Naming Regrets

[amyeliz.livejournal.com]

One of my best friends is named Courtney (26). As long as I've known her, I've heard her mother share the woeful tale of how Courtney was NEVER a name option for her daughter. Her whole pregnancy, baby was called Rebekah. Then, through the haze of anesthesia (and apparently the absence of anyone who knew what baby's intended name was), she declared her as Courtney, and signed the birth certificate.
I'm not sure why they never legally changed it, but Courtney remained her name, and it suits her.

My aunt named her daughter Katherine (29). They called her Katie from the time she was born. When Katie was around 10, she told her mom how much she hated Katherine and wished that she had just named her Katie. At this point, my aunt apparently laughed and admitted a similar situation to the one described above. Basically, she could never settle on a name and didn't like anything. Katherine came to her in the hospital, and she decided it sounded nice. But, from the moment she brought baby home, she HATED the name and made a distinct choice to call her Katie instead. At 18, Katie legally changed her name to just that.

So, does anyone know any similar stories? Did you name your child a name you now regret? Do your parents regret what they named you?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/___heyvanity/]

I don't really get the Katie thing. I mean if you TELL people to call you Katie, you're only going to get called Katherine every now and then. I'm Jennifer and EVERYONE calls me Jenn or Jenny (my family calls me Jenny and people I grew up with, only). Even if I hated Jennifer, I wouldn't feel so stuck with it, like I would a name without nn options.

[byfaith.livejournal.com]

Even though people call you by your nn, all of your official documents (passport, license, insurance), etc. have your legal name, right? If I hated my name as much as Katie did, I would probably have it changed too just so I wouldn't have to see it on everything.

[http://users.livejournal.com/___heyvanity/]

This is true. But I don't think you really look at those documents THAT much, but if you hated it I suppose it would be a burden.

It would be a burden just to change all that shit though too. XD

[amyeliz.livejournal.com]

I understand what you mean. However, there was never a time, ever, that anyone called her Katherine. And, especially after finding out that your own mother hates your name, I can understand wanting to just make it what everyone calls you anyway.

I understand what you mean about keeping a longer name, though...it gives you a lot more freedom for nicknames. We call her Kate and just K sometimes, but she's pretty much Katie through and through.

I think Katherine is pretty...I don't understand the hate!

[http://users.livejournal.com/___heyvanity/]

Well I think there will always be someone out there who just hates their name... you can't get around that. I'm just saying AT LEAST she had nn options. Some people are stuck with a name they hate and they have to just call themselves something completely different. Most people (if Katherine is anything like Jennifer) will say to you, "Hi Katherine, do you prefer to be called something else?"

I get that she hated it, but it just seems nit-picky to me. But if she hated it, then whatever, I'm sure she's happy now that she doesn't have to be referenced by Katherine every now and again.

[byfaith.livejournal.com]

I had a friend whose mother named her after a porn star. I wish I remembered the porn star name, but I don't. When my friend was 12, her mom told her where her name came from and my friend got so upset that her mom let her pick her own new name. She named herself Heather Paige and her mom had it legally changed for her and she's gone by Heather since then.

[amyeliz.livejournal.com]

OMG! I would have swiftly made a change as well! And she picked a great name, especially considering that she was 12.
At 12, I would have gone with probably Clarissa or Blossom or Alex Mack (all favorite TV shows of mine at the time). And then I would have had to change it AGAIN later. =)

[kjerlandsen.livejournal.com]

All throughout my first pregnancy, my son was going to be Ezra. I was young (16/17) and everyone gave me these awful looks when I told them the name. About a month before he was born, I was having serious doubts about the name. I was then leaning towards Caleb, but not completely sold on anything.

While in labor, I was given Demerol, which is an opiate. I was high as a kite when he was born and declared him to be Lukas. Which is a name I never liked. Every Luke I've ever known has been a tool. My now 11 year old goes strictly by Lukas. For a while, I called him Lu, but he recently informed me that he doesn't like that.

[amyeliz.livejournal.com]

Why in the world do they bring in the legal documents while women are still heavily sedated?!

For the record, though, I like all 3 of those names!

[cremepuff.livejournal.com]

This. I'm a Kathleen who has always gone by Katie since the day I was born. *shrug* I guess some people are picky!

[mrsduryee.livejournal.com]

If I did something as ridiculous as try to change the name WE decided on in the hospital, my husband would freak out. This baby is already Susanna Jane to us. She is a real person with a real name that we have shared with everyone already. I've even made nursery art with her name on it. If I was like, "she's more like a Madison" (this is a nightmare of mine - choosing some super popular, trendy name because I'm drugged) in the hospital on birthing day, my husband would probably say, "well, too bad we already named her Susanna!"

Thank goodness for him.

[byfaith.livejournal.com]

Rose, that reminds me of my parents. They were set on naming me Ashley Brooke. They called me that throughout most of my mom's pregnancy.

Mom had Demerol during labor and here I am, Amanda Brooke. Ha, ha!

[cremepuff.livejournal.com]

My grandmother named my dad Dennis at the hospital; however, when they got home, she didn't like it anymore and kept calling him Danny. 2 weeks later, they legally changed it to Daniel. True story.

[mrsduryee.livejournal.com]

I'm not a huge fan of many of the names of the 80s, maybe because I'm a child of the 80s as well (27), but Courtney is one that I really do like. The fact that it's an old British male name redeems it a bit for me.

[skudge.livejournal.com]

My mom was going to name me Aaron if I was a boy, but since I wasn't, she randomly chose Stacey instead. Then, a while after I was born, she found out that the girl name Erin sounds the same as Aaron and wished she had named me that. But I guess it turned out all right because my little sister's name is Erin, so my mom got to use that name after all.

[octobre09.livejournal.com]

My husband's name was going to be Michel. The day that he was born, his older brother kept saying to everybody that his brother's name was Johnny. So his parents name him the French equivalent of John which is Jean and kept Michel as a middle name. To this day, they still call him Johnny (and I call him John.)

[duck-deluxe.livejournal.com]

My mom was hell bent on naming me Miranda and my father wanted Sara. Somehow, before my mother woke up from her emergency c-section, my father named me "Amy" which thankfully they both liked after the fact.

[solitudete.livejournal.com]

I used to know a family who allowed their seven year old daughter to legally change her name from Nicole to Daisy.

Wish I knew how that BS turned out.

[doxerssoldout.livejournal.com]

not so much regret, but my mother has admitted that she would have seriously reconsidered my name if she knew the problems i would run into with it. (it's christine, yet i always get christina, kristen, kierstin, christian, etc...)

[blissurrenderd.livejournal.com]

I love my daughter's first name (Svetlana) but I'm not sure where I was going with her middle name (Ash). I like it and I think it goes well with the first, but it still makes me think "WTF?!" sometimes.

[flufflenecharka.livejournal.com]

Seconding the love for Svetlana. <3

[mrssubee.livejournal.com]

no...but I do have a vague recollection of when I was pregnant thinking of some name that I personally find horrible and just thinking it was sooo beautiful and t would make a great name choice- ah- pregnancy hormones!
can't remember exactly what it was- it was Gertrude or Hildegard or something like that

[quinnthevixen.livejournal.com]

My husband was named Stephen at birth, but was often being called "stefan" at school or by playmates (not sure why, that's a pretty straight-forward spelling, I think.) So when he was 8 years old, he decided he was going to be "Sam" instead. He had (distant) relatives on both sides of the family named Sam/Samuel, and so that's the name he chose. He's still legally a Stephen, which occasionally becomes confusing, but to everyone else, he's Sam. I think the only reason he hasn't officially changed it yet is because he thinks it will offend his parents.

I always tease him by saying I never would've married a Stephen, because all the Stephens I've known are nerds, but Sams are hot!

[fleckerbug.livejournal.com]

My mother once told me she wished she'd named my brother Jeremiah instead of Jeremy. I don't know if this is where she got it, but Jeremiah is my great-great-grandfather's name. We plan on using Jeremiah ourselves to honor my brother's memory and because it's a family name.

We gave our daughter the middle name Sherman after my cat that died two weeks before her birth. Totally unplanned, it came to me after her birth. We ended up giving her both of her intended names as her first name-- Brenna Rose. I don't regret it, but let's just say I probably wouldn't have done it if not for the butt loads of morphine.