Baby Name Mistakes: Tenth Of Parents Regret Their Choices

Some people have baby names picked out when they are just kids themselves. Others don’t decide on a name until two days after their baby is born. Either way, according to a new study conducted by yourbabydomainname.com, 8% of parents regret choosing the name that they did.

Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz, founders of Nameberry.com, say the most common mistakes parents make when it comes to naming their babies include letting their own parents have too much say in the decision or focusing on superficial factors, like how “cool” the name choice makes them look.

When the parents who admitted to regretting their children’s names were asked why:

53%, felt this way because they had chosen a name that was ‘fashionable’ at the time 32%, of the parents who said that they ‘regretted’ their child’s first name said that they did so because it is now a ‘common’ name for children.

So, what’s a parent to do in this situation? In 2008, we heard about a Cleveland couple who actually changed their daughter’s name from Emma to Caroline when she was a newborn. And, a Connecticut family started calling their daughter Isadora when she was four, because her original name, Sophie, was too popular in her preschool class.

Another option, of course, is learning to love the name you once chose. Besides, what’s in a name anyway?

Quick Poll

Do you still love your children’s names?

Yes, I love my names

No, if I could pick different ones, I would

Most of the time, but I have regrets every so often

Share your vote on Facebook so your friends can take this poll

Comments

[wyndhamdg]

09:21 AM on 11/19/2011

The names are still okay, 4 boys, 20, 18, 15, 13.....it's the kids I don't care for!

[Num1Christy]

08:56 AM on 10/15/2011

Gracelyn and Wyatt - couldn't be happier w/ my children or their names :)

[mrstaylor]

11:32 PM on 10/13/2011

We chose a traditional name for our daughter, though it is not a traditional name in the US. We named our little girl Aoife (pronounced EE-fah), which is a traditional Gaelic name. We get compliments all the time on her name!

[burtongrl]

12:12 AM on 10/14/2011

No offense but that spelling is going to cause a whole life of everyone mispronouncing that name

[GracieGiraffe]

10:31 AM on 10/13/2011

Go with a traditional name. You won't regret it.

[LivelyLexie]

07:46 AM on 10/13/2011

I was born on July 4th and my mom always says they should have named me Independence and called me Indie for short. While Indie is a cute nickname, I would have KILLED HER. Or, you know, just changed my name.

[European1919]

06:42 AM on 10/13/2011

Reminds me of when I was in a relationship with a woman who'd given her kids trendy names. When I took them to the playground one day and called the boy, about another 4 or 5 sprogs stopped what they were doing to look at me expectantly.

[syntax facit saltum]

02:40 AM on 10/13/2011

My husband tried to convince me to name a son "Xenophon" (if we had had one-- we ended up with daughters so I didn't have to debate circumcision or Xenophon as a name.).

[BowlingForRevenge]

01:13 AM on 10/13/2011

Rule of thumb in naming a successful child...
Go back 125 years in your family and pick one...any one.:)

[chereka31]

11:59 PM on 10/12/2011

True Story. I work with a woman whose granddaughter is named Urethra.

[syntax facit saltum]

02:42 AM on 10/13/2011

I've heard of someone who named their daughter "Verily." When asked about the name, the mother said: "It is Biblical. Christ is always using it: Verily, I say unto you. "

[Bethanese]

08:42 AM on 10/13/2011

I was at Target the other day and I heard a lady calling out to her kid, who was wandering the aisles, "Romaine! Get back here!" I turned to my husband and asked, "Did I hear wrong or did that lady name her child after produce?"

[jenkait]

11:15 PM on 10/12/2011

These comments are hilarious and awesome!

I'm glad I didn't have kids when I was a teenager...they probably would've been named "Mulder" and "Scully". I'm sure I would've regretted that :)

[LadyLeslie]

02:38 PM on 10/12/2011

I named my daughter after Queen Christina of Sweden and the Empress Josephine of France. If she had been a boy it would have been Christopher Joseph.
When she was in kindergarden I went to pick her up and called out her name, five little girls responded, not one of them was her.

[Grinling Gibbons]

11:10 AM on 10/12/2011

We had a bunch of names floating in our heads for our daughter, all of them kind of common. On the way to the hospital, John Lennon's "Julia" came on the radio - and I just knew that was it. Perfect name and she often thanks me for it. Named the boys family names, Alexander & Nicolas, and they like those as well, mainly because they're not embarrassing. But Julia always felt like a special name, like it was given to her by a song.

[MarcEdward]

11:05 AM on 10/12/2011

When you pick out that name, remember you'll be having to scream it in public, so keep it short, one or two syllables. Google "top 100 baby names" and make sure you use NONE of them. My son Jasper never has to worry another kid has his name.

[BowlingForRevenge]

01:16 AM on 10/13/2011

That's why we have nicknames so we don't ALL have one and two syllable names.
Hats off to Jasper...he'll need it!

[gingin8639]

03:45 PM on 10/24/2011

That last sentence depends on how old your kid is. Due to the success of the Twilight series, I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of Jaspers around (and I kind of hate myself a little for even knowing that is a characters name.)

[Amanda Kutta]

09:42 AM on 10/12/2011

I wish everyone hadn't hijacked my daughters name or that I had stood more firm for the first name. I wanted Amaryllis or Rylie...we ended up with Rylie Sage and so did half of her school, boys and girls.

[MarcEdward]

11:00 AM on 10/12/2011

ROTFLOL
We named our first son "Max". only to find out later that it's one of the most popular DOG NAMES in the South, as in 
"So, what's the little feller's name?"
"Max"
"I got a dog named Max!"

[BowlingForRevenge]

01:16 AM on 10/13/2011

Yes, I'm from the South and my first Lab was Max :)

[Imzadi]

06:04 AM on 11/03/2011

My last dog was named "Max". LOL This time it is Loki - for the same reasons listed for children's names. I didn't want to call my dog and have 5 others respond.

;-)

[Bethanese]

08:36 AM on 10/12/2011

I can't agree with my husband on baby names at all, so I told him to wait until we find out the gender next week and eliminate 50% of the work/fighting. He is falling victim to the "fashionable" name mindset with the name Aidan. He is older, so none of his friends have an Aidan, but I am in my early thirties and know at least five people with sons named Aidan born between 2003 and the present. I am more worried about initials, though. After going through my first 29 years with the initials "BAG" and the monogrammed mom-has-a-sense-of-humor L.L. Bean backpack that prominently displayed them, I will be extremely careful about initials.

[LivelyLexie]

09:14 AM on 10/12/2011

Warn him that if he names your child Aidan, your son will be full of a classroom with children with rhyming names: Brayden, Cayden, Hayden, Jayden...

[MarcEdward]

11:02 AM on 10/12/2011

Don't use that name.
My wife teaches High School, and every year it's the same thing - a bunch of names that reflected what was on television 14 years previously. Go get a baby name book and pick something older (not necessarily traditional) that nobody is going to pick.

[Bethanese]

02:42 PM on 10/12/2011

Thank you both. I am printing this out and showing it to him. :)