Baby name regret - disagreement

[RCornelsen]

My wife and I had our son 9 months ago, and deliberated over his name for a couple days in the hospital before settling on Braiden. My wife started to have significant concerns with his name around 4 months old and her concern has only grown with time. She has wanted to change the spelling, add middle names to alter his initials, and now wants to completely change his first name. I personally love our sons name and could not be more against changing it, but I am trying to be supportive and sympathetic to my wife's concerns. It has literally become a daily discussion in our house. I have read a few threads on name regret, but all of them seem to have agreement between Mom/Dad. Has anyone else ever been in my position, one parents wants the change the child's name and the other doesn't?

What has caused her concerns? Have there been lots of times where people misspelled or mispronounced it?

I think if she's that bothered about it then why not change it?

I know a mum of a Braiden who shortened it to Brady. Could you use a nn?

grand because the father doesn't hate it and he gets as much input as the mother.

Her mains concerns are:
1 - its too trendy
2 - he will get made fun of for having "Braid" in his name
3 - his initials are B.J.C... again, thinks he will be made fun of

Brady is nice, he won't have to use his initials very often and when he does he can drop the J.

To be fair I would avoid giving BJ as initials. Her other concerns are pretty minor.

If my partner really hated it, and we could find another name we both liked, I'd change it, at this stage.

What doe she want to change it to?

But I would definitely get rid of BJ as initials

Do you think your wife may have PND? I did, and one of the things I focussed on was DD's name.

Options to change it:
1 - Braden Jonas
2 - Braiden Scott-Jonas
3 - Braden Scott-Jonas
4 - Jacob Jonas

Can you just use his middle name instead?

BJ would be bad if those were his only initials but middle names aren't used as much as surnames. He'd be B.J. Surname on letters etc but just B. Surname at school.

I'd support her changing the spelling. His name will still sound the same - this has obviously become a big thing for her and you want your wife to feel happy in her choice. Also middle names are not really used on everyday life, so not a big deal to change them.

Jacob Jonas is nice. Sorry, I think Braiden (and the other spelling variations) is awful.

I don't think it's a good idea to change a child's name so long after the birth. By this point he will be recognising his own name and it seems unfair to change it, not to mention all the friends and relatives who will now know him as Braiden and will have to awkwardly adopt the new name.

It also seems really odd that she still dislikes the name after all this time. It's hard to explain why exactly but even when you're not keen on a name, once you have a child, grandchild etc with that name, any negative connotations sort of melt away as you now associate that name with your lovely little baby. I know this might sound odd but how is her bond with the baby? Do you think there's any chance she has PND?

The concerns she has do seem quite superficial... Teased because it has 'braid' in the name?! Seems a bit far fetched.

If your username is your surname I'd say Scott and Jonas both fit better than Braiden and Jacob.

His middle name is a family name that we both want to keep (great grandpas name).

Every 'Braiden' I've ever known (most of them American, to be fair) has spelled it 'Braeden' or 'Braedon'.

It's not a name I am hugely keen on but maybe changing the spelling to the more usual way would help?

I think based purely on the names that I'd go for Scott Jonas C.......... Did you both love Braiden, or did it feel like just settling for something?

Jonas is great. Is switching the given names around an option? That would sort the initials issue too.

I know a grown up with the initials BJ. And yes, that's what we call him

Who was the main instigator / champion for Braiden after he was born?

Did you find it hard to find a name before he was born?

This is about the two of you having different feelings about the name, not about what assorted MNers think of the name.

Does she call him Braiden? Or any affectionate nick names? We barely adddressed our babies by their names, they were squishy Lou Lou, Pinkster the Minxster, etc etc until they were old enough to protest!

It's awful, I agree.
Think again !