Regretting the name we gave our baby

[Ineedtotalkaboutthis]

Hi everyone,

First of all, I'm Spanish and I live in Spain (this is an important detail).
My husband and I decided to call our daughter Alexandra. In Spain, the usual Spanish version of this name is Alejandra. While Alexandra isn't unheard of, Alejandra is by far the more traditional and common version.

She has just turned one and the problem is that, from time to time, people in general and even some of our relatives, call her Alejandra by mistake and although they inmediately correct themselves without me telling them it makes me sad to think that my daughter might have to deal with this for the rest of her life.

Lately I've started wondering whether we made a mistake choosing this name.
We lived abroad for several years and have friends from all over the world, so Alexandra felt like a more international choice. We also absolutely loved the nickname Alex, which was another big reason we chose it.

So my question is: if you were in my position, would you do anything about it, or is this just something we should accept and move on from?

And for anyone who has a name that people constantly confuse with another version or variation, how does it make you feel? Do you dislike your name because of it, or does it not really bother you?

One of my kids has a name that is constantly mispronounced. It annoyed me when teachers couldn't get it right yet were able to remember names of different nationalities.

Child is now a teen and is resigned to people not proouncing the name. Doesn't even bother to correct people anymore which makes me feel quite sad tbh.

I think you should just call your daughter Alex which is the name you love anyway.

None issue and beautiful name

My SIL is Spanish, lives in Spain and her name is Alexandra. She’s never had any major problems and is generally called Alex. I don’t think it’s as big an issue as you think.

Both versions of the name are lovely and I think you are right that Alexandra is more international (though I imagine she’ll get Alessandra a lot too). I don’t think you can avoid the different pronunciations so just embrace it.

My son has a very traditional English name, his Zimbabwean Dad and family used to always call him by the Zimbabwean version when he was little. It never bothered him

I'm English, but I live in a Spanish speaking country. We also have an issue that getting our daughters names right is hard for people (even though we chose names that are pretty similar in their English and Spanish form)

Once your daughter is a little older, she'll start using a nickname anyway, and people will give her nicknames which you don't get a say on. If I was you, I wouldn't change the name.

We are English but our DD was born in Spain, so we naturally wanted to giver her a Spanish name & chose one that we both loved.
It’s a very common name in Spain, very simple spelling & one that we thought would be very easily pronounced in English. How wrong we were! She has spent most of her life correcting people’s prononciation & spelling but she still loves her name & that fact that no one else in her school has the same name, which is rare these days. Embrace it !

My name can have 2 different first letters doesn't bother me that I get asked what version of spelling.

Non issue am afraid.

You'll have to get the book: ¡Por fin duermo en mi camita! It's about a child called Alex who gets their own bed in their own room.

My impression of Spain is that older people generally have very little experience with other languages and virtually everyone in their cohort will have had a traditional Spanish name, whereas most young people speak and understand English well, and so when your daughter grows up and makes friends, they will have no issues getting her name right.

I wouldn’t over think it. My half French daughter has the name Camille which in France people who speak English always presume she is Camilla because I am English the in England everyone thinks it’s pronounced Cameel with the nickname Cami. No matter what you do some people will get it wrong even if they are not unheard of names like Alexandra or Camille.