Monday 25 April 2011

Whats in a name?

One of the first important responsibilities as new parents to be is to decide (without fighting) on a name for your new bundle of joy.

I think it is a big decision and not one to be taken lightly.  After all your new 'Princess Tiaamii' or 'Apple' is going to have to live with their new name for the rest of their lives.

We made the choice to find out the sex of our baby at the 20 week scan.  We thought it would be easier then to decide on a name if we knew what 'flavour' we were having.  Unfortunately not.  We still couldn't agree on a suitable name for our new baby girl.  Millie, Isabella, Charlotte and Madeleine were our top contenders, however in the end we had 99% settled on Madeleine before she was born.

When you are pregnant everyone wants to put their two pennies worth in about your own personal decisions.  First everyone wants to know whether you will find out the sex and gives their opinions on what you should do.  Next people want to know what names you have thought of.  I have friends who have not mentioned any names until the baby has been born in order to keep it a surprise but we did tell a few people our shortlist.  Most people told us their favourite off the list and that was it.  However I did tell one guy I worked with that one of our favourite names was Madeleine.  He turned to me and said 'Oh don't call her that, she will be forever associated with Madeleine McCann.'

He really upset me.  If I had told him that after she had been born, I am sure he wouldn't have dreamt of saying that so why say it to me before?  Why do people find it necessary to give their opinions to a very personal decision?

I have always loved the name Madeleine and one imbecile almost stopped us calling our daughter a name we both loved and agreed on.  I know I shouldn't have cared what he thought but I started to question whether others would think this as well.

If no one ever called a baby a name of a celebrity/historical figure/person from their past then there wouldn't be many names left.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I know that not everyone will agree on names, but I think for our next baby we will keep quiet about what we are calling them until they are actually born.

According to Bounty the top girl's name for 2010 was Olivia and the top boy's name was Jack.  Madeleine didn't make the top 100 but Katie was No 20.  At least I can say to her that her Mummy is still trendy in some respects!

10 comments:

Unknown said...

How awful :-( Madeleine is a gorgeous name!

I didn't know whether I was having a boy or a girl (you only got one scan at 12 weeks back when I was pregnant) but Jack was the only name I had throughout my whole pregnany. Didn't even think about a girls name, so thank god I had a boy!

My favourite girl's name is Olivia, can't believe I've picked the two most common names there is :-( there were 4 Jacks in nursery at one point!

Dianne x said...

By baby 4 I was running out of ideas for names. A parent I was working with had a little girl called Olivia and I thought she was adorable so that's why I decided Olivia. My dad had just died and was called Eric so I said if I had a boy that would be his middle name, as I had a girl her middle name is Erica.

Dianne x

Mrs E said...

Lara you are obviously very trendy for picking the top two!
Dianne Erica is a gorgeous middle name, thats a very good choice and a lovely tribute to your Dad x

Mummy and the Beastie said...

This is a really tricky subject isn't it? We too found out at the 20 week scan, we had always wanted to know and be prepared. We really struggled for boys names and I still don't know what we would pick if we were to have another boy! I was choosy who I told and just ignored the people who asked what we were going to call him and when I answered just went 'mmmm'. Don't ask if you are going to be rude! Also family try and influence and there was a girls name we liked and my parents didn't like it, you have to grit your teeth and say 'well it's not your child is it?'...;-) x

Mrs E said...

It is really hard, its one subject that everyone has an opinion on, I think if we have another baby we will keep it quiet to everyone or just be really vague. x

nikki said...

i never like to find out the sex when i'm pregnant, i love having the suprise at the end. i chose the twins names, ruby and scarlett, and ive had so many people since say "do you know they both mean red..." ummm yep, thats why i chose them!! x

Mrs E said...

Ha,Ha Nikki thats funny! Like you would name them that and not know! x

Rachel said...

Funny how everyone thinks you need their wisdom when naming your OWN child - with mine, I always refused to tell people what names we had in mind for just that reason!

Anyway, to my mind, Madeleine is a gorgious name - have loved it ever since discovering the Madeleine books (so there's a more classic, positive association for you).

Great to discover your lovely blog via Alyson, will be following :)
~M

Mrs E said...

I didn't realise there were some Madeleine books- going to go and have a look on amazon now! Thanks x

New Born Flowers said...

I had a lot of that when picking out names and like you said nobody would say anything once baby is born so why say it before?! I remember also loads of people saying our picked name along with our surname over and over saying hmmm no it doesn't sound quite right!....Who meets a person and concentrates that hard on their name?!! It's so silly Madeleine is a gorgeous name and if thats what you want go for it! Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy.