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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not understand babies looking like their name

59 replies

WaitingForMe · 09/06/2014 21:12

We chose DS's name when I was pregnant. I loved it and hope he'd look like it. When he was born, DH beamed and said he looked just like a "DS name" and I just went along with it.

He just looked like a squashed up baby. I loved him dearly immediately but never felt he looked like his name. I still love his name and it definitely suits him now but ages, in my heart, he was squashed up baby.

Please tell me it wasn't just me Confused

OP posts:
bigbuttons · 09/06/2014 21:15

I named all my babies before they were born. They grow into their names imo.

IneedAwittierNickname · 09/06/2014 21:21

I didn't get it either. With ds1 we had a 1st choice name,with a couple of spares just in case. We looked at him, looked at eachother agreed he looked like 1st choice name and gave him it. Tbh, he would have suited many names although 10 years later nothing else would suit him.

Then I had ds2. We had a few names, nothing 1st.choice though. But as soon as he was born another name, that hadn't made the short list was his. Honestly, nothnf else would have suited him!

SantanaLopez · 09/06/2014 21:22

No, we had names all picked out for DD and then she just.... wasn't X, she was Y. I don't know why or how- but YABU :)

SisterMoonshine · 09/06/2014 21:24

I don't quite understand how, but we had a small short list when I went in to have DD: Daisy and 2 or 3 others. I really thought she was going to be Daisy out of those.
At first sight I knew she wasn't a Daisy.

EatDessertFirst · 09/06/2014 21:25

DD was "xxxx" when I was pregnant. As soon as we saw her, she looked like 'yyyyyyy', one of our back-up names. Can't explain how!

DS, on the other hand, looked exactly as he should have.

YABU, but in the nicest possible way. I do understand what you mean.

Messygirl · 09/06/2014 21:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

spookyskeleton · 09/06/2014 21:30

Nope, I have never understood it either. I had chosen both the DC's names whilst pregnant and it never occurred to me they wouldn't 'suit' them.

MrsWinnibago · 09/06/2014 21:30

I get it. My friend has a Grace and the baby is long, willowy and sort of graceful. If she was a rotund and rosy thing then I'd think...hmm...

My DD looks like her name too.

meditrina · 09/06/2014 21:33

I don't get it. Babies (of both sexes) invariably look like William Hague, Winston Churchill or mybe Ross Kemp.

(Are there parallels for non-Caucasian babies, btw?)

PrincessBabyCat · 09/06/2014 21:34

Hmm... I never thought about whether DD looked like her name or not. I guess she does. We named her before she was born and when she came out that was her name with no other thinking about it. :)

hallamoo · 09/06/2014 21:38

I don't get it either. All my DC were named before they were born (although we didn't tell anyone their names until they were born).

A baby doesn't look the same after 2 weeks, let alone 20, 40 years, how can you discount a name because their newborn face doesn't look like a xxxx name?

Babies change so quickly.

Andrewofgg · 09/06/2014 21:41

It's a curious thought that most of us have a shadow-name - the name our DPs had chosen for the gender they did not get. I was to have been Beatrice Claire and I have to say I think I got lucky.

If you don't know what your shadow-name was and you have a parent living - ask, you may get a shock!

SisterMoonshine · 09/06/2014 21:44

I guess my shadow name would be my younger brother's name then.

QuarterCracked · 09/06/2014 21:45

shadow names, interesting idea. If my girl had been a boy she'd have been reuben and if my boy had been a girl he'd have been lydia. Lydia and Reuben sound quite like brother and sister. Now you've made me feel I have shadow children out there! Damn you, i have enough children ! Wine

Andrewofgg · 09/06/2014 21:45

It might be, but between you and him they may have found a male name they liked more than the one they had chosen for you. My elder sister is not called Beatrice and her shadow name was not Andrew.

Andrewofgg · 09/06/2014 21:46

Sorry Quartercracked and Wine to you too!

LRDtheFeministDragon · 09/06/2014 21:47

Is it not just people looking at their baby and suddenly realizing which name they prefer? They don't literally mean 'he doesn't look like a Tarquin,' they mean 'now he's here I can't imagine calling him Tarquin so it'll be Nero'.

spookyskeleton · 09/06/2014 21:48

sister not necessarily. DS1's shadow name is not the same as DS2's shadow name as, in the 2 years between their births, I had a new favourite girls name.

As it is, I will never use either of them Grin

bouncinbean · 09/06/2014 21:49

sistermoonshine - we had a few choices and my favourite was Elizabeth - but when she was born we just knew that she was Daisy (we liked the name but I thought it would be too 'cute') and of course now I couldn't imagine her being anything other than a Daisy!

ShadowFall · 09/06/2014 21:50

QuarterCracked - The shadow name wouldn't necessarily be your younger brother's name.

My mum told me that if I'd been a boy, I would have been named xxxx xxxxx. My younger brother is named yyy yyyy. A totally different (and IMO much better) name.

MissBetseyTrotwood · 09/06/2014 21:50

You forgot Orson Welles meditrina . Grin

DS1 looked like his. 2 was planned something else but didn't look like one at all so we reverted to plan B and it suits him.

beccajoh · 09/06/2014 21:50

My son was all set to be Freddie, but when he came out it just wasn't right. After a couple of weeks we decided he was an Archie. I've no idea why lol! We had two names lined up for my daughter and one name was right and one wasn't.

It wasn't that either of them 'looked' like a particular name, just that it felt right. I can't put my finger on why their names were right but others weren't!

SisterMoonshine · 09/06/2014 21:50

That's true. Not-Daisy's shadow name was probably Jack and I've since changed my mind about that.

Goldenbear · 09/06/2014 21:58

My MIL (to be) always says this and when her niece's 2nd baby was born she was insistent that he was not a 'Reuven'. DP's cousin had chosen the name because they're Jewish but she was married to a catholic and MIL said it didn't suit the baby. The name did actually get changed in the end.

I have to say my two babies really didn't look like wrinkled fat old men. Both were more imp like than that. My boy was quite pretty and my girl was born with a lot of black, thick hair so not bald in any sense. She was very nearly an Esther but looked more like an Alex when I first saw her- so we went with that.

BadgersNadgers · 09/06/2014 22:02

Of course babies look like their names:
Cliff - baby with a seagull on his head
Doug - baby with a spade on his head
Douglas - baby without a spade on his head

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