend currently lives about 100 miles away and, from what I've heard about their education choices, our DD's won't ever go to the same school, I'm keeping "my" name.

My parents lost a girl 2 years before I was born and my DM didn't want to use either of the names when she got pg again. However, when I was born, DM decided she really wanted to use the same middle name. Many years later, I then pointed out to DM that the name she changed only has 1 different letter and the letters jumbled up. I don't think it's weird, but then again it was DM's decision and she used the name, not someone else.

Sorry for your loss numbum.

Numbum my step sister did exactly that too. My little boy lived for 3 days. Apparently I was the one in the wrong for being upset.

I have a friend who was rather annoyed when her sil named her baby the exact name of her pfb, but they haven't really fallen out about it although they aren't as close as they used to be.

numbum that was a really horrible thing your sil did. I'm really sorry for your loss.