Upset about critiscm of unborn child name.

[patronsaintofglocks]

To cut a long story short,

I am pregnant with my first child and DP and I have chosen two names.

For a girl: Noah
(I understand that many people prefer the spelling Noa for a female but we don't.)

For a boy: Ezra

I am sick and tired of my family telling us to change our minds/names. It's getting me down and making me second guess myself.

Does anyone have any advice?

Soul, I think those are chiefly seen as posh names, boy or girl!

I still don't see the issue - lots of boys and girls are called names like Alex, Sam, Charlie, Tony,Jackie etc and no-one bats an eyelid.

Surely Noa/h is in the same camp? It is a legitimat girls name as Noa and unless the kids spell out her name how are they going to know about the 'h' ?

Lot's of very conservative attitudes on here. And yet we all bang on about gender neutrality - not applicable to names it seems!

My dd is almost 12 and has never encountered anything negative about her name. It is from another country so people here would not readily know if it was a boy or girl name.

In fact I have found throughout her childhood it was the kids who just accepted her name at face value and often the parents who questioned it or pointed out that it was unusual ime

Lot's of very conservative attitudes on here. And yet we all bang on about gender neutrality - not applicable to names it seems!

Or maybe lots of 'why give your kid a name that's going to be a bit of a headache' type attitudes. No one wants to have a whole conversation about their name every time they're introduced to a new person.

'Oh you're called James. That's unusual on a woman!'
'Well yes. You see my parents......................'

^^ that would get dull after the 1000th time.

I have a friend named Peta and she gets mail addressed to Mr Peter and people always mistake her for a man when making appointments and reservations . Her name is obviously a different spelling but the pronunciation is often the same . It is very tiresome . Sometimes she just uses a name like Jane .
99.9 % of people will think a female Noah is a man .

Why do you care what other people think OP? Names develop, morph, go in and out of fashion. You like the names you've chosen - that's enough.

I adore Noah for a girl!

When I had my DC2 my mum blew up my phone complaining about the name when I was just home from the hospital! and still goes on about it.
But we love it so she can pee off

Is the OP coming back?

But my point is no one would say:

Oh your name is Alex and you're a girl / boy - they just get on with it..

Why should that be any different if the OP said 'my name is Noa.. when it is a GIRL'S name....because they won't know at that stage that it is spelled in the 'boys' way...

Is Noa pronounced differently to Noah? And if not, why would you expect the WHY HOW UNUSUAL ARE YOU A MAN IF NOT HOW DID YOU GET A MAN'S NAME conversation when this girl introduced herself?

I deal with people all over the world for my job, usually by email and phone. I often don't know if a name is usually used for men or for women. Sometimes there's a clue (a title), sometimes there isn't. I cope.

Because this is more than likely what will happen.

I never saw that. There was a boy who got bullied because his surname was Carling and he was overweight (Carling Fat Label) and a girl whose name was Ann Latty which sounded a bit like "unlucky" meaning no-one could call hr name without half the class screeching "Aaannluhhh-eeee!" straight after.

But the actual unusual names - Dorinda, Sable, a boy called Dare - never got any flack for it as far as I know.

And hi classmates of '93 if you're reading!

It's a bad idea to tell people what your name choices are, OP 😀

(For what it's worth, and I know that it isn't what you asked, I think both of your names are lovely).

So then the obvious solution is for the OP to use the name Noa. It'll still involve a lot of

'oh I thought that was a boy's name'
'Noa is actually a Hebrew girls name'

And that might be very tiresome also but at least she won't have one of the most currently popular boys' names in spelling too!

If you like it then who gives a shit? It's your choice, not theirs. For the record I love the name Noah and Ezra is one of my all-time favourites for boys.
Would have called DS2 that but my partner hated it (and now that the singer George Ezra is popular and we already had a George at that point perhaps best thing that we didn't!)

But Noah can be a girl or a boy?
Like Billie or Sam or Alex??

No different

Would little Clara get used to it though?

He migth have to develop a thick skin!

But we're not talking anything so extreme as giving a boy a feminine name. That's still very disapproved of, mainly because anything feminine tends to be valued less than anything masculine.

But girls can get away with almost any name (maybe not ancient male names like Roger and Bert but almost anything else). An actress called Blake just named her daughter James. The DM had to squawk about it of course but they are twats...

And if not, why would you expect the WHY HOW UNUSUAL ARE YOU A MAN IF NOT HOW DID YOU GET A MAN'S NAME conversation when this girl introduced herself?

Because in real life that happens! I know a woman called Shane, she gets that type of chat a lot.

I like Noah for a girl, although I'd spell it noa. I'm not sure of Ezra though , I keep thinking of George the singer,,,😂

Jewish here. Heard of Noa for a girl but not Noah. Like it or not you are going to get ,or rather she is going to get, hassle for that name. Plenty of other strong Biblical names for girls that don't bring that hassle.

I know a woman called Shane, too, Bunty, so unless we know the same woman, it can't be that unusual.

I can't say too much, as our DS name is unique, but I'm pumping good vibes your way, as I totally sympathise after the shitstorm we caused ...

Bunty if someone you didn't know introduced themselves as Noah (or any name unusual to you' would you actually say to them 'oh I thought that was a boys name? I would consider that pretty rude tbh. I meet a lot of people with names unfamiliar to me through my work but I would not comment on them when introduced

Because there are no blunt or rude people in the world?!

They're everywhere!

I know a woman called Bert (short for Roberta) She wasn't traumatised..

While I think its up to the parents obviously, I do wonder if parents who give their kids unusual names actually think about what they are saddling their poor kid with.

its all very well saying "well we like it so nerr" but I would consider whether your girl will like having a typically boys name for the rest of her life (unless she changes it of course, I would!). Not to mention the surprised "Noah? Is that spelt the same as the boys name?" question....