Teddy Oliver or Edward Oliver

[Gilmoregirl21]

Hi everyone,

I have a beautiful little baby boy, now 10 months old. I have been questioning our decision on his 'official' name pretty much since we registered him. We only have until 12 months to change easily, so time is running out. He is registered as Teddy Oliver. The other alternative was Edward Oliver and we would still shorten to Teddy at home, but officially he would be Edward. Thoughts please! I keep changing my mind. He is very much a Teddy, cheeky and full of energy. I do appreciate that it doesn't age as well as Edward. There are lots of ways to look at it
Popularity wise, on official lists Teddy is more popular than Edward. Thanks for voting and advice!

Edward gives him options, teddy is cute for a baby but perhaps not to be taken seriously at work

Definitely Edward. Teddy is fine and quite cute for a toddler but even mid-primary age would seema bit babyish I think so would rather give him the option to go by other names, if he wanted. That being said, I know an Edward who goes by Ted and always has and it completely suits him. Maybe it’s what you’re used to.

Edward.

Opens up possibilities in the future which your son may appreciate.

Prior to having kids I only knew adult Teddys and loved both the name. Loved it on yer man in the 90210 reboot etc. I have a family member whose parents used a formal name on the birth cert and a diminutive his whole life and it drives him nuts that they don't use the diminutive on his birth cert. So basically you can't do right for doing wrong. When he's an adult he'll be tripping over other Teddys. I have a name that was the top 5 for about 20 years and in spite of that I still had to regularly spell it on the phone because people hear me wrong. So there's no safe guarding the future.

Edward - gives him options if need be.

I have an Edward. He was Teddy when very little. We now call him Ted at home. If anyone referred to him as Teddy from the age of 5 onwards he hated it. He’s now 15 and goes by Edward or Ed at school. We are still “allowed” to call him Ted at home. Edward when I’m cross :-).

I gave DC2 an Edward type name on the birth certificate but everyone has called them the Teddy-style name since day 1. It was a deliberate decision - If DC2 wants to be a DJ, they can carry on calling themselves Teddy but if they decide to be a high court judge they might want to use the more formal and serious Edward name.