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...

My friend introduced me to her friend's mother, never met the woman before and she asked me what my DS's name was, he was about 2 at the time, Tahoe said, 'that's a name to live up to'. Looking me up and down as if i should know my place and that it was purely aspirational!

Said to my mum regarding DS 'Ooooooh trying to be all original, are they?'

DS's name is fairly well-known in DH's first language.

I called my parents to tell them the name we'd chosen for DS2. I thought Felix was lovely, it means happiness after all!

DF's response was to say, "you'll have to tell your mother that" followed by a swift phone handover. I was then subjected to a twenty minute phone tirade about its complete unsuitability.

After the call, and not being able to bear the idea of granny's protestations for the remainder of time, about "How tired homebird must have been to agree to that!", jointly insulting me, DH and DS2's name, we caved in and changed it. DS2 was Felixstowe for a little under 4 hours. He then became nameless for 3 days whilst we tried to come up with something else!

Did anyone see OBEM last night? There was a couple who had experienced baby loss at 22 weeks, and had made it to term with this baby. Went in foe Elective section for transverse lie only to be sent home (disappointed) as baby was cephalic. Returned later as bleeding and contracting irregularly, CTG wasn't reassuring and resulted in emergency section - so overall not the best experience. So, Dad rings around to give the story and good news, tells them that baby is going to be called Faith. You hear him spelling out Faith and then saying "I don't give a shit if you don't like it, that's what we're calling her". Good on him for not taking it! Why can't people just hold their tongues sometimes??

soozywoozy, i too thought of this thread when i watched obem

Glittery - sad life, isn't it :o

Shop assistant in mothercare during our first trip out with 8 day old ds - what is his name, Joseph, oh well he can always be called Joe, we were so stunned we just laughed

With my DS I discussed names with my mum, but only liked a few in the first place (boys names are so hard to choose!). Her reaction to some of them was funny - "Ooh that sounds funny with your surname, you can't use that," (it didn't) and "that sounds like a cat's name." Needless to say I still like the names now and am considering using both of these for my twin boys that are arriving soon!

I do remember at one point her saying "Oh I really don't like that," and me saying, "well I don't care". Can't even remember what that name was but I'm not going to let her walk over me

...What I absolutely cannot get my head round is the many stories of friends/relatives who refuse to accept the name you've chosen and instead use a random different name. Do they really think the child is going to respond to them or that you'll trade your favourite choice of name just for their sake?!

I have to say, regarding those people who pause and then say, "that's interesting" or just a plain "oh very nice" - I see nothing wrong with that. It means they don't personally like it but respect your choice. I prefer to hear that than the complete lie of "ohhh lovely!" then see them turn away and pull a face.

My DD's name is Alice! I think it's a lovely name and it was also my mother's name. I am now expecting second baby and when I told a friend that if it's a boy we will call him Salvador she nearly had a fit and just told me that it's just not a very nice name and it's not even English!! My DH is English but I am not and I didn't react very well to my friends comment. Tried to be polite but just couldn't help it!!

When I have a kid, I am calling them Kelodie Sienna or Bailey-Rae Elinor if they are a girl, and Damien Jack or Dylan Antonio if they're a boy. And if anyone gives me any stick, they can go jump in a river. ;)

What an unpleasant remark - lovely names btw. I'm afraid that many mothers are either jealous of their daughters or just don't actually like them and these catty remarks may be evidence of that. If on analysis this appears to be the case probably the best answer is to distance yourself as she has given the game away (and probably has done so in the past). It is not easy as we are programmed towards our mothers but for your own protection it is as well to recognise what her problem is and not to blame yourself in any way. I simply adore my DD (14) and delight in her intelligence and beauty and cannot imagine wanting to be cruel or hurtful to her but now recognise that my mother (now dec'd) did not like me!

Having my 3rd boy in a few weeks. Mil has a list of boy names she likes! She had 4 sons of her own so thinking she has had her chance!!!

When visiting my family in Italy while I was pregnant, we decided to tell them we were expecting a boy, and were considering the name Rocco. Cue a rather hysterical and loud stream of protests - apparently Rocco is the name of a famous porn star in Italy. So famous that he advertises crisps on tv. Apparently, in Italian, a nick-name for a woman's "naughty bits" is the equvalent of crisp, hence the advertising strap-line "Mmmm, I've never eaten "crisps" that taste as good as this!". Only in Italy! So we relegated Rocco to his middle name. :-)

My mum told me Tabitha was a cat or witches name, but at least she hadn't taught one before so she couldn't fill me in on how odd / thick / useless another child of that name had been. Like that would make me pick something else ...

complete stunned silence from in-laws when said I was horror of horrors calling my daughter Harriet.

SIL commented WELL I like old-fashioned names like Kathleen or Hilary.

Good for you.

Harriet - such a moderrrrrn name (my great-grandmothers)

I got a card addressed to Hilary.....

PS nothing wrong with those names - just not for me.

My mum was quite pleased with my name choice for ds ... Jack
"that's very much a boys name"
"mum I'm having a boy!"

DH and I are only at the stage of talking vaguely about names as I'm only 16 weeks, but I'm already starting to hope it's a boy as it looks like names will be easier to agree on. Three of my favourite girls' names are Nicola, Janet and Jennifer. I was resigned to not having Nicola or Janet for a girl because we already have a Nicole and a Janette in the family, but I suggested Jennifer. DH: "No, it would be tactless to use that, because it's what my grandparents would have called my father if he'd been a girl." What?!

trinity, would like to reassure you that in 35 years, I've never heard anything other than 'oh, what a lovely/pretty name you have'! Admittedly, there have been a handful of 'can you wrinkle your nose like in Bewitched' but I can live with that :)

OP, FWIW, I think Alice Elizabeth is classy and beautiful.

I don't think it would be tactless aliphil I think it would be quite a nice thing to do. They obviously like the name so not sure what's tactless about it

I love the name Janet though. Wanted to use it for dd2's middle name but DP wouldn't let me. Shame as it was my Nan's name and the midwife who delivered dd2

My mum said that DS's name was an old mans name and did pass comment on other names we were considering. But we all attach values and feelings to certain names and she's entitled to her view and I'm entitled to ignore it. :o

I like hearing how and why people chose names but try to wait until the child is a little older before I ask as some people can take the question badly. My children are name after authors DH and I really like. Although as both authors are from different cultures we picked Anglofied versions; George Lewis instead of Jorges Luis and Helen instead of Helené. We did this so that the names were easy to pronounce and didn't cause confusion.

The interesting thing is that since we now live in a German speaking country and George is pronounced Gayorg and Helen is Hellane.

DS is called Henry.

MIL said "bit old fashioned isn't it"

My son is Gabriel and just the other day i was told by some Vicky Pollard looking chavette that i am up my own arse for calling my son that!

Alice Elizabeth is very timeless, and i love that Alice is not at all popular where i live! (writes on shortlist for if we are ever blessed with dd no.2)

With DS1 we had, "What did you call him that for?" accompanied by sniggers down the telephone from a work colleague, and "How did you come up with that?" accompanied by poorly-concealed smirk from a family member. MIL has made several pointed comments over the years about 'liking the short version'. Oh, and it's a 'black man's name' as well, apparently.

DS2 had a much more common name and everybody just seemed to like it and accept it. But that was no fun at all! So now we're expecting our third and last baby in a few weeks time, we are going for something totally outlandish and unexpected to blow everyone's socks off and get them all moaning again. Heh heh heh...!

Anon having called DS1 Harry (suits him to bits) and been asked several times whether his real name was Henry / why couldn't we have chosen something less common, we went for a really leftfield name for DS2 (also suits him to bits and we love it).
Since been asked whether we named him by predictive text? Is it Scottish? and told by BIL's toxic mother that she would scream all night if she was called *** She has several choice names in our house, and prob does scream all night the wicked banshee.

It's a good idea imho to get all the inlaws' name lists out of them early (no persuasion usually required) just so you can cross them out from the start.
Also i agree that however much you might secretly dislike friends' baby names to begin with you end up loving their kids' names because they grow into them. I would not openly comment negatively on someone's choice, it's so hurtful.