'i changed my baby 's name'- your stories please

[rachael2401]

i am thinking of changing my ten week old 's name. i would like to hear from anyone who has done this. what were people's reactions? how easy to do legally? how did older children cope? did you feel better or worse for doing it? your reasons for doing so. thank you in anticipation.

[MadonnaKebab]

Martha Parsons is a great, solid, classic name.
But Poppy as a middle name seems to make it jokey to me.
Not criticising those names individually but in combination too twee
I think you should decide whether Martha or Poppy is more important to you

[mumsywoo78]

hi sparklechops its nice 2 know ur not alone &other ppl goin thro the same thing isnt it. iv no other worrys in my life just this name thingy iv just spent over an hour on this site really researching into the name noah &seeing ppls opinions on the name how obbsessive is that! im kinda trying to reasure my self that iv made a good choice wiv his name.like you i think id have fretted the same whatever name id have gone with. i dont know why.i wasnt like this 4 yrs ago when i named my 1st child. will i ever get passed this? if i was to change his name i know id regret it &now i couldnt imagine him being called anything else anyway.iv actually had times when ive regretted having him because of this &the stress it is causing me.hes almost 12weeks old now.

[lalalonglegs]

I thought you might be interested in this article written by someone I know slightly. She waited until six months to change her baby's name but seems easy enough to do.

[sparklechops]

Hello...mine too! I woke up thinking about it. I think it may be an anxiety thing. Are you worrying about anything else at the moment?

[mumsywoo78]

my name dilema has reared its ugly head again for some unknown reason. i had become quite content with noah for the past week but today those niggling feelings have come back and i dont know why. i havent recieved any negative comments on his name. i totally want 2 be 100% content with the name noah as i really dont want to change his name & theres no other name i like anyway! he is a noah so why am i feeling like this? is it pnd gone mad!

[mumsywoo78]

martha-ann parsons is a lovely name or martha-annie.

[mumsywoo78]

hi thanks for all your helpful comments im feeling much better now & my boy is definately a noah (even tho its his middle name! we shall get round to switching his names round on his birth certificate b4 his 1st bday so he becomes noah kevin rather than kevin noah.) family have accepted his name i dont know why i let there opinions bother me so much in the first place i wouldnt usually, mustve been pnd. anyway i luv my 11week old noah or little no-no as his big sis calls him! he's asleep in my arms right now&were now looking forward 2 xmas. RACHAEL2401- i dont think martha parsons is rhymy at all its a lovely name & so is anna what have u finally settled on?

[sparklechops]

There are a few name changing threads on here at the moment. I understand your worry, OP, as I fretted over 9 month old DD's name to the point of obsession. At one point DH wanted me to go to the dr about it as he thought I had PND. In hindsight, it was part of new mum anxiety than anything more serious, I think.

Our situation was different in that we announced one name and then registered her as another one six weeks later, keeping the birth name as a nickname. Some people were a bit but most just accepted it.

I was so sensitive about it and would go off for a private cry whenever anyone questioned it. At one point I wanted to change her name to something completely different as it felt like the whole thing had been tainted.

What I realise now is that I am a worrier and would have fretted whatever the name. So before you change your own DD's name, I would advise you to make sure you are completely certain and it is not going to cause you more worry. Grass is greener and all that...

But both names are great so I don't think you can really go wrong.

[FreddieMercurysBolero]

i dont know really, havent seen her in over a year, shes never talked about her name to me. Shes a former neighbour of mine, im friends with her daughter, martha is in her sixties.

[ajandjjmum]

We were very indecisive about 20 year old DS's name when he was born, and called him JJ (the bump's name) until he was around 2. DH then announced that we couldn't possibly call a 6' rugby player by that name, and that we should start using his 'proper' name. It was a struggle to get used to at first, but now he suits his name beautifully.

[rachael2401]

mumsy-what about Nathaniel? i love it. still old testament, could be Nat or nate for short. x

[rachael2401]

Freddiemercurysbolero-what does your friend think of her name? i have actually considered messaging all Martha Parsons on fb and asking their opinion! mumsy-are you ok? i love noah but i obvs appreciate what you're going through it gets worse the longer it goes on but you don't want to rush in case you get it wrong again. i think you can only change once on birth certificate then it's by deed poll. don't think anyone would want to tell friends and family a third name! my boys name was Joseph but for number 3 i am quite keen on Alastair at the mo. also love Finn, Cal, maybe have a look at some biblical names if you really want something totally different. reuben has the same cool but nice factor as noah i think. i can't believe i am posting about name for imaginary third child when i can't even name the one I've got!

[AlexanderS]

When I first read the name Martha Parsons I thought it was a perfectly sensible name and didn't even notice the bit of a rhyme.

OP, you feel in your heart of hearts that your baby's name is Martha - you gotta change it!

mumsy, I think you've also got to go ahead and change your baby's name. I'm surprised you got lots of negative comments as Noah is a very popular name these days, which combined with its Biblical origin (and the fact that it has therefore stood the test of time), makes it a pretty safe choice. You have to bear in mind the older generation generally don't look at baby name charts/go to toddler groups/do the school run etc. and so aren't aware of trends in baby naming. When I announced our choice of name for DS my mum said 'Ooh, that's really unusual'. I was like well, no mother, it's actually in the top 100 names for boys now! Noah was the name you wanted to use all along, I'm sure you will fall back in love with it - the stress has been because you wanted to use it but felt you couldn't, right?

[jidelgin]

OP I love Martha. I thought my own name was too rhymey n girlie and in my 20s I asked people to call me by a shortened version which was a bit less so. It works well for me. If your wee one does end up bothered by rhymey (dare say she wont), Martha is a cool handle with a bit of wiggle room for her.

ah mumsy that sounds super stressful. If it is too tricky to come up w something else can you reconnect with your love for the name Noah? It is a lovely lads name. Sod the nay sayers.
Maybe you could start a new thread looking for alternatives to Noah? There are a few threads like that and the MNers seem to be really good at coming up w similar names or helping someone chose between 2 or 3 possibles. Good luck

[1978andallthat]

Both lovely and not too rhymey at all

[Viviennemary]

If people want to change a baby's name then I think they should do it. But have a serious think about it first.

[mumsywoo78]

omg this sounds like me im in the same mess.my boy is 10 weeks old &i can only bring myself to call him the baby. i loved the name noah when i was preg so went with that but after recieving a lot of negative reactions to the name especially from my father it put doubts in my mind as wether to call him that.anyway as the 6 week registration time limit came up i just didnt know what to do i didnt like any other names & had go to know him as noah.anyway in a massive panic on the way to the registry office i decided to name him kevin noah after his dad.as soon as i got home i had a massive panic attack over what id done no way did i want to call him kevin. ever since that day 4 weeks ago iv suffered major anxiety&panic attacks im now being treated for PND. iv no intention of calling my boy kevin or noah as i feel iv now gone off that name cos of the stress it has caused me.iv gone through hundreds of names&nothing seems to fit.iv got a 4 year old too whos constantly calling him noah which drives me mad.i just dont know what to do its making me ill. just watching emmerdale on tv gives me panic attack because thats where i got the name noah from in the first place! can any 1 help im at my whits end&my boy needs a name.

[Gugglebum]

I changed my last little boy's name at 6 weeks. I went with the name we had settled on and loved for ages before he was born, originally. But then every time anyone said his name I got this odd little knot in my stomach, and it just never sat right, even though I so wanted it to. There had been another name I'd always loved, but due to where we live, I knew loads of people would not pronounce it correctly (to me) and so it had been off the list. But that name kept coming to mind and I couldn't shake it. My extended family all thought I had lost my mind, but I went ahead and changed it anyway. I've never looked back, and now at age 17 months, he in no way suits his original name. He is perfectly the name he has. There are those who say it wrong, but I nicely instruct them to call him by his nickname.

[BornInACrossFireHurricane]

Anna is simply beautiful, in my opinion, and classic. I do appreciate how difficult it must be having this weighing on your mind. If you really think of her as a Martha and think you will regret not changing it, now is the time to do it.

[FreddieMercurysBolero]

i actually know a martha parsons! And i aways thought she had a lovely name:) I never thought about it rhyming, i dont think it does, really. if it makes you happy, go for it.

[Elkieb]

I prefer Anna but I think the baby's name is symptomatic of a larger issue. My sons name has significance but my favourite name is his middle name. My DH and I are both happy and now my William is perfect. My sister has a middle name that isn't on her birth certificate but to us and her it's her middle name. It's even on her bank cards!

[Journey]

Anna Parsons sounds much nicer than Martha Parsons.

[rachael2401]

Bella - would you share your DCs name via pm?

[rachael2401]

So my husband...he say yes. Edwardtheeagle - would you pm me your maiden name out of interest?

[Butterfly1975]

I changed my ds's name from the nn on his birth certificate to the full version - it was easy just phoned the Registry office to let them know and picked up a new birth certificate. Despite the fact he is never called the longer version I feel better knowing he has the choice and that he doesn't have to explain his name isn't actually short for xxx anyway!

I agonised about it for months too - definitely linked with some kind of PND or anxiety disorder I had at the time.

FWIW I think Anna works much better with your surname - it is classic and timeless (to coin a well used MN phrase )