When you love a name but your children don't...

[Justus22]

So my husband and I agree on and love the name Annabelle, our son's are not at all happy with it. I half think, well tough it's our choice but then I think, actually their input means the world to us and the very fact that they're showing so much of an interest in their baby sister at the ages of 8 and 10 is lovely. Their fave is a no go as it clashes with our surname completely as much as I love it, I said it aloud to a friend and we both burst out laughing. They also like the second name on our list which is Sophia but they've both said they'd prefer Sophie or instead of Annabelle maybe Annie (I am not keen on the variations at all.) They have other suggestions that are nice just not names I adore or I do really like them but my close friends children have the same name.... I don't have the heart to tell them they have no say. What would you do?x

My sister was born when I was 14, hated her name & had loads of suggestions myself. Thank god my parents ignored me, all my choices were fashion names that would sound awful now & she has a lovely timeless name! You choose!

My then 2 year old son chose his brother's name. He absolutely refused to call him by his first name and insisted on calling him by his middle name. My DH and I decided to swap the names. 30 years later we have no regrets as he suits his name.

go with Annabelle! absolutely gorgeous name and they will come to love it when their baby sister is here! maybe you can come up with some other nns like Belle that they could use otherwise? good luck x

bullyingadvice2017 😂😂 not silly at all, a fabulous name to shout down the street to get her in!

Have I read correctly that you don't like the name Annie? The two Annabelles I knew growing up were known as Annie...

@nocluenoidea no I'm not keen on Annie at all, I'll be calling her Belle if I shorten it at all and I know I can't control what others will call her and it still doesn't put me off Annabelle. I've got plenty of friends who have typically shortened names that aren't because they don't like it... Including Victoria, Amanda, Katie and Katherine. I'm sure any shortening she likes for her name I will grow to love because it's hers anyway.

I think it’s nice they want to be involved
My kids were adamant on hating the name I wanted for my dog but once the decision was made they very quickly forgot about it - kids just do

My DD named her younger brother, but only as I really liked the shortened version of it and her dad and I couldn't agree on a name. He now denies that she suggested it and says he did argumentative as ever and glad we're not together, but we know differently and my DS loves hearing the story.

How about Annabelle Sophie?

My brother and I both strongly objected to the name my mother wanted for our sister (we are 10 and 12 years older than her) and the name she liked was Alice. At the time my only reference for the name was Alice in wonderland and my sister had huge brown eyes and a mop of black hair and she just didn’t look like an Alice.
She isn’t called Alice, However her dad also wasn’t keen so it wasn’t just us and I suspect had he liked Alice that’s what she would have been. He wanted Rhiannon which my mother complete vetoed.
She was nameless for almost 6 weeks .
I think you and the babies dad get final say. I don’t mind Alice now after all that, though it does not suit my sister all.

I prefer Annabel to Annabelle. Sophia is very popular and I prefer Sophie.
DC should not dictate what their sister's name is.

Going completely against the consensus here but I allowed my two eldest to name my youngest two.
They took it very seriously and chose beautiful names.

I couldn’t trust my two to name a baby! Annabelle is nice. Could they pick the middle name if you want to involve them?

As PPs have said, it should be the parents' ultimate decision and nobody else's. I like the suggestions of getting them involved in choosing a middle name, or letting them use Annie as a family nickname for Annabelle.

My eldest son (age 3) wanted to call his little brother Mini Cheddar so we completely ignored his views.

I named my brother (I'm 10 years older).

Parents were debating between John Edward or Edward John and I announced him as Edward John when people started to call / pop in..... I think if I'd have announced him as Elton John, my folks wouldn't have been so amenable.

I saved my sister from being a Michelle as well

• Edward and John aren't the real names. Michelle is the truth though.... my poor sister was nearly a Michelle!!

You probably shouldn’t have discussed it if you weren’t going to give them input.

Leave it for now and just present them with baby X

BTW I prefer their names

When I was 8/10 I probably would have named a child Princess Fireman Sam Ham Sandwich given the option. I wouldn't pay much attention to what they like at that age on this subject.

Why don't you give them a list of four or five pre-approved names and let them pick which one. Then they get some input but you don't end up with a name you don't like.