Colleague used my favourite baby name!

[Graceishere]

I'm pregnant and had a favourite baby name for a girl (Mabel). However my colleague recently used it for a kitten. Out of all the names she could have chosen!! She's obsessed with this kitten and the whole team knows its' name. I feel really gutted about this. Would you still use it or go with a different name?

Absolutely still use it. Lovely name.

Did she know you wanted to call your baby Mabel?

Use it! This is what will happen

In a few months time you will stop work for a few weeks or months.
If your baby is a girl, and you call her Mabel, your colleague may find this slightly amusing. Or she may not have any opinion. Or she may have left. It is extremely unlikely that she’ll be put out.
A few weeks/months later you may go back to work. Or you might not. You might change jobs. Same for your colleague. By which time people that you are close to at work will know your child’s name and it’s not really a “thing”.

If younger ds had been a girl he would have been named after one of my childhood dogs, it’s a name i love. The name he ended up with gets called a dog name on here, in fact both his names come to think of it 😂 just use the name

How about Muriel

Although no, she shouldn't put you off the name. Saying that my Mum told the woman in hospital with her (they were both in for monitoring for complicated placenta issues) that our dogs name was Fay, and the poor woman was really upset as that was the name she wanted to give her dd.

She didn't because of this and my mum felt so guilty. I still know the girl born then, and she has a lovely name, but I think Fay is lovelier.

I would. It's awkward, yeh, get that, but by the time your dc starts school half the old crew will have left, new ones will have joined.

It is awkward yes but sit with that awkwardness and use it anyway

@Notanorthadontist

Please don’t use it. I would have been devastated to have been called Mabel. So frumpy.

I think it's beautiful! such a soft sound.

But then some names that are cool like Iris just sound so harsh to me.

Please don't let a random colleagues kitten affect this decision of yours...you'll regret it forever

Use the name. The cat won't (likely) survive past your DD's 15th birthday. The cat might be ran over by a car next year. You or your colleague might move to a different area in a few years.

Your DD stands a good chance of carrying her name for the next 80 years.

@vodkaredbullgirl

Did she know you wanted to call your baby Mabel?

No she had no idea.

In 10 years no one will remember the cat. You’ll still have your daughters name for decades. It might be a tad embarrassing announcing it but maybe do it by email to avoid any comments and by the time you get back from maternity leave the cat will be old news and people won’t comment. But don’t let it put you off.

If you feel you need to, you could change it very slightly to Mabli, which is the original Welsh version, meaning "beloved" that we had lined up for our baby. He then turned out to be a DS so it was no use at all

Just use it if you want .. Although I'm really not keen on Mabel sounds like marble to me (obviously your choice and I'm sure your baby would make it adorable)... I was in hospital last week and my midwife said her daughter was called marnie which I thought was lovely ! X

Use what you love!
My partner had 3 colleagues name their babies the same thing within the same year!!

Just use the name.
Dsis had a dog with the same name as we gave ds.
We couldn't care less, it is a good name.

Use it, if you like it. If anyone says anything about this cat having the same name (and, hilariously, ever got the hump over it) you could just reply casually "oh yeah, totally forgot, I don't really remember names of people's pets, but isn't it a lovely name!"

End of problem!

My sister shared a name with my gran's dog for a couple of years (dog existed prior to sister...long story why she had the same name), I'm the only bugger who remembers this and mentions it to wind up sister.

Not even my gran remembers that she had a dog by my sister's name.

Animals are fleeting, as are colleagues. Just use Mabel, it's a beautiful name.

I would definitely still use it

Oh and GREAT NAME CHOICE by the way

Go for it. Also you’ll be on maternity leave when any comments about the names being the same are made so you shouldn’t have to field them. If it’s awkward with your colleague then just say it’s a family name you’ve been planning to use for ages.

She might play animal crossing, it’s so popular right now, especially with adults and lots of people are naming new pets after characters in the game and Mable is a much loved character.

I forgot to add if definitely still use the name!

You can still use the name, no one is going to mix the two up providing you don't put a collar with a bell on your baby daughter.