Calling baby by middle name

[walabw]

Hi there

I would love to know if anyone has made the decision to change their babies name to their middle name? Our baby is now 6 months old and since the age of about 1 month I have had regrets over her name, I wish we had called her by her middle name which I really love and she suits. (My husband preferred what is her first name but that would have been my third choice we just found it really hard to decide on names) I have tried to just carry on and forget about it but 6 months later I am still really regretting not using her middle name as her first. Would love to hear if anyone has ever felt the same and what they decided to do.

Thanks 🙂

You can change the name really easily up to a year old. I do know someone who did this, they just said they'd made a mistake and child was now 'x'.

At the end of my brother's first day at school in the early 1960s (no prior home visits or visits to school) the teacher asked my mum if he was 'a bit deaf'? My brother then came out of class sporting a large badge with his first name on. He has never been known by that name, didn't recognise that it was him they were calling by that name, and at the age of 4 could not read the badge.
My parents chose his two forenames but decided they sounded odd with his given name first, so reversed them.
He has had the same problem at every doctor's surgery, hospital appointment, job interview etc ever since. No massive deal, but really unnecessary in his case.
At the age of 50, he did consider swapping them over for official purposes, but decided he really couldn't be bothered!

My family have a trend with this. My mother and two female cousins are known by their middle names. They’ve never had any issues with it beyond the minor inconvenience of telling people the first time they meet you that you’re not known by the name on the form you filled in - no difference to a nickname e.g. Katherine known as Kate at all times.

Difference is they were all known by their middle names from birth - I think you’ll find it very hard to get other people to suddenly start calling your baby by a middle name. Although due to lockdown it may be smoother than normal as fewer people will have met or interacted with your baby. I think to change a name after several months you and DH would have to really seriously regret your original choice.