Changing DDs name 6 months in

[mumbunforever]

Hello

I have seen similar discussions like this on here before but just wanted a bit of advice really.

My second daughter is nearly 6 months old and has a perfectly nice name which myself and my husband chose for her, it was not on our original list of names and for us was relatively common & quite tame. My four year old has a more unusual name.

I liked her name at first as it is a very harmless name so to speak it's 'nice'. In her first few weeks I had some thoughts that it just wasn't her name but I brushed it off as having to get used to it.

Over time I have tried so hard but she just doesn't feel like her name if that makes sense. She feels like the name I would have chosen for her. I have given it months of thought and finally spoke to my husband tonight who is initially unsure but hasn't said no to changing her name just needs time as he thought everything was fine.

I just can't imagine her name staying with her and me calling her it. I mean I sometimes try avoiding calling her it and just call her baby and there has been many times that someone has asked me her name and genuinely for a split second I have forgotten

It's just not me and not her and that's my gut feeling that I just want it changed. Obviously I need my husband to agree and although don't want to rush him I know it's simpler to change her name before she is a year old.

I will be keeping her first name she has now as a middle name and adding the preferred first name.

Only thing which concerns me is her sister will struggle to call her her new name and so will have to allow her time to continue to call her the original choice and also my mum who loves her name will be a pain about it. Everyone else I will just politely correct when using her old name.

I will never keep it from her but just explain if she ever asks the story and her original name will always be part of her birth certificate.

Has anyone had any experience of this and what did you do please?

Thanks

What are the names, OP?

I just cannot fathom this whole name changing thing months after a baby is born and named.

@Wildorchidz in what way can't you? Sometimes I guess people make a rushed decision and it's something a baby has for life so you would want it to be right/feel right

Change it I still wish I'd changed my daughters she's 8 now.

Me too @Wildorchidz and it took me a long time to get used to dd1 name, who I named!

Change it! If your DH isn’t on board, maybe you could add in the new name as a middle name but keep her name as a first name, and then you can call her by both.

I know several kids who are called by their middle name as a nick name by one parent and their first name by the other parent. It’s no different to a kid called Edward being nicknamed Teddy, or William/Billy, Catherine/Kate etc - they will understand that they’re both their names even though they’re not that similar.

I wish I’d changed by DDs name when she was a baby. It’s never really been ‘her’ and, like you, my other DCs have more interesting and unusual names. Twice now DD has asked to change her name, going as far as telling teachers and changing email addresses etc so I know she doesn’t really identify with it either. I’ve told her when she’s older she can change it permanently if she wants to, but I don’t want the hassle of changing it officially as she can’t really decide what she wants it to be!

If you don’t change it now you’ll always regret it, whereas if you do change it, it will only take a little while for everyone to get used to the new one.

My friend changed her child's name. I found it really weird but didn't think anything of it very shortly afterwards.

I would definitely change it. I regretted not calling my son by his middle name pretty early on. 5 years on I still prefer his middle name. Sod what anyone else thinks. Apart from your husband obvs.

I think it's a bit odd changing it after 6 months but if you really don't like it, do it.

It didn’t have to be a rushed decision, did it? You had 9 months to think about it. How sure can you be that the one you think you prefer is not just a passing fad (like the one you gave her)?

I changed my DD name a week before she turned 1. I do not regret it. It hasn't affected her at all and she suits her name. We kept her original name Rosa in as a middle though.

I don't understand how people change their children's names. When I registered my dc's birth the registrar made a point of telling me it was 'practically impossible' to change it later on & to be absolutely sure I'd got it right.

My mum still harps in about how she regrets my sisters name. My sister is 36. So yes, I'd change it now. 6 months may feel like a long time but it's really such early days.