How to comprromise on names - what did you do?

[Polkadotfanatic]

Morning peeps. Ok so, not really a major problem, but was talking to DP and he has been stuck on the name Elizabeth since he was about 17. His reasoning - timeless, classic, beautiful and he loves the nickname Beth. He has always said to me that it is his favourite name.

Well yes, I agree, timeless, beautiful etc etc, but also (in my opinion, I dont want a slating here) just a bit meh. I am more than happy to use it as the middle name, but wanted a name which has a bit more to it... you may have seen my previous thread where I love and really really want to use like the name Poesie. Names I also like (in no particular order) are:

Poesie
Polly
Penelope
Phoebe
Milla
Lydia
Beatrix
Violet
Alice

Names he likes are:

Elizabeth

yes, just Elizabeth.

Just wondering if any of you had issues with either you or DP only liking one name. It seems that everything I suggest is ''it's not Elizabeth though, is it''.
I know that if I actually HATED the name, then I know he wouldn't push the issue, but I dont hate it, I just thought that when we would finally fall pregnant, we would get to use the perfect name that made us both so happy and proud to call our child.
Although I like the name, I just think we should both LOVE it.

I realise in the grand scheme of things, a name isnt the most important thing, but it still means a lot to me to get it right.

Let me know your experiences on this and how you resolved it. :)

It's very difficult, but it may be that there aren't any names that you both love so you may have to decide on a name that one of you loves and the other just likes. Try both making a list and see if there are any names you both love. If he really loves it and nothing else and you like it then I'd consider giving in. You could get to choose the middle name and the first name of any possible future LOs. You're better with a name that one of you loves and the other one likes than a name that both of you just like.
I'm not fond of Elizabeth but love Libby.
I've never heard of Poesie but I immediately though of ring o roses and the plague. I don't see why she could be your little poesie in the same way that my DD is a little pudding as it does sound very cutesy nicknamey

Names are a bl nightmare! If it helps, I was in the same position except that DP was a bit more reasonable as his list include Rachel & Jennifer (neither of which I like) as well as Elizabeth. When I realised that DP seemed to hate all other names as much as I hated Jennifer & Rachel, I began to think about all of the nicknames that went with Elizabeth & realised that I liked several of them. DP probably calls DD Elizabeth more often than he uses her nickname, I use the nickname more. In day to day life, she gets her nickname more than Elizabeth as we both thought it was a name people were bound to shorten &, as neither of us liked "Lizzie" (which we considered to be the default choice of nickname) wanted to impose our choice of nickname to the extent possible. Elizabeth has grown on my hugely since we gave it to DD not because she suits it particularly but just because its timeless, everyone knows how to spell it & it has so many nicknames that she can change it if she wants when she's older.
We were going to end up with a similar compromise for DC2 if he had been a girl as we both liked Sasha but I wanted Alexandra on the birth certificate. DP was happy with that as, from experience with DD, he knew we'd introduce her by her shortened name.

DH liked Elizabeth (it's classic yada yada) and also Katherine, which are both really nice names. I really liked Verity, we had Rose as a compromise name.

When the time came, and I'd just pushed our daughter out whilst leaning over our sofa, he turned to me and said 'so what's her name' and I said 'you know the name I like...' with all the weepiness of a v recently post-natal woman.

DD's name is Verity Katherine