Does anyone else feel underwhelmed by the name they chose?

[Butterflybluebell]

Not sure what I want from this post really. Just a little vent. When DS was born four years ago, we really struggled to name him.
I've never loved his name. But it was a name we both agreed on. A name we both liked enough, but neither of us loved. He needed a name. In hindsight, I wish we had taken a lot longer to name him but you know, post partum hormones and all that. His name is now associated with him, and obviously I would never change it, but I do feel it is a bit 'meh'. His middle name is the name I really wanted, but DH vetoed, not because he didn't like it, but because he was mildly friends with somebody whose son has that name! Ironically, he now doesn't see said person. So I'm still a bit annoyed about this 🤣.
And yes, it was me who posted about the name Miles haha! (And no, Miles is not his middle name) So many names I would name him now, now that I've had longer to mull names over. Not sure if it's just me in this boat!

I’m the same about all our kids names.
They all compromises between what dh and I liked. They suit them just fine and nobody but me ever gave them a second thought. I overthink everything so would probably be the same if they had any name.

I'm the same, I think I am just thinking about it a bit too much.

What a shame you couldn't of gone with the middle name, can you call him by that name? I use my daughter's middle name half the time, in fact an abbreviation of her middle name. I didn't consciously start calling her that, it just happened. I don't know if it would work if you tried to make that happen but I know people who are known by their nickname, middle name etc and didn't at first realise it wasn't their first name.

I don't overly love my grown up daughters name but it suits her fine, it's not too popular, it's also not too unusual. But it's a nice name.

It sounds abit odd that you keep saying you did not have enough time. You have 9 months how much more time do you need! We came up with dd1s name a few days before labour as we realised our first choice was totally overused.

I would be kind to yourself you both picked that name at the time so it can’t be that bad.

I adore both my children's names but I refused to settle. Either I loved the name or we kept looking. In the end I think my dh was the one who settled, especially on ds2

I meant I wish we took more time after he was born to decide on a name. We also didn't know what we were having, so it's harder to really connect with a name when you do it for both genders!

No but I know someone who picked a name she loved for DS1. Didn't have a name for DS2 and her then DH said his own middle name. She's never really loved the name and it's a bit 'old' for the DS2. Plenty of them our age but only in the top 20 names in one decade and outside the top 100 when he was born.

What a shame you couldn't of gone with the middle name, can you call him by that name?
I really don't like this. You get called the wrong name a lot. I know many who now go by their first name because it is easier e.g. Thomas James might be James to his parents but Tom at work.

I insisted on rushing the process too, wish someone had said take your time but I’m not a great listener either! Think if it wasn’t this it would be something else, I’ve a busy head.
Am picking paint for the house at the moment and it’s agony 😂

From a different perspective - I named my DC the two names I'd chosen before I'd even met DH. So they were 100% my favourites (they happened to be family names for DH so he loved them by lucky coincidence)

Now the dc are at primary school I'm unsure whether they were good choices! I still love the names but one is a very popular choice and the other is so unpopular within the generation (not unusual, it's a very classic name) that we have had funny looks and comments.

So I think overthinking is probably very normal, and any name could be criticised for being too try hard, too popular, etc etc!

This sounds so familiar 😂. My head is also so busy. I always say to my husband, you should try living a day with my mind 🤣. Wild!

Very true! I'd probably feel the same if it was any of the other names I like.

I felt like this about my middle DDs name. It was OK, a compromise.

Well, now she’s 28 and the name is just so much her I doubt she could ever have been called anything else!
It really suits her and looks like her.

You picked the right name, OP.

I felt similar about my children’s names when we first chose them. My son’s name is the name that my husband has always wanted to use. I liked the name and wanted to use it because it was special to him, but it’s not what I would have chosen. My daughter’s name we chose together but it took us forever to find a name we agreed on for her, and it wasn’t my first choice. I did feel a bit underwhelmed by the names at first but now that I associate them with my children I have grown to love both of them and I can’t imagine either of the children being called anything else now.

My dh decided he didn’t like the name I liked before our DD was born. Was watching a tv programme just before she was born and loved the name of the lead character. DD2 name was chosen in a gym changing when someone phoned a friend and said ‘Hi G it’s A’ thought they sounded great together and still love them 30 years later

Yes, but I can’t actually think what I would name them instead, so I’m fine with them!

Are you going to tell up the name OP?
X

I don't want to share the name, don't want to offend anybody else with DS with the name due to the way I feel about it. It's a perfectly normal, nice name. It just doesn't have anything about it in my opinion and doesn't really suit our vibe. I think mant people were surprised when we announced his name. Looking back we just thought we would never find the perfect name but I really do wish I spent more time after he was born. Not quite sure what happened, all I know is that ppst partum hormones have a lot to answer for. I was a mess after he was born mentally

@Butterflybluebell , is there anything else going on with you? I have a feeling that the name might be something completely normal like Henry and that your overthinking it.
If you'd named DS Miles you'd probably be worrying about that.
How are you feeling in general?

I’m never sure why people seem to feel such pressure to name their baby quickly. You don’t need to choose a name before they’re born, and you have weeks to register them. When DS was born, the register office was so busy, we didn’t get an appointment until he was ten weeks, and didn’t finally decide on his name and which order our surnames sounded best in until we were actually on our way there.

Take your time!

What did you call your baby for 10 weeks!?

This is exactly my point! I absolutely know we should have taken much more time! Hindsight...

And I'd learnt my lesson by the time my now one year old DD was born, believe me 🤣. We took so much time to name her.

I loved and still love the names I chose but I'm not necessarily ecstatic with the choices. For child 1, their name soared in popularity since being born and there are so many with the same name now. For child 2, people consistently get it wrong. Think "Mary" instead of "Marie" type thing.
So, I made the right choices for me but society makes me regretful of them at times.

I like my kids names well enough. They aren't my 'love' names but I wonder if I love the names not used more because they sound exotic to me rather than the names we use every day. All names are a bit of a compromise really. Some of the compromises weren't even with DH but what went ok with our surname- it is a word in itself think like 'Green' so any names that also had a word meaning were instantly out. For instance I loved the idea of Coral, Skye or Autumn for a girl but... just no... it sounded ridiculous.

Yes I feel the same. I had a daughter and a son and named them my favourite names. We had our third and the whole pregnancy I thought about names. It was so hard having already used my favourite names. I had a name I fell in love with for my third but my DH vetoed it. The names we loved, the other hated. So we eventually had to compromise and pick a name we were both only ok with. I still think about it quite a lot. I think maybe it would have been better to pick one of the names that at least one of us liked. I’m not sure how you pick who though.