Is this weird?

[juicyjuice]

Hubby and I still thinking of names for baby (defo a girl!). Robyn has been vetoed due to surname (Williams) so have come up with a new one. We both like Elizabeth shortened to Beth; only problem is this is the name of his brother's girlfriend. Girlfriend lives with brother 5 minutes from us so we see her regularly! Is it a bit weird for them both to have the same name? Her name is just 'Beth' btw.

No. If you really like the name, I'd say go for it! She will probably be flattered, and who knows, if they don't stay together, you might kick yourself for having sacrificed your favourite name.

I don't think it's a problem that your bro's gf is called Beth but I do think calling a girl Elizabeth with the intention of shortening to Beth is potentially problematic unless you're happy with the more obvious shortenings i.e. Liz, Lizzy etc as well. I really like Penelope for DD2 and would like to shorten to Nell but I don't like the shortening Penny which is probably more obvious and you've got no control over which shortening your child/their friends will choose.

Not wierd at all! I wouldn't have thought anyone in the family would think it too close an association or odd.

She'd be called Beth pretty much all the time (but yes I know that you can't always choose your children's nicknames!). Glad Beth doesn't need to be crossed off the list! Now if I can just get dh to leave the 80s with his other ideas ...

I think if it is a long term girlfriend and you expect them to stay together for the foreseeable future then giving your child the name of her potential aunt that you see frequently is a bit odd, because she will likely become 'baby Beth' or 'Little Beth' as there will need to be a differentiator, and it's more likely to apply to your dd as the new arrival than to the girlfriend.

That might not be an issue for you, but it's not something I'd do, and you'd also need to check if it would please or irritate the girlfriend too.

Of course you can't call your baby the same name as your brother's girlfriend- unless she is unlikely to be around for more than a month or two. If she's going to be in the family for a long time, your dd will always be Baby Beth or something.

One of my close friends called her baby the same name as my dh. In came up one day that she liked the name and she wasn't going to have it because of my dh.

I told her that was madness, to not have the name she wanted for her own child. She did have it in the end and it was never weird for anyone concerned. Nobody gets them mixed up in conversation and everyone just calls them their proper names. No nicknames or little/big/young add ons.