What were your babies almost named?

[Horizonhopper2021]

I have 3 children and I love their names, and now I look back at what I almost called them and I don't think I'd of still liked some of the names now; anyone the same?

my first a little boy would have been either:

Ollie- still love it.

Ronnie- he'd have suited it. And love it still!

Herbie- this was actually my favourite at the time and now I can't quite believe it. Not my taste anymore

if he was a girl he'd have been Polly or Fluer

both I still like, but wouldn't use now.

my daughter came next, and for her we loved

Elora- still love it

Elowen- it's beautiful but wouldn't have suited her I don't think

Edie- I'll never get over my partner hating this name I think it's beautiful 💔

and boys we had Finn, Ozzy and Arlo as front runners

my third and final baby had her name before she was even conceived, but we did toy with the idea of

Izzie- which I like but I'm glad we didn't pick it

and Honey- which I will always love i think and would have suited her she has beautiful golden hair

if she was a boy I wanted Hugo which I stand by, lovely IMO

DS was almost Rowan or Aidan, both of which would have suited him perfectly. If he'd been a girl, he would have been Seren or Freya.

Xander - still a big favourite, or Poppy. I love flower names for girls.

DD was nearly Ursula or Calypso. Both of which were greeted with horror by the few people we told! Ironically DD really likes both of these.
Had she been a boy she might have been Laurence or Barney. Both of which she hates 😂

Lavinia. It's only not Lavinia (both our 2nd choice) because my husband watched me go through childbirth then let me have my first choice name.

DS (19) was going to be Molly or my other boy names were Samuel or Noah. Noah was VERY different 20 years ago and I remember being worried about Noah’s ark jokes. He’s glad we didn’t pick those.

DD (14) also had Sophie which I love but we know a couple of Sophie’s, we don’t know anyone with her name and she is the only one in her school despite it being top 30.

DD1 was almost Jennifer.
Alternatives for DD2 that we both liked were Amber, Emily, Maya.
We knew we were having girls, so never got very far with boys' names. The only one we have ever agreed on is Thomas.

If they were opposite sex

George
Daisy
Ivy

If I used the second in like name

Olivia
Zach
Joshua

Would still use all of them apart from Zach.

they were nearly Charlie and Laura (pre the Charlie and Lola books...) - don't really like either now.

if they'd been the other way around they'd have been Sophie and George

My daughter (Jessica) was going to be a
Harper, Siân, Maya or Alice

My first was almost Hallie, she just didn't suit it when she was born.
We also liked Freya, Elsie, Isla and Fearne but we went with something a lot less common and not really like the others on our list in the end. If she was a boy we only had one name so she would have been Theo.
For our second DD we liked Adeline, Ella and Eden. Again we only had one boys name we liked so she would have been Levi.

We had Eric and Ginny as the backups. Didn't decided on the name until we'd seen the baby :) I still think DD would have made an awesome Ginny.

Rachel, Shontell, or Juliet

Caitlin, Hannah

Hayley, Charlotte

My ex-neighbour's daughter actually did call her kids Charlie and Lola.

I'm just glad that I was born a girl as my mum and her best friend were adamant on calling me "Bilbo" if I was boy (they were both hippies and my surname when I was born was very similar to "Baggins".

Edie, after my nan. Husband really disliked it. We ended up calling her Evie (before it grew in popularity).

DD1 - would have been Sonny if she were a boy. Almost called Mila but DP didn't love it. Had a long list of names when she was born and didn't know the sex. He reckons she chose her own name when he was trying them out on her (wriggled her fingers apparently).

DD2 - again would have been Sonny if a boy. Choosing between Mila and Silva when we came across her actual name, then that was the one.

DS - his name is the only boy name that felt right for both of us (and it isn't Sonny!). If he were a girl, he probably would have been Fern or Sage

I never had any doubt about what I would call my eldest but my youngest was almost an Andy....and I still like it

My dh wanted to name ours after roads and places his favourites were

Gloucester and Rochester. To make matters worse our surname is a kind of street so think
Rochester Avenue
Gloucester Mews

Lucas, Felix, Matilda, Claudia

My bike mad dad wanted to call me Suzuki!. Thank goodness for my mum.

Emma for girl.

Re the African/West Indies and Irish exchange: Don't assume malice where there's only ignorance. Not every mistake is motivated by malice, and a good scolding isn't always the solution. I've seen the same thing happen in reverse - someone posts an African name and others assume it's satire then gets piled on. It's normal to be unfamiliar with a culture, even a neighbour. Proximity doesn't guarantee familiarity. Sometimes, it's just a genuine misunderstanding. The perils of online discourse and assumption-based attacks!

Medbh is just a more traditional spelling for Maeve which is everywhere on MN at the minute.
Naoise = nee-sha
Lir = Leer
Iarla = eer-la

Lir isn't Leer, it rhymes with fir.

Although
The English translation should properly be "The Children of Lear", Lir being a genitive, but the mistranslation has become culturally embedded (Wikipedia).

Lear is pronounced Lar in modern Irish by the way.

DD was almost a Liberty or an Alexa 😭 both were DH’s ideas.