Moms Confess: I Regret My Baby's Name
By Charlotte Hilton Andersen, REDBOOK
The first time it happened, we giggled. But this weekend when yet another little girl tittered and asked my 8-year-old son Jonas if he was named after the Jonas Brothers, the only sound was my son's sigh. "Couldn't you have named me Bob?" For the record, we named our son after his dad and it also happens to be a Bible name-no boy bands were invoked in the birth of our baby. And while I still love his name, I can understand why he gets tired of the jokes. At this age the girls are mostly reverential but if Nick, Joe and That Other One I Can Never Remember stick around the scene, by high school my son might have a legitimate complaint.
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It turns out we're not the only ones having second thoughts about a child's name. In a recent survey done by Gurgle.com, 54 percent of British parents had some regrets about their chosen moniker. Wondering if the same held true for my American friends, I did a quick poll.
"Everyone called my daughter Montana ' Hannah Montana' for years. Thankfully it's wearing off now." - Camille
"I wish I had named my son Jack. Now he's decided he wants to go by Jackson (which is his name, but it was only a compromise with my Mister in the first place). I guess you have to let kids be who they are though, not who you think they ought to be." - Alice
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"I tried to name my children ordinary, yet not common names. But my plan didn't really work, each of my children's names ended up being in the top 20 names for the year they were born. Sorry, Noah, Ethan, and Ava." - Melissa*
"My daughter's name is Tiffany, she was born a few years after the 80s mall pop star Tiffany was popular. She got the same question all the time and her friends even played "Tiffany" songs at her 21st birthday party. Yep, she hates me." - Melissa*
"I named my child Riley because I thought it was an old name and it was also the name of my great uncle. Afterwards I realized that everyone was using the name for both sexes and coming up with all of these odd spellings. I still love his name, but wish it weren't so popular." - Shannon
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"It took forever to choose my firstborn's name but we finally settled on a name we loved. Then, the day she was born and we were calling friends, a friend made us aware that her initials spelled 'A.S.S.'! I said tough, I like the names and whoever writes all 3 initials anyway! I love my little A.S.S.!" - Krista
"When Teal was younger, she always said that she couldn't wait until she was grown up to change her name. Now that she is grown up, she realizes that it is, in fact, the perfect name for an art student." - Melissa*
Do you have any regrets about your child's name? If you had it to do over would you choose a different one?
*I think it's particularly hilarious that three of the moms who answered my question are named Melissa. And yes, they're all different people!
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