CONFUSED - Hannah or no Hannah???

[Christmasbelle]

Hi Ladies. My DD is 15 weeks old and we are in the process of officially changing her name and sending the written documentation back to the registry office. She has been known as her new name for about 6 weeks now but I am still uncertain to whether I should include her old first name as a middle name, as she already had a double-barelled middle name to begin with (so in total it would make her new name on paper have 3 middle names in total). I know this would be long but feel a little unsettled about dropping the old first name, and the existing double barelled middle name honours a family member. What I was wondering was, would my daughter have to write all the middle names when filling out forms, official documents etc or could she drop one of the names if she chose to do so. I am just weighing up the possible implications of giving her a long name. The name is similar to:

Isobel Phillipa-Rose Smith (Remove the old name Hannah)

or

Isobel Phillipa-Rose Hannah Smith (With the old name)

Thanks for your help

Aesthetically I prefer the first one, but I think if it's important for you to have her name in there then do it.

Agree with Helena.

If you must put Hannah in (lovely name, btw, I have a Hannah!) do

Isobel Hannah Phillipa-Rose Smith

I think it flows better.

Christmas please tell us what you've changed DD's name to, I'm dying to know

One day DD will know you changed her name and if I found out my name had been changed I think I'd feel odd about it being totally obliterated. IMHO Isobel Hannah Phillipa-Rose Smith Isobel is much nicer than Phillipa-Rose Hannah Smith. Is the hyphenation absolutely necessary? 'tis much nicer without.

The original name being totally obliterated, I mean.

I don't think it matters very much really, and would choose whichever you like the best. As for forms, my sister has dropped her second middle name (it was a bit outlandish) and only has to use it for ultra official stuff, so when she got married for example. Lots of the slightly less official stuff (bills, banks, credit cards etc) just ask for a single initial, and many electronic forms will not cope with the hyphenation in any case, so at that point she will probably have to choose to use one middle name or none.

Thanks ladies.

Jilted - I have changed her first name to Annabel. It was a name I loved from the start and not really sure why I didn't use it to begin with (although her old name is beautiful too but I just felt it wasn't right for her).

Nooka - thanks, that is interesting to know. I think I feel that I should keep the original name in there because it was her name for a number of weeks and she has some cards etc with it on. A part of me feels that it should be her decision now if she didn't want to use it in future, as I do agree with Helena that it does flow better without it. Ideally, I like the fact that it is still on her birth certificate but don't want her to have the burden of having to put all three names regularly on written forms.

I love the name Annabel. I think you should include the old name. I just think it should be in there as a middle name. Like you say, cards etc also are addressed to hannah so it ties the two names together more, you didn't get rid of it totally- you just moved it to a middle name. Lots of people have 2 or 3 middle names.

Thanks jellybeans. Glad you like the new name . Just to let you know, the old name wasn't Hannah I just changed it for this thread. I realise that Annabel and Hannah in the same name would be too much! For me, the old name had a similar feel to the name Hannah. Maybe 3 middle names wont cause her too many problems

Christmas, Annabel is lovely