Unpleasant comments you have received when revealing baby name

[Polkadotfanatic]

My friend has just had a daughter (Monday morning, all new and pink and fresh and gorgeous). She has chosen Alice Elizabeth, (imo) a timeless classic name which wont age.

Her mother's comment:

''Oh. Playing it safe are you?''
''Well I suppose someone has to use the boring names so the braver people can use the nicer ones...''

I mean as comments go, it's not the nastiest, but the timing (Alice was about four hours old and friend was in blissed out baby loveness) wasn't great.

Just wondered what, if any negative comments you had when announcing baby name...

After a slightly traumatic delivery involving cord twice round the neck and a true knot in the cord, we were able to call our parents from the delivery room to give them the news. DH talks to his dad, telling him weight, time, name etc, then hands the phone to me expecting he'd like to congratulate me. FIL's actual words? "Wilfred? I don't know anyone under the age of 90 called Wilfred!" Given that I was lying in a pool of blood waiting to be stitched up at the time, I am quite pleased that I had the presence of mind to retort: "Well you do now!"

Wilfie is now 3, and I think FIL's got used to it. (Mind you he also took a while to come round to the idea that our first son Edward would be known as Teddy - for quite a while we got cards addressed to the bizarre compromise of 'Tedward' )

LMAO at 'Tedward'

I'm pregnant with DC2, due in the summer. Made the mistake of telling my dad that we're thinking of the name Joel for a boy. Dad was agast, said that he'll get teased and called Billy in school... after the singer Billy Joel I very much doubt it, music tastes have very much advanced since Billy Joel was last in the charts.

Hahah Tedward.

Needless - ignore your Dad! Billy Joel indeed.

My parents were equally twattish about our choice saying it sounded old-fashioned and didn't suit him. It made me very unhappy at the time... But in the long run this helped me realise I was now in charge, not them (overbearing parents).

To anyone expecting a baby and having problems with family/friends over names. YOUR BABY AND YOUR CHOICE. If others do not like the name it is their problem not yours. My daughter is expecting her first baby in June and I have made a concious effort not interfere or influence her in name choices. I had my fun choosing her name and now it is her turn to have the excitment of choosing her childs name. Whatever it is, it needs to be her choice and I will love my first grandchild whatever it is called. Enjoy your pregnancy and be happy and confident that you have chosen the right name for your child. After all you like it and that is the most important thing!

A relation asked 'where did you get that name from?' with ds2 (Oliver, so hardly unheard of, but apparently considered a bit posh by that side of the family).
When I was pregnant with ds2 I was chatting with friends about possible names, when one friend declared she didn't like one of the possibilities (Erin), but of course it was up to us. Obviously we didn't use it then but we now have a beautiful dd with the name Erin (a late contnder for her as she was going to be Ava or Alisha until a few days before she was born). My friend has never mentioned not likikng it since we had her, I do not know if she remembers saying it as it was 3 years before dd was born, but it makes me giggle inwardly when I see her!

I got nasty comments from my ex fil when I revealed my DS1 name,which is liam and he decided he was going to call him lee! When I told him well he wouldn't be seeing him then! He promptly shut up.... my sister is having a girl due in July, she has chosen the name Isla which I think is beautiful but when my niece was at school last week some of the girls in her class were saying mean things about the name which upset her. I can't see why people make comments about names because a name is chosen for personal reasons and is nobody else's business if people don't like the name get over it everyone has a name!!!!

Alice Elizabeth is lovely (my sis is Elizabeth so happily biased)

When I had ds1 and told my mum his name she was a bit po faced and said that's not a real name, nobody's called that. It's Noah so hardly unknown! Within a month she'd come across 7 little Noah's born after mine so had changed her tune to 'oh my dgs is already called that' :o

When bil told mum they were thinking of Gemma for their dd2 (as dsis still in hospital and he wanted her to tell mum officially) mum said thank god you haven't finalised the choice, that's a dog's name, why not choose poppy? Despite the fact we don't know any dogs called Gemma but her partner's dog was called Poppy dsis agonised for a couple of weeks as she really wanted Gemma but was worried about what mum thought.

Worst was my gran - in her 80s she asked my dad (in his 50s) how to change a name. He joked it was a bit late to change her name, to which she replied in all seriousness 'no I want to change your name, I've been thinking that I should never have given in to making me change your middle name, I want you to have the name I chose for you, not the one she chose.'. She really couldn't understand why ddad didn't want to suddenly change his name in his late 50s! :o

I think Alice Elizabeth is lovely.
My mother said 'you Can't call it that!' when told we were thinking of Robert for a boy. Luckily we then had another girl whom we named Lois. MIL then opines that these unusual names are sooo unfair on the child. She had never heard of the name Lois.

I can't believe anyone would be either so tactless or so cruel as to make negative comments when introducing the baby. I can see how people comment on name suggestions BEFORE the baby is born but once the baby is named I think is just rude and inconsiderate

Only a handful of people have said anything positive about my daughters name, with everyone else I've introduced her to it must just wash over them. Oh well!

I'm so glad you started this thread. We had 'Adele Katharine" picked out and my evil b*tch of a step-mother said... "Well, we'll cross our fingers that you don't call your baby that." It has put me back months. Still considering it, though.

Oh -- with my first, I was considering Genevieve and a friend said "that's a stripper's name". Needless to say, she's not Genevieve.

About DS's name Oscar: "Ugh! That's soooooo GERMANIC" (exP's mother). Mean, bitchy, and xenophobic in one fell swoop. Bravo.

Ooh good thread. Never had anyone criticise my DS names, but pretty straight forward, not unusal names (our choice). Although when we announced I was expecting , my FIL said "We'll have to start thinking of names", to which I replied "No, because we've already chosen". Let him know from the start that it was up to us not him.

I never realised until I became a mum just how much people think they know it all about kids and parenting and how they want to takeover have input. Busy-bodies.

We can call our kids whatever we like and having worked in schools, I have heard so many names that nothing suprises me anymore. I do know of teachers though that make assumptions on a child's behaviour etc, before even meeting the child, just based on the name :( (there was an article on this years ago).

On hearing that we had decided to call our DD Miriam, MIL said: "That's a bit Jewish, isn't it?"

I know this thread's slowing down (Alice Elizabeth is beautiful and lovely btw,) but had to add something my FIL said when we told him our potential DD's middle name.
'Hmm.. just makes me think of a little old lady pottering around smelling of wee.'
We changed it.

Great thread when we finally get pregnant if we have a boy it will be named after my partners dad, if it's a girl I've always loved the name Darcey, told this to a now ex close friend (not fell out for that reason!) and she goes 'that's a horrible name it reminds me of this Chav Iived near and she'd scream her name up the street'

Just so rude and insensitive! We can all call our children whatever we like!

Brilliant thread!! Have been wetting myself over people's responses!

Alice Elizabeth is gorgeous :)

Darcey just makes me think of the prima ballerina, it's a lovely name.

Would love to know what the wee smelling name was !

We didn't tell anyone ours choices until DD was born, everyone has said nice things about her name but my Mum said "good job she wasn't a boy then" when we said George Hugo had been our boys choice.

On OBEM the other week the chap rang his relation and said their baby was called Faith. The Relation must have said they didn't like it (or something along those lines) because the Dad then said "I don't give a fuck, that's her name". I thought this was a perfect response :)

Love the response on obem that's exactly what I'd say! I don't think there's anything wrong saying that's a bit unusual etc but when you get nasty comments from the start it's downright rude! x

Hi there, OP here and I thought I would update. Alice is absolutely gorgeous, just over a month old now and a wee dote. My friend has taken to motherhood like a trooper and is now able to laugh about her mother's initial reaction. For her part, her mother is totally in love with Alice and seems to have forgotten her comments. All remains calm in their family :)

On another note, my neice's birthday party this weekend had a gorgeous little 4yo Pandora - my mum ''well she's destined to have her teenage years being asked by boys to show them her box....''.

Oh dear.

Looks like I won't be safe from attack either....especially when I tell her my favourite girl's name is Poesie... lol

This has been an absolutely brilliant thread, thanks to all that replied.

My DS has what I consider to be a lovely though quite unusual name. After he was born my mil went to order me flowers from the local florist, who asked DS' name and when told, said oh my daughter is called that! She said that they knew it was a boy's name but loved and used it anyway. Wasn't too bothered but DS goes to High School next year and florist's daughter will be about three years above him - only other person with this name -everyone will prob expect my DS to be a girl! :(

P.S Alice Elizabeth is gorgeous. Alice was one of my girls name choices - along with Esme Elizabeth, which everyone I mentioned it to failed to have a response for, and I knew it didn't really go with surname but I did so love it..

Whilst I was still lying in hospital in that blissed out post-labour state my brother (always a total b+&$@&%) arrived to see me. When I told him the name we had chosen he said 'Rosie - that's a whore's name.' I don't have anything to do with him. Rosie is now 25.

We aren't revealing the name of our wriggly bum till he's out lol but revealed to mil on Wednesday were expecting another boy ds1 is 4 amd her reaction was oh well u can try again !!!
Feel like tapping her mouth up my son thinks its awesome he's going to have a brother and the little ones healthy that's all I wanted xx
Rant over lol