To call my DS the same as my neighbours?

[runninginheelsisnotfun]

We very recently moved house into a new build Estate and I am due DS2 any day now and have settled on a name.

The name isn't common and it took us ages to choose it. I have just met my next door neighbour who's DS1 is 8 weeks old and is called the same name!!!

I didn't know how to react as we were not telling anyone our name until he is here but now I'm worried they will think we copied them because it's quite rare. Not only that but this is a small village and the boys will be in the same class all through school. The whole point of us choosing an uncommon name was so our little guy would be relatively unique.

WIBU to go ahead with the name regardless? We have nothing else in reserve but I feel the wind has just been knocked out my sails.

This happened to my DB and SIL and they were absolutely furious!!
They bought their house and found out they were expecting and so we their new neighbours. My SIL gave birth and named their DC a traditional Welsh name and then a month later the neighbors had their DC and named their DC the same!
I think my DB is still angry about it now 9 years later. But then he is very easily offended and cares very much about what other people think! More worried that people will think he's the one who copied etc 🙄

Just move house!

If your train for choosing the name was too be fairly unique, then surely you now want to change it anyway? It's hardly going to be unique if they're going to be the same age, from the same street, in the same class etc etc?

Id be wary of choosing a name in the hope of it not being overly popular. Both my DC have names that weren't popular at all in the years before they were born. Both are now very popular names, mainly because celebs named their child the same name (both times after mine were named, clearly I'm a trendsetter! )

Choose a different name. It will irritate you forever, especially if they become best mates.

I toyed with an unusual name for DD1. In the end I went for something which was lovely but no-one wanted at the time due to negative connotations (Madeleine).

The name we initially considered ended up being mega popular and we now know 5 girls with variations of the same name all around the same age. Take this as a sign that your name may not be that unusual.

Someone in work named their baby Betty, she's 3 weeks old.

What's with the granny/grandad names these days.

We actually really love the name and out of the rest we kinda like it doesn't come close. I've been racking my brains all day and just can't think of anything I like more.

I'm already overdue and pretty much going to need to make a decision in the next few days when DS gets here. We picked it about 4 months ago.

Doubt either of us will be moving any time soon, the houses are only built a few weeks.

We were/are going to call him Struan which has strong connections to DH family history, there were 54 born in Scotland last year and it's 113th on the list of babies born so well outside the top 10. We love it, it's a little bit different but not to much, it's historically linked to my DH and we chose it ages ago. Just a bit shit someone next door has the same idea.

I can just imagine shouting him in for dinner when he is older and the neighbours kid rocking up or someone asking where Struan is and being met with 'which one' .

Screw it, I'm just going to have to get them to move

Ds2 has a very unusual name - one only 8 children a year are given in the UK. There were 2 of them in his class in Y4. These things happen

Your baby will be unique because he's yours. Just choose a name you love.

Sorry, 2 including him, 2 altogether. 3 would just have been weird.

It's kinda rubbish when you are one of many and have to be referred to by first and surnames or by a definition like tall Dave or Dave with the curly hair

And that is what will happen if you stick with Struan. It'll be "Struan with the curly hair " Or "Stuan One and Struan Two" since you've said they'll go through school together.

Back to the drawing board with you ! .

@Myheartbelongsto

I think it is something to do with the recent centenaries of the start and end of the First World War. I doubt it has been conscious; most parents won't have thought "I'm going to call my son Albert because it's a hundred years since WWI".

But that era has kind of been swirling around in the collective cultural subconscious and effectively made names synonymous with it cool again. And then an acceleration effect happens in the hive mind whereby certain names are heard more and more often so more people hear them and choose them for their own children and so they become a trend.

Choose another name. It won't be unique to you and people will invariably think you've copied your neighbours

Yeah sorry I've just seen what the name is. You can't call your baby Struan when there's a Struan next door the same age.

If my new neighbour did that I'd think they were batshit and single-white-femaling me

Your reasons for choosing Struan are good reasons but your neighbours are definitely going to think you pinched it from them unless you have a conversation about it before ds is born.

I'm sorry but my mind immediately leapt to Strewth!

I considered that. But then I thought "Number Three" was a bit of a mouthful.

To be honest I don't think Struan is that uncommon. I know 5 Struans ranging in age from 6 to around 23. I live in a fairly small town and these are only the ones that I personally know
I would choose something else. It will always look like you copied it.

It's a tough one OP . When we picked our youngest DC's name we didn't know anyone else locally with the same name as it isn't in the top 100 or that common .Fast forward 11 yrs nearly and there is another child in our small village primary with the same name and since heard of another child with the exact first and middle name which we thought was an uncommon combination so it does happen just one those things but i do get you are gutted especially when you have set your heart on a name.

Is the name Farah?

Well you can tell everyone that you had already picked the name but no one will believe you despite what they say to your face.

Find another name.

I'm sorry but my mind immediately leapt to Strewth!

Mine too. I've never heard of the name before.

Well it's not really unusual if there are at least two in the same class. You'll have to use it as a mn to reference your DH's family.

Corey
Conall
Donal
Ewan
Fyfe
Gregor
Innes
Keir
Lachlan
Ludo(vic)
Malcolm
Maxwell
Monroe
Nicol
Ramsey
Ranald
Sinclair

What about choosing a name with the "an" sound at the end - so, like Struan, but not...

Caelan
Euan
Lachlan
Roban

If it was me I would go back to the drawing board

Yeh sorry i think you should change name. It would make you look like crazy neighbors to ‘copy’ their name. As they’re likely going to the same school this will follow you round!

Iain. There aren't many baby Iains these days.

Back to the drawing board.

It will become a PITA for them to become known as Struan A and B or as they reach high school become known by their surnames. You could use it as a middle name if you really want to.

How about Stuart / Stewart not many baby Stuart's about!