Baby name fail - first and last name combo

[Momma123456]

Looking for advice, FTM I have a 3 month old and for the past two months I have been having extreme name regret due to an unfortunate oversight with our babies name that I can’t unhear or see it when written down now that I’m aware of it.

I won’t say the full name of our LO but our last name is Price. The baby name we selected is along the lines of Willow, Arlow, Harlow.

When the first name and last name are said together all we can hear is Low Price!

I feel we put so much thought into agreeing in a name during pregnancy and just feel terrible for not thinking about how it would flow with the last name. Am considering a name change because we just can’t get connected to the name now, but the process of informing everyone seems so overwhelming. Just want what’s best of our baby.

Honest opinions, am I potentially over thinking it too much or should we go ahead with a name change that we will love? I’m losing so much sleep and stressing over it.

thanks

Are there any similar names which remove the 'low price' sound? E.g. Willa instead of Willow, or Miles instead of Milo?

It's unlikely anyone else will pick up on this, much less bully your child for it. But the thing is, now that you have noticed if it ever did happen you would absolutely kick yourself for not taking action when you realised. I don't believe bullying happens because of a name, names can be used as an extra tool to wield, but are not the root cause. A confident, popular child can pull off anything (I say this as someone who went to school with Amber Boon), but you won't know if your kid will fit that mould until it's too late.

I am reading the name so out loud with the surname and it still does not really make the connection of low price . Sounds fine to me .

I don't know if it's just my accent but some of those names sound more like 'low price' than others. I hear it with Harlow (Har-low) but not Willow (Will-ow). Normally I think parents are usually overthinking things but if it's really bothering you and you hear it when saying the name I would change it.

Oh gosh is it Milo? I’d definitely change, once I heard it I’d always hear it. DH had a friend called Ryan O’……. always and forever knows as Rhino!

Hilarious. Mine was on the GP, dentist and yes the fucking library when she was 6 weeks old. She had a library too - 15 board books at a time. Free bounce and rhyme, music and breastfeeding group etc

I wouldn't hear that with all of those names unless your childs name is emphasised differently, but Willow Price sounds like Will-o price to me which is fine.
Arlo however is Ar-low so I can hear it in that one

I'm with those who agree it is worth changing name while you can do it more easily than later on. This is the kind of thing that once spotted by someone at school will not go away. We both have difficult last names and while I agree personality plays a role in how much teasing you get, it doesn't help if your name makes it even easier for the bullies. In your situation I think you will be ok to keep your first choice of name as a middle name as full names don't get said aloud too often in childhood (which is when the problems would arise).

We had to discard one candidate name for our eldest after I ran it past my mother and she spotted a phrase that similarly, once spotted by a school bully would never have gone away. We had several initials to avoid as well, including one that DH knew about because a relative unfortunately had it as a middle initial.

Change it. My guess is that it's Arlo or Milo, and I hear it Our Low or My Low

Many of the threads on here are along the lines of 'Which first and middle name?' when most people are known by first name and surname, or a diminutive of the first name and surname

e.g. Harold Wilson, Maggie Thatcher, Tony Benn, Tony Blair, Jim Callaghan etc not James Harold W, Hilda Margaret T, Anthony Neil Wedgewood B, Anthony Charles Lynton B, Leonard James C etc. There's another one but he tends to be known by a middle name only.

I think some of those were known by their middle names or switched to using their middle name. Jim Wilson or Al Johnson aren't particularly unusual or memorable

If you don’t like the name change it.

But honestly, I think you are overthinking it. I don’t think I would have even noticed that it was a bit like Low Price.

And honest,y, names don’t cause children to be bullied. Bullies cause children to be bullied. If there is a bully in your future child’s class chances are they will find something to bully their peers about regardless of name. In the grand scheme of things being teased for having your name sound a bit like ‘low price’ is probably preferable to being teased for spotty/ fat/ unintelligent or another physical feature/ trait which bullies will hone into if there’s nothing else to bully someone about. I’d rather my child be teased about their name than something physical to be honest. But that’s assuming there even are any bullies in your child’s class and also that anybody picks up on the fact the name sounds a bit like low price, which I actually don’t think they necessarily will.