Yikes! Apparently one in five mothers say they regret their baby’s name

It’s one of the hardest decisions a person can make in their lives: what to name your children. In some ways it’s a blessing because it’s another beautiful way you get to help shape your child’s future, but it must be absolutely terrifying to try and figure out what name will suit someone, especially when they’re all cute and squishy like a newborn baby.

However, a recent poll has disclosed some rather shocking news: one in five mothers say they actually regret their baby’s name.

Yikes!

As The Guardian reported, a UK parenting portal Mumsnet discovered that of the 245 (!) out of 1,362 mothers who regretted their child’s name, 12% actually thought it was a bad choice of name all along. What’s more, 32% knew that the name was wrong in just six weeks of their baby being born.

According to the poll, 25% of mother’s ended up thinking that the name was too common.

For some (6%), it was the fact that they didn’t like the abbreviations and nicknames that their child ended up being called, and 10% of mothers said that they didn’t feel the given name suited their younglings.

Interestingly, 20% of mothers said that they were pressured into naming their child a specific name.

Despite this, only 6% have actually done something about it and changed their child’s name, despite the fact that a third of all respondents claimed they had considered it.

Writing on a forum post to accompany the poll, one mother wrote that she regrets her daughter’s name because it’s become common. “It’s annoying as I thought I would be over it by now. Don’t think I have ever obsessed about anything else this much — seems ridiculous!” 

Similarly, another parent wrote, “I found that the name I loved and still do I couldn’t use on baby. It was too much. I tried to imagine her as an old woman with the name and it simply didn’t suit her personality. The other name I love is a quieter, gentler name that suits her more. It doesn’t have the marmite wow factor tho but it’s as good a name. However I had to make a choice and let one go. It’s hard! [sic]”

Speaking about the poll, Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts said baby name regret was actually “great practice for parenting.” 

“Choosing your baby’s name is one of the first things new parents do, so in some ways baby name regret is great practice for parenting: you do a lot of hard work and research, try to please several people at once, and end up getting it wrong.”

Continuing, she added, “The consolation is that most children grow into their names – and those who don’t can always fall back on middle names, nicknames or (in extremis) deed polls [legal name changes].”

Of course, being a parent is hard enough, so we can’t imagine what it must be like if you also regret your child’s name. What we will say is that it’s not about what you’re called but who you are.