My 4.5 son HATES his name!!!

[Thefirstime]

It’s causing huge tantrums in our house - he hates it and is learning to write another name altogether.. such a shame.. my DH becoming frustrated with it..

someone mentioned to me that it could be to do with self esteem issues, already??

any advice??

Got an old VHS tape somewhere on his 3rd bday everyone singing ‘happy birthday dear Nathan, and he snaps Rachel!! at everyone’. So funny

What's the name?

This thread just made me remember another one on here, which sadly got deleted, where someone wanted opinions on whether or not to call her newborn "Lucky Buoy" (I'm sure the name you have chosen isn't this bonkers OP). All her other children's names began with an F 😂

More relevant to actual post here - our 2.5 yo frequently has days where he'll only answer to "Spiderman" or sometimes "Batman". Kids do whack stuff all the time - think it's best to let it run it's course. The more you fight it, the bigger deal it'll become.

😂😂😂

I wanted to be called Esmeralda when I was 4. I think it was after a My Little Pony but not sure. I'm 40 now and my actual name was and is an underused classic that I like.
My nephew who is 5 likes to pretend he is a fish. Imaginatively known as 'Fishy'. I presume he too won't be a 40 year old adult 'Fishy' writhing around on the floor.

I would not let a 4 year old change their name, unless it really is a silly name, and yes sone parents do chose daft names.
He wants to be like his friend, this is normal.
I remember being a child and wishing I had a very common, boring name. So glad I haven’t now. I also longed for mousey hair! My hair is a great colour ( even if I say so myself). Children just want to fit in. If his best friend is called Oliver then he probably wants to be called Oliver. If his best friend is called Blue Pilot Moon then he probably wants to be called that.

My daughter hated her name too...a normal name but the same as an aunt. She would not accept having the same name as someone else. Later on she had an ASD diagnosis. From age 2.5 she insisted on being called a name of a kids tv show character (normal name) and it started as a cute game but that stuck and is now the name she still goes by age 22!

My brother used to tell everyone at school that his name was different to the one he had. It lasted about 6 months. We all carried on calling by his real name.

@VeridicalVagabond , @LadyVictoriaSponge

Might the world not be more interesting with a few more Morticias and Bianca-Jades? particularly if they're chosen by the bearer. How much more interesting we might all be.

Could it be he is struggling to spell/write it? And once he has cracked it he will become more at ease with it?

Desperate to know the name

Boys cope with unusual names less well than girls apparently.

Tell him he can call himself anything he likes, but you will continue to call him (real name). I know several people who are, and have always been, known by a different name at home than within their friendship circle.

Ffs how can anyone comment without knowing the name?

Op, if his name is so unusual that posting it would be outing then the kid probably has a point.

I like to think I and others are quite capable of being interesting without having to have a stupid name. And I don't know about @LadyVictoriaSponge but my very normal, classic name has grown with me. If I'd chosen to change it every time I was feeling different or going through a phase of some sort I'd be on name #56 by now no doubt. Instead the name I've got has grown and evolved through multiple different nicknames and diminutives alongside me and all the changes I've been through my life. I think that's far more interesting than being called Morticia.

When I was about 4 I REALLY wanted to have the same name as a character from a cartoon I was obsessed with. My parents just ignored me so I started including it as a middle name (God knows why, I already had 2) until at some point I forgot about it.

I am quite glad now not to be a 41 year old woman called Callum.

This is such a common thing…

My DD has a perfectly normal nice name that people like but isn’t overused. She has renamed herself several times, starting around age four.

It isn’t just about the name, it’s about her demanding acknowledgment that she isn’t the same as the toddler who had that name. Some of the names DD chose/invented were ridiculous and we used them sometimes but mostly didn’t.

Currently DD has circled back to her original name and is now requiring us to only address her by the full length four syllable version, not the shorter version nickname we used for most of her life which she now says is babyish.

Ugh. Kids! Tell your DS that when he is 18 he can pay a fee to the government and they’ll change his name to anything he likes but until then you aren’t changing it although he is welcome to pick a sensible nickname that’s similar to his real name, for you all to try to use.

Ignore it. When my son was four he wanted to be called Agnes.

I was given a new doll at that age, (back in the 60s) fell in love with its name and apparently got in a total strop that my parents hadn't called me - Marigold!! 😂Refused to answer to my real name for ages. Still not mad on my name even now, but can you imagine if my parents had given in to me and named me after a pair of rubber gloves?!! 🙄

My daughter has never liked her name and we all just use a nickname (she's called her name at school).
I asked her if she would like to pick another name and she said absolutely not because you must have put a lot of thought and love into naming me and I'm sure i will learn to love it when I'm older,she also said she hates maths but she might learn to love that when she's older too 😂
Ps I had no intention of changing her name and tough luck kiddo you need to learn maths whether you want to or not.
Kids of 4 change their minds more that teenagers change their socks so I wouldn't worry about it 😂

<off topic> @PlantsHaveTakenOverMyHome, I had a Marigold! She started off adorable but evolved into a whiny bitch so I dismembered her.

Did you give him the normal spelling of his name or is he objecting to a "yooneek" one? If the latter I'd maybe ask if he wants to change to the traditional spelling.

We tended to use the full version of dc's names at home, but when they started referring to themselves as the shortened version or that was what they asked friends to call them that's what we moved to. Like James can become Jamie or Jimmy, Christopher is Kit or Chris sort of thing.

Is there an accepted shortening of his name? Does he have a middle name he prefers? Or a nickname?

Had to scroll back after seeing that comment

My kid insisted on being called Doctor Excellent Angel at that age.

I think it's too soon to do anything drastic. Just wait it out. It's likely to be a phase that will pass...