Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be angry over a name

263 replies

Barbie46 · 22/01/2023 19:55

My baby is 6 months old and we named her a very uncommon name that was special to us. Recently we met an old friend of my husband's, they are still in the same circle but not close friends anymore. He asked us the usual questions about a new baby including her name. He and his partner had a baby in the last few days and called their baby our daughters name.
He did not mention anything about her name when we told them it and I am feeling irrationally angry that they have used our daughters name.

OP posts:
Adviceneeded200 · 22/01/2023 21:49

If it makes you feel any better your daughter will always be the older so the world will know she was the first Balonzo or whatever it is.

It seems more that you enjoy the attention of a "different " name and have had the wind blown out of your sails than the fact there's a duplicate around.

DuplicateUserName · 22/01/2023 21:52

I am feeling irrationally angry that they have used our daughters name.

Oh well, at least you realise you're being irrational.

More than one person has the same name. It's hardly a shocker.

SerafinasGoose · 22/01/2023 21:53

Twilight has some really unfortunate portmanteaued names, especially Katniss and Peeta, who shit out whichever way you cut it. Katpee or Peeniss? Suzanne Collins has to have done that on purpose!

Valerie and Gina is inspired! But given my Mum was Jacqueline and my MiL Susie, Jacsie doesn't sound much better!

KeepingTheWaterOut · 22/01/2023 21:55

Your wee girl has a name with a special meaning and theirs doesn't.

I know an elderly Ismay, whose name was a combination of her two grandmothers. I've always liked Ismay, and I like Renlea too.

I suggested to DS and DIL that if they have a son they could name him a combination of my name and DIL's mother's name - Harriet and Alison = Harrison. They just sighed and rolled their eyes.

GoodChat · 22/01/2023 22:01

SerafinasGoose · 22/01/2023 21:53

Twilight has some really unfortunate portmanteaued names, especially Katniss and Peeta, who shit out whichever way you cut it. Katpee or Peeniss? Suzanne Collins has to have done that on purpose!

Valerie and Gina is inspired! But given my Mum was Jacqueline and my MiL Susie, Jacsie doesn't sound much better!

Katniss and Peeta are The Hunger Games

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 22/01/2023 22:07

I sort of know what you mean.

My name was v uncommon when I was growing up (slightly more used now - not very but you wouldn’t now think of it as a “foreign” name now, whereas you would at the time)

Someone my Mum knew called her Dd the same, and she was in my class at primary and secondary school. Plus they had the same second initial. Quite annoying to be one of two in the class when you name is actually really unusual!

No one else in either school called it.

NicLondon1 · 22/01/2023 22:08

Well I think that is really weird that they’ve copied that particular name, being in the same friendship circle, and I’ve have to say something… “Oh, what inspired that name for you? Our grandmothers were called Renee and Leanne” 😂

SerafinasGoose · 22/01/2023 22:10

Katniss and Peeta are The Hunger Games.

Good point, thanks!

Both those series were so equally bad - and equally omnipresent for a good few years each - that it's sometimes easy to confuse the two.

Whilst at a push Twilight takes the biscuit for the most dire, it has to be said Suzanne Collins' character-naming capacity is more than usually dreadful. Clove and Cinna - did she just stand in front of a spice rack and jot down the first names that jumped out at her?

MumofSpud · 22/01/2023 22:12

My new name is Viobeth or Elizalet

My DC are Leggy or Pucy Grin

AliceOlive · 22/01/2023 22:14

Both of my grandmothers were Mary. Does that make me MaryMary or MarMar?

Regularsizedrudy · 22/01/2023 22:17

My mate has a dog called Renly

SequinsandStilettos · 22/01/2023 22:18

Tiaamii
I was about to say OP's name is exactly like that!
Weird of them. It isn't a name, it's a portmanteau.
Unless they have double-barrelled it as
Wren-Lee

Nowt strange as folk.
Renlea is also an app for reading and learning.

SerafinasGoose · 22/01/2023 22:19

AliceOlive · 22/01/2023 22:14

Both of my grandmothers were Mary. Does that make me MaryMary or MarMar?

Depends. Are you contrary, or do people either love you or hate you ...

I'll get me coat.

viques · 22/01/2023 22:21

Barbie46 · 22/01/2023 20:55

It's pronounced ren-leah. Grannies Renee and Leanne. But hey-ho !

Show quote history

Renee and Leanne? You missed a trick OP you could have called her Eneenne. That’s truly unique. Possibly.

HedgeWench · 22/01/2023 22:25

And Robert Baratheon's illegitimate son.

RoseHansBolo · 22/01/2023 22:25

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

fdgdfgdfgdfg · 22/01/2023 22:27

My Mums sister named her kids Cliff, Norm and Diane (not real names obviously, can you tell I've been watching Cheers)

My Mums friend also had 3 kids, all coincidentally born about six months later than my cousins.

Sister and friend never met each other, only knew of each other through my Mum

Child 1 was named, Cliff, then child 2 got named Norm, child 3 turned out to be a girl, Diane was mooted, and when my Aunt found out, she was ready to drive the 200 miles with murder in mind. (She got named something else in the end)

3 siblings with the same name, maybe you'd be justified, but one kid with the same name as yours, I think you're going a bit ballistic over nothing

Floralnomad · 22/01/2023 22:31

If it’s so important to you to be unique change your babys name to Neelea .

AliceOlive · 22/01/2023 22:32

Barbie46 · 22/01/2023 20:57

In a room full of mutual friends, "oh did you hear x and x had their baby and called her Renlea too ?"

Show quote history

How did you respond?

How weird to take such a personal name and use it!

alchemies · 22/01/2023 22:33

Jenasaurus · 22/01/2023 21:07

Just been working out what my 3 would be called.

DS 1 - So combo of Oliver and Fred = Olifred
DS 2 - Comb of Robert and John = robjoh
DD 1 - Combo of Amy and Nellie = Amynel

Quite like Olifred. almost sounds like a real name

Now my own DC have to name their first born Jenrow if a girl or Davhar if a boy

*Just been working out what my 3 would be called.

DS 1 - So combo of Oliver and Fred = Olifred
DS 2 - Comb of Robert and John = robjoh
DD 1 - Combo of Amy and Nellie = Amynel

Quite like Olifred. almost sounds like a real name

Now my own DC have to name their first born Jenrow if a girl or Davhar if a boy*

2 would be Jobert or Rohn/Ron

DD would be Namy

Neededanewuserhandle · 22/01/2023 22:35

MichelleScarn · 22/01/2023 19:58

Is it Balonz?

No it's 19383537273474537%%%%%7

StalkedByASpider · 22/01/2023 22:36

AliceOlive · 22/01/2023 22:14

Both of my grandmothers were Mary. Does that make me MaryMary or MarMar?

You could always take one half of the name from one, and the other half from the other.

Grandma 1 - Ma
Grandma 2 - ry

Result = Mary

Oh. Wait....

Reugny · 22/01/2023 22:36

AliceOlive · 22/01/2023 22:14

Both of my grandmothers were Mary. Does that make me MaryMary or MarMar?

MaryMary

"Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance
I just want to praise you..."

(Sorry!)

iLovee · 22/01/2023 22:37

@HedgeWench Renley is his younger brother! But I also thought of Game of Thrones 😂

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 22/01/2023 22:37

I can't get it out of my head hearing Scooby-Doo tell you where he went to the regatta.

This (kind of) reminds me of the old thread about the woman who called her baby Farah and was furious to hear another woman in the local shop had called her baby the same, as she (the first mum) was convinced that she'd invented it.