I want to change my baby name (6 months old)

[GG300]

I am having quite a strong baby name regret. My husband and I couldn’t agree on a name at the time so we came to a ‘middle ground’ that neither of us loved but we came to an agreement on. I used one of my first choice name as a middle name.

the first name has never quite sat perfectly with me. It’s quite uncommon and is often met by surprise/questioning as to why we have picked it.

I feel after 6 months the name should fit and it just doesn’t. Everytime I say it or hear someone say it it makes me feel almost a little uncomfortable.

I think I would like to change to her middle name but am worried about judgement. However I am more worried that I will regret this name forever

How would you know if it was?
I doubt that the schools went to knew that I found being known by my middle name was a PITA.

You are probably more aware of the name Mohammed being used as the first name but the child known by the middle name than you would if the name was something like Arthur James known as James or Amelia Grace known as Grace.

We looked into this years ago and discovered to our surprise that it was a lot easier to change a birth certificate than it was to change a name given it baptism.

Yes, I do agree with this.

My parents know it was a PITA for me as I constantly complained to them as a teenager but I don’t think anybody other than them know, although I do try to tell people if I hear anyone deciding to do this ridiculous thing!

Same here @HandRandH . My parents didn't really help. Mum said 'Just don't use it' or 'but Nicola from Number 46 likes her name' - well it was her name, not mine.
Dad was awful, because he'd deliberately use it and go on to explain what it meant, blah blah, blah. Bully! Didn't they even care that I hated it?

The name itself is fine, I just didn't identify with it. (The name isn't Nicola but it's from that era). If they'd acknowledged that I didn't like it, it would have helped a lot.
I changed my name aged 18. It's not an issue other than I sometimes need to provide a copy of BC, deed poll and passport instead of BC & passport.
You rarely need to do this.

I really wish I had formally changed mine a long time ago.

I don't necessarily think it's ridiculous, but from chats with similarly afflicted friends is that those who have a relative's name (e.g. Margaret or Thomas aftera grandparent) as the unused first name are OK with it but the others not.

I would not recommend doing it to a child.

My name didn't flow at all, and it still doesn't.

Since the name you prefer is her middle name already, I wouldn't bother formally changing it. A lot of people use their middle names.

Yes and some of us find it a PITA. I'd swap the names round.

I've also never heard that she used Hilda - this article (BBC) does reference PMs who have used their middle names, but she was not one of them:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/7024197.stm

@FeelTheRush , I can't remember when I saw it, but there were letters from her to her sister when she was at university, and she signed them as Hilda. It was decades ago - how she had 'become' Mrs Thatcher from being Hilda, the dowdy daughter of a Grantham grocer.
It was well-known at the time (probably 1980-ish), just as we know now about Gideon and Al. The articles were in colour supplements. Probably about a biography.

That article is quite superficial. It was quite usual in the first half of the 20th century to be named after relatives. (I'm not that old BTW)
Opting to use your middle name - as each of these party leaders did - it doesn't tell you, for example, whether Mr Wilson or Mr Brown were called James by their parents. Both had fathers called James.

At school, it was quite usual for someone to be John Name Surname, Thomas Name Surname, Margaret Name Surname, etc. with many of them known by the middle name.
I can think of several, including in my extended family. My granddad was Robert Francis Thompson, known as Bob, My uncle was something like Robert Francis Thompson, known as Robin, his son Robert Andrew Thompson known as Andy, his son, Robert Fraser Thompson, known as Fraser etc, with a few of his cousins also Robert Something Thompson.

Name styles have changed - having 2 middle names was not common, double-barrelled surnames rare, and not having a middle name unremarkable.