can't believe it - MIL seriously insisting that we call ds-to-be Gerard

[laughorcry]

Not sure whether to laugh or cry. MIL getting really aggresive about the fact that dh and I do not want to call our baby Gerard - it was her dad's name and she is saying that dh will be the first son in six generations not to name after his grandfather.

Hope am not offending anyone btw, but can't say I like the name much and anyway feel that this is our choice to make.

I can't believe how upset this is making me - any suggestions for how to deal with her?

In my dhs family, on his father's side the boys were all called A or J. As dh was the last male in the family, I felt slightly guilty that ds1 was only given A as a middle name. However, my SIL had a baby boy a year later and as she is a single mum, he has her surname. She named him A*! As this is also FIL's name it causes some confusion! (That's why I'm not in favour of naming kids after family members.)

BTW I think Gerard is hideous. My dear dad is a Jerry but it's short for Jeremiah so even worse!

i know thsi isn't quite the point but i've just remembered there is a very hunky gerard at my current place of work...

On a more helpful note, my onw mother got it into her head that we should call Ds2 Brian (no offence etc to brians and brian-mums, just not my cup of tea) and kept banging on about how he looked like a brian and calling him brian BUT it did all die down in the end (although she does pccasionally call him brian still )

Brian!!!!
Er.....people aren't taking the piss here are they?
Next up will be someone talling us that their second cousin twice removed threatened to commit suicide unless the baby to be was called Basil....

Or Brain as it was often amusingly and obviously completely inappropriately written by one of my colleagues.

with pesto as a nickname moondog .

That reminds me of my plumber - (I have mentioned this before but maybe not to you, GoN) - his dad is called Brian and there are several sons all called Brian xxx - where xxx is another name, they're not all called "Brian xxx"!

My plumber is Brian Andrew so he's called Andrew. etc etc. How mad is that. And what was his wife thinking of?

TBH, moondog, think my mum was sort of taking the piss, but it went on so long it was hard to tell. I remember saying to DP at teh time "Do you think she seriously thinsk we should call him brian?" To thsi day she has never admitted it was a pisstake, so wonder what would have happened if had actually done it... but sorry laughorcry proably not really comparable to your situation...

lol ghon!!!

yeah, i remember thinking it was a bit odd to be messing with my post-natal head in that way!

JanH that is mad! reminds me of the nuns at my school when i was little who were called things like "Sister Mary xxx" and "sister Mary yyyy"

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Laughorcry - poor you, put your foot down now!! Easier said than done, I know, but agree with the others - DH should be the one being firm with her, not you.

Or you could deflect her attention by telling her that you're thinking about emigrating to New Zealand - that should take her mind off bloody Gerard!!

brians are what some of us have inside our heads

red wine excellent idea, gggl - after all it's almost nearly teatime where you are!

Native American these days my girl!

It does just look weirder and weirder (unlike gerard interestingly). She also used to say stuff like "he really looks like a brian" and then she bought him a stuffed brian from the magic rtoundabout (or maybe that was my sister, the plot thickens). And actually he did look a bit like brian from the magic roundabout in a very blobby stage of development...

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Laughorcry - Put your foot down!
Seriously! You will resent her forever if you give your child such a cr*p name because of her (apologies to anyone who likes it) and you CANNOT let her take over, it's YOUR BABY.

I'm so angry about this!

Tell her to eff off, it's not her baby. Let her sulk. What happens if she does it with the next child? And the next? She'll think she can get away with it.

DO NOT LET HER NAME YOUR CHILD.

You wait, he'll be in tweed outfits she insists he wears, going to the local school she picked, toys she picked, food she thinks he should have, she'll take over with weaning and everthing

Just DON'T.

And tell dh to stop being such a pansy if he hates the name too.

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And then there's George Foreman and all the little George Foremans, Pamina:

And Michael Jackson, Prince Michael and Prince Michael II (and his daughter is Paris Michael).

You guys are hepling me to see the funny side - am now laughing at idea that MIL will insist that any later kids also called Gerard.

Including any girls!