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?

The name Noa is lovely but I really would stick with the spelling that's most common for girls in the English-speaking world (that is, without the H at the end).

You may prefer it, but if you have a daughter she is likely to find it awkward and embarrassing, especially at school. The name Noah is one of the most popular names for boys at the moment, so there are likely to be plenty of little male Noahs around in her class.

Noa is also in more common use in Israel...

Hello All,

Noah is a female name too. Just because of one famous Noah does not make it a male name.

I like the names you have.

Well it's not really; it's more like calling a girl Robin.

In the UK I think Noah for a girl is more at the David end of the naming scale than the Robin end. Robin for a girl wouldn't raise any eyebrows.

This is why we won't tell anyone the names we are considering until the baby is here and we announce that it is their name. People are much more free with their opinions to your face about choices of names and the actual name your child has.

I wouldn't call a girl Noah though.

But Ezra is a fabulous name.

And Noa is great too, with the more commonly used feminine spelling.

Noah is a big distinguished name and the biblical story is well known so your child may get fed up with it.
Perhaps use it as a middle name?

It's a nice name OP but I can't help but remember one of the first songs we learnt at primary school. Will she spend her formative years having "Who built the ark?" sang at her?

I would find it hard to keep quiet if somebody told me they were going to give their girl a boy's name. And Noah is a boy's name. She will spend her life having to correct people.

I love the Noa spelling, it is a lovely name. Why not go with this. There are lots of Noah's around (probably mostly boys) so it has been popularised ... go with Noa.
Ezra - lovely name too.

When cultures meet, seems to me that you'll often have names that seem odd.

Recently, on the QI program, Sandi Toksfig (strange name, cant be arsed to look up proper spelling) was mocking the name 'Non'. The name is an old Welsh name - Non was the name of St.David's mother.

Noah sounds quite feminine to me so I'm not too taken aback, but I'd leave off the 'h' at the end. Like just Noa

tbh when you're naming your first child I think it's easy to get caught up in thinking like it's the opportunity to show YOUR own creativity, your own take on gender, nature, fashion, style, family dynamics, history, future......... I felt the weight of all of these considerations on my shoulders when I wanted to name my first child! My x wanted to call her Anna or Jane. Boy I hate to admit it but now I think he was right! She has a name which is simple but kind of rare, only because everybody nowadays is so busy using the birth of their first child to show the world how they interpret the world :-p

It is like calling a girl David.

Well it's not really; it's more like calling a girl Robin.

Actually Robin suits a girl more than a boy!!! Noah doesn't suit a girl much sorry. It is more like calling her Sydney. A few girls have the name, but it's a boy's name, and most people called Sydney are male.

In the UK I think Noah for a girl is more at the David end of the naming scale than the Robin end.

Ah fair enough. You can't move for Noas where I live (on the Continent).

• mother

Maybe it is a good thing you said the names to your family because whist Ezra will just come down to taste, Noah clearly has other issues that have now shown you it could be problematic.
Janeofalltrades-we know it was used in the bible for a female but it is not a name that anyone would use for a female today in the same way that Hillary for a boy is no longer seen as OK.

I met a lady called Gabriel. Not Gabriella, but as in the angel Gabriel. I think it's lovely, and she's very proud of her name, but does get annoyed because people often get it wrong/assume she's male.

Personally, as someone who has had to live with a very unusual name all my life (although I love it), think twice before you give a DC a name they'll have to explain for the rest of their lives.

We had this over us loving the name Jenna.

Eventually told all my family we were going for Davina and it shut them up after I said "get used to it" I grew to love the name but baby was a boy!

You might find this tool useful; it uses baby name statistics from the ONS to show the popularity of names (by gender) over the years.

Almost no girls called Noah, but over 4,000 boys called Noah last year!

66 girls were named Noa last year, so it's the more common spelling although still relatively unusual as a name here. Very pretty though, and a lovely origin.

Sorry, forgot to paste the link! names.darkgreener.com/

What do you want advice on?

Why you are receiving negative comments from people or how to deal with the negative comments?

I never understand why people get upset by criticism.
Either get used to it, or don't do things that cause criticism if you don't like it.
I wouldn't have called my dd Noah.
It's a boys name, or considered as one and she'd have had the piss ripped out of her at school.
You either get used to the piss taking or change your name.

Wow, I am amazed at the near universal hatred for Noah. I think it is a beautiful name, and I knew it could be used for a girl.

I personally don't like names with z in them, so not that big a fan of Ezra, but hey ho.

Go with the names that you like and never ask anybody for their opinion! Just telling them "this is our daughter Noah" once she is there is enough.

Ezra's fine.

Noah for a girl isn't, not here anyway. Sorry. It's not yourselves you are saddling with the lifelong consequences (surprise when she turns out to be a girl, people saying 'Isn't that a boy's name?', etc.), but her.

Surely there are plenty of lovely culturally acceptable and feminine or unisex names you could call her?

ps i know the Americans have taken Findlay / Finley to be a girl's name now because it sounds soft. I get that. But unlike Noah, Finn is not a name with such a patriarchal vibe. I vote to reclaim the strength of the feminine. I know I don't get a vote. On the one hand I like the idea of shaking up the idea of gender norms. eg, I quite like Enda (Irish name) because it ends in a. Less ecclesiastical than Ezra too.