to change my DDs Christian name this late in the day??

[AllAboutFace]

I think I already know the answer to this but here we go....

DD is 6 months old. She is not Christened, but obviously has a Birth Certificate in her name as it now. I hate her Christian name, I won't mention it as it would be too obvious to anyone in real life who saw it, who I am.

It's not a very common name. When she was born DP and I hadn't agreed on any names! I was happy to leave it a week or two, but DP and families were pressuring me to give her a name. Although DP disagreed with most of my suggestions. The only one he liked was her current name. I agreed, honestly, for a quiet life - I felt a bit shell shocked after a difficult birth. She is our first.

I know I could have changed it when I had to register her. But again, at that time, didn't have the strength to argue, I had PND and was pressuring myself to be ready to get back to work (I still haven't gone back yet by the way!), and was having a hideous time with DP and his pushy parents. I did bring it up, but DP refused point blank - his main reason being that his aunt had embroidered her name onto a towel she had sent as a gift!! Aarrrgh. He also assumed that it must be my PND.

DP, DD and I are all back on track now, but I still don't like her name. There are couple of others DP agrees are lovely and we could change it to (he's calmed down a bit too). I do feel stupid though, just socially. I know my family would support the decision to change her name, but DPs won't. And I worry what friends would think..... Am I being unreasonable? I really don't know anymore!!

Definitley change it. You will never be happy if you don't.

REally want to know the original name.

Eleanor is lovely.

Im dying to know her name though. Come on. We wont laugh. Promise.

Change it - Nell is a lovley name.

Pleeeease tell us the original name

Another vote for Eleanor (great-grandmother, grandmother and DD - truly timeless.)

and the name is.....

lucky1979 - yes that was me! Before my PND diagnosis, and trying to juggle a few days back at work (as I said, I didn't end up staying, took them as KIT days and took rest of maternity leave!) MIL still as hideous as ever

Oh goodness - I hope no one knows me on here. Disclaimer: It's probably not as bad as I made it out to be - but it is in my mind - wince a bit when I say it. If you have a child with this name, I'm sure it was the right choice for you! I however am less than impressed with it for my daughter: Kitty.

Yes, yes it is cute in a way. Er, but I don't like cats. I also don't want to call her a longer version of the name, i.e Katherine etc. It seems a bit twee, and certainly not as her name on the birth certificate. Very .........Again apologies to anyone with the name....

Oh and the alliteration with her last name beggining with K. Yuk!

Reality - yeah I do think it's sweet - but I sort of worry about passports etc - can't imagine that it's as timeless as some other classics! Definitely not with a KK. What were we thinking

Oh God I'm a bad mother!
Right, Nell it is. From now. I'll get round to changing the certificate ASAP, but she can be called her new name from today (I've been trying it out this week already!)

it's the hormones, if not the hormones you can usually find a man to blame these things on. Kitty is ok in itself but if you don't like it, you don't.

I nearly called dd Allegra (fgs) but dh stepped in and would not be budged. Now I think, thank goodness for that. Imagine if she'd been leggi?! I don't know now what I was thinking of either. He wanted Svetlana but I wasn't having that either. If either one of us had been a bit weak, I think we'd be regretting it now. As it was neither of us could make up our minds and she was nameless for 3 weeks.

Whhen I read the thread title I thought no. But then I read the post. D?efinately change it. ealanor is gorgeous. Keep the other one as a middle name if you feel the need to placate pepople. or even add ealanor as middle name and just call her that. I know tionnes of people called only their middle name.

YANBU

Eleanor is a lovely name.

wow so many people like that name

chuffed!

You'll ruminate on it for years if you don't change it...

My Gran finally got around to asking my dad how to change names when she was in her 80s and he in his 50s. Lots of teasing that she was a bit old to change her name at this stage - but turned out she wanted to change my Dad's name . Apparently her elder sis had bullied her into using the name of her late husband as my dad's middle name, which she didn't really like but the sis was very bossy and you ended up falling into line.

Had taken her 80+ years and big sis getting very ill for her [my gran] to actually think she could change it to what she wanted!

Took more than a little talking for my dad to persuade my gran that he really didn't want to change his name at that stage in his life, and that he was of such an age that he was allowed to make the choice, she couldn't any more (I'm sure she still thought that she could have gone and changed it if she wanted as she was his mother!)

So change it - you don't want to sit and fester on the name for decades just because of a towel! So what if IL don't like the name or the fact it is changing. Not their baby, they've had their go and now it is yours. Will be a great story to recount at the wedding

Slight sidetrack but this has just reminded me. I always liked my dad's best bit of parenting advice which he said had been passed on to him - to remember that only the first 51 years are the worst

change it before her first birthday, and you can get a new birth certificate. leavve it till after, and it will need to be done by deed poll

Love the name Eleanor. ds1 was going to be "Eleanor". He wasn't, for fairly obvious reasons and neither was ds2. But it is a lovely, changeless, sort of name.

AllAboutFace - sorry your MIL is still hideous but you seem to be a lot stronger and positive which is fantastic. :D

Kitty is OK, but Nell is much nicer I think. You can tell her stories about Eleanor of Aquitaine as well (history geek). If we hadn't already had a good friend called Eleanor we might have gone for that - DD ended up being Eloise instead.

OK, meant to reply to this yesterday.

Was wholly sympathetic, (and still am, to an extent) .

Until I heard about your dd's "horrendous" name.

My gorgeous dd's name is Kitty. I love her name.
My dh loves her name.
Everyone who loves her, and even some who don't, love her name.

Eleanor is an excellent name.
It is my niece's name.

But it is not a "better" name.

IMO.

my parents changed my name when i was 4 months old. Has never caused me any bother (although my NI card has got my original name on it...). Do it, can't see that it's an issue really.