Both granny's don't like the names we have chosen

[Woofers]

We are expecting our first, and their first grand child in summer.

Quickly decided on names (shockingly)

Told his dmum a few weeks ago and she laughed.
Told my mum and she said how awful!

We want Herbert - Bertie for a boy, and connie for a girl.

It's Bertie / Herbert they have objected to.

If it was connie, then we have other names, but no reserve names which we agree on for a boy.

What are the options?

They will get used to it so quickly. Stanley was an issue here.

When DS3 was born DH phoned the older DC and said you have a baby brother he's called S and DD sent me a text straight away saying call him Isaac, then my sister text me and said "I can't believe you actually meant you like S"
They soon get used to it.

Argh these type of threads I do not get!! Why would you talk about your name choices with relatives before your baby is born?? Surely it would make sense to keep the names you like to yourself and announce the baby's name after he is born? Being pregnant is stressful as it is at times without the added pressure of relatives quizzing you about your name choices..

It never occurred to me to talk about the names DH and myself liked each time. We kept the names to ourselves and announced them after the birth.

IrnBru

Looks like you've got yourself unnecessarily stressed out by reading this topic if this kind of thing annoys you so much!

Herbert does mean 'a bit daft' rather like Wally.
Bertie is lovely and you could have Albert or Bertrand [not Cuthbert!!] for the long name :)

I don't like Herbert either, but if you do, it's none of the GPs business - they got their chance to choose names a generation ago!
Ro(bert)?

I made the mistake of sharing my girl and boy name choices with colleagues back in 1989 when pg with DD1 and to a woman they all piped up with more modern girl names instead of the old fashioned name I had chosen. Two of them suggested Brittany . My mum and dad argued back and forth between Suzanne and Susannah for me and ended up deadlocked so scrapped it completely. Mum wanted modern Suzanne, dad favoured the 'old fashioned' Susannah. If he had got his way I would be right on trend now.

Maybe the ladies you have told are just a bit out of fashion and think of Berties their own age or older?

We kept our name choice a secret until after DD born. People (MIL) were still twats about it.

If you love the name, ignore everyone else. But if it is making you second guess your choice, maybe you are not as confident in it as you thought.

Personally, I think Bertie is a good name.

I really like Bertie. I think it has a lot of style and would suit boys who are reserved and quiet as well as extroverts.

Never tell people (especially family) your chosen names - ever. Well, you can when the baby is born.

Herbert is a splendid name. Some friends if my sister have a little boy called Herbie. I love it!

This is why DH & I didn't share our name for DS until he was already born.

Seriously though, ignore them. This is obviously a sweeping generalisation, there'll be exeptions to this, but in my experience, older people, like grandparents, aren't usually familiar with what names are popular or sound good to most people having babies now.

For instance, my PIL's think that Isabella / Isabelle / Isobel etc is a hopelessly old-fashioned name that would be cruel to inflict on a child. No amount of me saying "But it's a lovely name that's been in the top 20 for years " will convince them otherwise.

My aunty told me recently that a friend of hers had a new grandson with a really unusual name. The grandson is called Jack.

Grandparent's name opinions are not to be trusted.

I absolutely agree that we won't be sharing name choices with anyone else. Dh told his mum - unknowingly assuming she would be nothing but supportive.

The telling my mum came about by accident - I was explaining how fixated dh was on having a boy, relaying a conversation we'd had one morning

Me - what if Herbert's a girl?
Dh - then we will call him herberta

Typo deliberate. We both laughed!

Thing is that when you have your first, and no one in rl is around to share such gems of knowledge then these things do slip. To have hindsight......

Soooo plan b, I need a vile name to 'change' it to.

It is currently elvis, but neither m or mil will fall for that. We had a cockerel called elvis.

I am going to sound devious but will post anyway! To keep the peace say you have decided to call DS something you know they would both like, I.e. Benjamin. Something innocuous. Then once you have been through labour etc. etc. anything goes and just say baby didn't look like a Benjamin. It didn't feel right etc. then say we decided to name him Bertie or whatever name you decide on in the mean time. They will be so overjoyed by new baby, especially as first time grandparents and happy you are both ok that all will be fine. The baby will become his or her name, grandparents will learn to love it and coo constantly over him or her and peace will resume. Devious white lies are best! I have done it twice now!

4YO DS goes to Kindy with an Elvis; it's not as out there as you'd think.

love that you can't use Elvis because the cockerel got there first!

Neither grandmother will care less what the baby is called once he's here - when they hear the name Bertie they will think of their gorgeous little grandson, not the old blokes they are probably thinking of now!

It might still be a Connie though .

This is so right, older parents, grandparents, great aunts etc have not generally been near a school or playground for decades so what sounds normal and perfectly acceptable to us freaks them out. That is why you must present whatever name YOU have chosen for YOUR child as a surprise fait accompli on the day of birth. They'll be so caught up in the drama that that name will just be associated with that cute little baby, not whatever terrible associations they were imagining.

IMHO it depends how much the approval of the GPs means to you. Once our DS was born and we announced his name, both of our mothers expressed their dislike of his name. They had liked my first DC's name and I was hoping for a similar reaction for this one.
I really wish I didn't care what they think, but six months after he was born now I am still kind of wishing we had named him something else

as a granny myself I can tell you that whatever you choose they will get to love even if they dont think they like it now.

My Nanna wouldn't say outright that she hated the name but would do a 'look', purse her lips and say 'Oh right'

When pregnant with DS we told everyone that he would be called Tarquin if a boy and Shaniqua if a girl. I didn't want to share our real name ideas with anyone as I didn't want them to turn their noses up. It is very difficult for someone to slag off a name once it actually belongs to a squidgy newborn.

I have 5 dgs and can't remember having an opinion on names, they are just Trquin,Shaniqua etc and I love them.

We used Elvis as our 'chosen name' even if the baby was going to pop out as a girl. Stopped everyone bothering us really quickly.

My IL's hated DSS's name (which incidentally he's not that keen on as it's unusual but they now tell him it's lovely), with DS2 DSS told them the options (didn't realise he shouldn't) and they hated the girls name and 'didn't mind' the boys name (but tried to get us to change his middle name), with DS3 (DSS again and this time bollocked for it) they liked the girls name and didn't like the boys name. Tough. Our baby, our name (and DH and BIL both have boring names!). They get used to it and yes we did at one point tell them a ridiculous name to make them realise it could be 'worse'...

Oh and my parents loved all names but wouldn't be so rude as to say they didn't anyway!