Unfortunate name choice

[dsandhisname]

DS shares his name (first and surname) with a fairly well known person, who unfortunately has disgraced himself since.

I don’t really think I can change DS’s name but wondering if others would. The spelling is a bit different. But the name is identical.

You named your child Hugh so I don't think Ian is such a stretch!

I knew a 4 year old called Gary too. He'll be about 8 now.

I think Hugh Edward’s is fine.
There are so many bad men about and in the wider scheme of things, HE is just another nonce.
I once met a Peter Sutcliffe, now that was a very different kettle of fish.
Anyone with the surname Saville also gets my sympathy. So too would Shipman. But HE? No not in their league.
Don’t change it but maybe call him Hughie for a bit.

Change it to Hugo

How 'disgraceful' has this person been? How heinous? I mean if it's something severe then maybe consider a change, but the world and the news changes very very quickly. It could well be a splash in the pan. Otherwise it can be changed but depending on the age of the child- a bot of an administrative upheaval. Depends how upsetting you and your family find it.

Did it not occur to you to have a little look through the thread before asking?!

No, it didn’t. I’m new to Mumsnet. And as the platform suggests I’m a busy mum so don’t have all hours of the day to trawl through, perhaps like yourself? Have you ever been new to something? Thanks for your contribution anyway.

@Itsoneofthose , did you mean to sound so rude and entitled?

Yeah I did. I was responding to a rude and entitled comment in the same tone.

It makes sense to at least read the OP's posts before posting on a thread several pages long, @Itsoneofthose . If you click See all on the OP it will show you just those. If you skim through those, you can get a gist.

MN is a good place in general, but being rude is unpleasant.

It is unpleasant, so I'm not sure why someone confronted me like that. Anyway, I get the gist of the kind of forum it is now.

Bye then.

Me too! I'd want to change it myself. Assume you can't all change to your maiden last name? Probably not. I'd worry about bullying in the teen years but by adult it'll be fine. 4 is a bit hard to change a short name that can't be adjusted like if it was Russell brand it's an easy tweak to Russ.

@Alittlebitfluffy the problem is what happens if the OP changes the name and then next week someone with that name does something horrific?
Keep changing it 🤔

@Alittlebitfluffy I also think by the time this child is in his teen his peers won't have a clue who Huw Edwards was. Most teens even now won't.

I've been having a bit of a book declutter. I had a book that looked promising until a few pages in the author was saying how great RB was. I read no further.
Another book seemed OK, a light read, but in the last pages the author was praising JS. I felt sick. They were different authors and not particularly connected with the BBC.

Are you going somewhere?

If you think the friendly, jovial way that I worded that was rude and entitled, you must have led a very charmed life.

It's actually very rude to join a conversation that's well underway without even bothering to read the OP's posts even if no others.

Yes, I've also been short on time (or just couldn't be bothered) to properly acquaint myself with how a thread has progressed; on those occasions, I don't add my comments, as I'm very aware that I may well say the same thing as 500 other posters and or say/ask something that is now irrelevant - and maybe even upsetting to the OP - as the thread will obviously have moved on since then.

The very worst case of this was when a much-loved terminally-ill MNer was asking for advice about a bucket-list UK seaside holiday. Long after she had very sadly died, having tragically never had the chance to make it there, there were still people coming on with tips and suggestions as to where she 'mustn't miss' going.

Welcome to MN and all the very best ; but please realise that this is a forum for everybody on it and isn't just a personal sounding board for any of us in a vacuum.

By no stretch of the imagination was it friendly and jovial. Unless you are a moderator or the OP then you had no business patrolling and confronting others. Pouncing on my well intentioned advice, and bringing me down. I pulled you up on it, and you don’t like it. Now let’s leave it there.

This may be a very long shot, but I too was re-reading an old guilty pleasure book recently after many years and found the same as you: the author suddenly praising JS right near the end, having gone through most of the book criticising almost all of the famous (and non-famous) people she'd ever met for not being 'classy'.

It wasn't perchance Lynda Lee-Potter's autobiography 'Class Act' was it?!

@ShaggyPutItOnWhatAPongItGaveHimTheShakesNShivers , yes. (I know I shouldn't read trash but ).

The reality is that nobody will even remember him in 5 years. He may have made bad judgement but he wasn't breaking the law even.

I'm happy to leave it there, but I will say in closing that you will, before long, experience some people on here who are genuinely nasty and pull no punches whatsoever - as well as the majority who are nice people, but who will kindly point out when you break the long-standing widely-accepted etiquette on here.

Ah, what a coincidence!

Neither should I, but it was very compelling in a 'read through your fingers and try not to cringe' way

I’d be more concerned if the infamous person was more well known to younger generations. The average kid at school won’t know Gregg Wallace but if the name is someone known to young people like Andrew Tate or Jake Paul then I’d be more concerned because I’d feel like I’d have to explain why the infamous person is bad before they find out from someone at school.