If you’re a parent who’s suffered from baby name regret, you’re not alone. A survey in the UK has shown that nearly three-quarters of parents admit they thought of a better name for their kid after they’d officially registered their birth.
Number one reason that parents regret a name choice? They didn’t think the name suited their child. Other common reasons include the kid being teased about the name at school, and a celebrity giving their baby the same name (it’s SO annoying when you call your son X Æ A-Xii and then Elon Musk and Grimes come along and do exactly the same).
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The survey showed that the names UK parents were most likely to regret giving their children were Hunter, Jaxon, Carter, Tobias and Oliver for boys, and Aurora, Arabella, Lyla, Amber and Edith for girls.
Mamamia asked Australian parents for their stories of baby name regret, and came up with some very different answers…
“I regret my oldest child’s name. We lived in the UK. We then moved to Australia. We are changing her name to a name of her choice after she has endured so many thoughtless adults’ comments. Her name is Azariyah. She is frequently told the story of Azaria Chamberlain.”
“My friend named her daughter Isla… along with thousands of other people, it seems. She changed it after four months.”
“I don’t regret my daughter’s name, but I had a lot of anxiety about it. We named her Alexa, because it was a name I loved long before Amazon brought out their assistant, and my husband liked its meaning. I hope I won’t regret it when she starts school. I’m praying that Google will win (we bought a Google Home Mini in support) and the Alexa assistant will die off before any bullies harass her to ‘turn on the lights!’”.
“We named our first daughter Amelia and our second Olivia. So many vowels and so close. It was a big mistake.”
“I named my twins Ari and Callum. At first that doesn’t seem odd at all… but it never occurred to me to say the names the other way around. It didn’t take long for someone to point it out to me. I was devastated at first but now I think it’s hilarious. Luckily the twins do too.”
“Our son is Oliver (our favourite name) Michael (my father-in-law) George. OMG. My best friend’s son is FML. Both completely unintentional.”
“I have an Aurora! She’s only five months but we all still love her name. Did question it when she was two days old and not feeding well (due to undiagnosed lip and tongue ties) and was literally ‘a roarer’. I wondered if we’d made a mistake but had already registered her. I’m a teacher and haven’t taught an Aurora yet. It was so very hard coming up with a name of a child I hadn’t taught.”
“I don’t regret my daughter’s name, but I named her Florence thinking it was unique enough that she would be the only one in her class/year at school. She’s not!”
“My first son is called Jack, and my second son (eight years later) we named Jed. I love them both but regret how cutesy they sound together. I’ve just had a girl called Sadie so have broken up the alliteration there.”
“I made sure to spell my kids’ names backwards and made sure their initials didn’t spell anything unfortunate, given that bullies took great delight from about Year 5 onwards pointing out that my name, Yonna, spelt backwards is ‘annoy’.”
“I regret using my fave names – Violet and Kevin – on pets before having kids.”
Do you have any baby name regret? Let us know in the comments below.
Feature Image: Getty.
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