Getting comfortable with name

[dabug]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, because it probably has more to do with my psychological issues of impending parenthood rather than names specifically. But it is manifesting in names, so here it is.

Wife and I have chosen a name for our daughter (who is due any time now, shes a few days overdue), and we are happy with our choice: Teresa Mary (LastName) . But I find myself feeling awkward when I say it. Like it doesn't seem part of our family or something.

Does it get less awkward with use? Do you get used to using the kids name? Does anyone here understand what I'm saying? Have you felt similar? Perhaps once we have the real baby it will seem more right, or maybe I'll just be more scared.

I just want to make sure this is pre-baby nerves which I will just have to deal with and not a name issue which DW and I should re-visit.

Took me a while. I'm 11 months in and it still feels a tad weird. Thing is, I think she'll really look like her name or suit it once she starts looking more of a little girl. It was hard while she was looking like a scrunched up red lump of squidge.

We call her all kinds of things, not just her name. Found it helped a bit in the early days to call her Bob. Now we're using her proper name (Robin) much more without thinking about it, since she's been crawling and being more of a little person.

For some of us I guess it's a process!

BTW I love Teresa.

Yes you have described it really well. It did feel very weird with both my children until
they developed a bit of a personality. It helps when you hear other people call the name.
I love the names now and can't imagine any other
Good luck and beautiful name !

I felt awkward saying the names with both my DDs. It's strange as I loved both names and felt that they were the right choice, it just felt odd referring to a new person as a name that I had chosen.

After a few weeks it will just roll off the tongue and feel second nature, don't worry! :)

Also, as Janoschi said - they don't really look like names when they're born. Both of mine looked like small, red potatoes so their names felt odd until they unscrunched a bit!

It took a few weeks to get used to our childrens' names. They aren't real people in our mind until they're here, are they? And then suddenly, they are there and you can't imagine that they ever weren't.

Teresa Mary is beautiful, btw.

Yes you're right, Staverton. It does help hearing other people say it!

With my second in particular I remember saying, I love her name, but I don't feel like it's the name of MY daughter. That was when she was a couple of weeks old - now she's nearly four and I can't remember ever having that thought since then. She is no longer a stranger bearing a name I love.

Thanks! tigrou - "I love her name, but don't feel like it's the name of MY daughter." That sounds like exactly how I'm feeling. It sounds like I'm not alone. That's good to know. It's our first baby, so I'm a little weird.

A couple of days ago we were trying to decide if the middle name would be Mary or something else, and I was uncertain about it. Today I am totally comfortable with that part. It is the name of both of our grandmothers, and also my aunt is named that and she knitted us a lovely baby blanket and I was looking at that just now and thinking how happy I am we chose that name... I'm sure something like that will happen with the first name eventually.

Same for us when we chose Deborah as the middle name - it's the name of both Grandmothers again! Seemed the logical choice :-) Actually I remember feeling quite certain about the middle name even before the birth but not the first name. Now it's the other way around - I have to remind myself of her middle name, whereas her first name is really starting to suit her.

Yes you have just given me déjà vu about how I felt after naming my 2 dd's! It does feel a bit weird at first but a few days after she's born the name will be part of her so will seem completely natural to say & to hear others say.

Teresa Mary's lovely.
Not had baby yet, but almost chickened out of our first name choices because they just sound too 'old' for a baby and not at all like the names of my children. I still feel a bit like this tbh.
Can definitely see why people might pick an uber-girly or nickname-y name, just because it feels bizarre to be bestowing an adult's name on something so tiny. Think as other posters said, the more people use it around you, the more normal it'll sound and the happier you'll be later for choosing something that might be called more 'classic'.
All the best for the birth and baby.

Teresa Mary is really lovely!

And think of all the cute little nicknames you could use while she is really teenie, if you feel like Teresa is too big a name

Terry
Tessie (love that one)
Reese / Reesie
Tammy (using the T and the M)

Once you start shouting the name as they wander off, climb tables, eat candles etc. it will feel v natural indeed! :)

Sounds very normal It's what benice said. Only just used to DS now since have been screaming his name like a banshee across the playground as he wanders off to do something dangerous (I don't think I called him by name for the first year). Still haven't got used to DD's name but she's too little to be chaotic yet!

I find it very, very weird that I have a daughter (9 weeks) with her name. I love her name and it does suit her, but its not the name I would have imagined choosing and sometimes it feels as if someone else has named her and I had no say in it! I'm getting to grips with the shortened version, but whenever her full name is called out, say at the doctors, that feels really odd - half the time I don't react because I almost don't recognise it!

So I think this is all pretty normal too. DD is growing into her shortened name - though strangely I'm not shortening it in the way I expected - and you'll find that your DD will too. She might not automatically look like a 'Teresa' to you, but I bet she'll feel like a Tessie, or a Ray, or something straight away.

I think i spent a long time calling DS baby! He seems to really suit his name now and I can't imagine him being called anything else.

DC2 due in a few weeks - we have the two potential names ready, but I still can't imagine them being an actual person! This has reminded me that I should maybe be more confident about what we've pickedfor him/her. We just don't love the names IYSWIM.

I'm agreeing with Bella - I was wanting a different (Welsh) name for DD but had to compromise because DH is German and his whole family had trouble pronouncing anything with a LL or a W in it. And they had trouble with a lot of the melodic vowel-changes too so as you can imagine, I failed to find anything that would work.

I do think DD suits her name, and it IS a nice name (Robin), but it wasn't the one I was envisaging and I think that's partly why I've had trouble with it!