Hard to Even Ask This, Anyone Regret Their Child's Name Decision?

My older son is a "junior" and we call him by his initials (sounds good when you say it).

My dad is also a junior, but he used his middle name while my grandfather used their first name.

I wouldn't sweat the small stuff.

Henry Jones JUNIOR! We named the dog Indiana...

Sorry. It's what just leapt to mind.

Last name. The last name I regret. First name I'm good with.

My husband's first-born son is a junior - my husband just went by his first name like he always has and his son goes by the middle name. They are both William Joseph - hubby is Bill and his son is Joey.

Blame post delivery hormones and sedation. My friend who is a nurse has me cracking up over the names some people have come up with for their children. We always joke..."They'll regret that one in a few years and if not them, their kid will be hating it and them."

Once, a co-worker and I went to pick his wife up from work and they both asked me what I thought about the name "Ollie" for their soon to be born son. I thought about this bald headed man puppet I loved as a kid from a show called Kookla, Fran, and Ollie.

I don't know what came over me...I normally try to be diplomatic if I don't care for something or when I am asked to offer an opinion, but as soon as I heard the name "Ollie" I had a vision into the future of their boy getting his a$$ kicked at the schoolyard trying to defend his name and broke out laughing my head off. I even went as far as to say, "He'll get his a$$ kicked at school with that name!"

I felt absolutely horrible when I noticed his wife quietly crying in the front seat and apologized profusely. That's when my co-worker happily thanked heaven out loud and told me he was glad I said that, because he had been telling his wife all along, `no boy wants a name like that' for the very reason I bluntly shouted out in the car.

Apparently they had been fighting about the name for some time and without my prior knowledge decided to make me the judge to settle the dispute. The boy was born two weeks later and got the name Kohl...like the department store...not the more commonly accepted `Cole.' Uh huh. I think you can blame it on the pain killers and hormones. The boy should be a teen about now. Hopefully he will avoid a position as a stock-boy at Kohl's. I'm awful, I know, but I really don't know what she was trying to go for with her name choices. They just seemed odd and like one day she or her child would regret them.

I love my son's name. I always used his whole name. When he entered pre-school it is was shortened to the one syllable familiar version of his name - a version that I never considered, thought of, or spoke.

Turns out that version rhymes with our last name - I mean a four letter last name so the only the first letter is different in each. I was horrified. Then completely amused when he told me, at 3 years old, that he liked the way his first and last name sounded together like that.

So, eh, here we are years later, he is 15, I still only use his full first name, and he uses the shortened version, and we are both happy with our versions.

Names, nicknames, change and shift - your son will grow and possibly come up with a version of his name the he prefers regardless of what anyone wants to call him. :)

No. I really like my kids' names.

I had an older cousin growing up that married a man named Bill. They were thrilled when their son was born and that he would be a junior. They too faced this challenge. They settled on Big Bill and Little Bill. I know, silly, but it worked. There was never any confusion from anyone in the family. The only downside is that people in the family will forever call Little Bill, Little Bill. He's almost 30 years old and I still call him that although I try not to say it to his face.

Another solution is to call your son by his middle name instead of first name. He's still a junior and that lessens the confusion.

My dad, brother, both grandfathers, my uncle and three first cousins are named Joe and believe it or not it was never a problem. I hope for your sake your sons's name will grow on you:)

Can't you call your son by his middle name? My husband and son have the same first name but different middle names. My husband has always gone by his middle name. My son goes by their first name. Works out pretty good.

My son no. His name is Nicholas and I love it
He's such a handsome nicko! My husband named our daughter madisyn and while I do like it, I wish we would of named her Vivian. Im not having anymore and I love that name so much! He picked her first name and I picked the middle, Layne. Madisyn Layne fits her perfect though!

Aw, I'm sorry. I totally understand but if you don't want to call your son by his middle name....how about a nickname like "buddy", etc.?

I have plenty of nicknames for my baby that are "just for him" and only
I call him that.

Don't worry.....while I understand your plight, your pain, it's all in a name.
My poor mom named me a name I hated. It's ok. I love it now. Poor mom.

It's okay and you know why? Your sweet baby is healthy, happy and alive & well. I wish you lots of happy memories w/your sweet baby.
Signed,
OMG I Can't Believe My Mom Named Me What She Did (meant w/laughter, love, hugs & good nature from a gal w/truly a different name :)

I'm not sure if you thought of calling your son by two letters.... the first letter from his first name and the second letter would be J to represent that he's a "junior." There are two boys at school who go by T.J. Both of these boys were named after their dads, both Thomas.

Or... would you want to call your son by using initials from his first and middle names? (But that would leave out the letter j which signifies the "junior" aspect.) I'm guessing you wouldn't want to go the initial route because you did mention that you will not call your son a nickname.

My son is named after his grandfather on his dad's side. My husband is Greek and it's part of their culture to name your first born son after HIS father. So it skips a generation. My FIL is Mike and my son is called by his full name, Michael. (My FIL actually is called Miltiades by his Greek family and friends.) My brother is also a Michael so I really thought that I didn't want to name my boy that because when I think of Michael, I think of my brother. I slowly starting calling my brother Mike like most people call him. (It took awhile but now I am used to callling him that. It got confusing sometimes when I talked about Michael because my mom would think I was talking about my brother and I would have to say.... No, I'm talking about MY SON, Michael. So I can just imagine how it must be confusing because you and your son and husband might get things mixed up even more because you are in each others' lives daily. I called my brother by his full name for 33 years. So yeah... the transition to shortening his name to just Mike seemed strange for awhile, but it did happen.

Never had a moment's regret over my daughter's name.

nope. no juniors in our home and no regrets in naming either.

sorry you are having trouble with this. My nephew is a 3rd - he preferred his name not a shortened version. His dad goes by the shortened version and his grandfather went by the name Sr...like Tony Sr....instead of Tony.

My girlfriend has a junior. He goes by his middle name - Joey (Joseph).
My other girlfriend has a junior as well and he goes by his initials - AJ.

You need to talk to your husband about your annoyance to this - because if you let it fester, it WILL turn into a full blown fight or worse. Get it out now...figure out a compromise and work with it.

GOOD LUCK!!

We have friend that actually named their son Blade. They have never said that they regret it, but I wonder if they do.
Anyway, my dad and brother had the same name and my mom always called my dad “dad” in front of us.
I wanted my son to have my husband’s name so we used it in his middle name.

I've never regretted a name decision. My son is honorably named after his father who is named after his father who is named after his father making my son the 4th generation and they are all living. When calling my son, rather than call him by their shared first name, I call him by his middle name and that keeps the confusion down. :) Best wishes to you!

You are not alone. An article I recently read says that 10% of parents regret the name they gave their child, for various reasons. I don't necessarily regret the name I gave my first child, but at the time I didn't realize it was the most popular name for the last umpteen years so she has a zillion friends with the same name. I love the name, just don't like the popularity of it. This coming from "M." which was very popular for my generation and I grew up with many friends with the same name. My second child's name is far less popular!

No, I don't, but I was just reading an article about that yesterday. Usually it was regretted because it turned out to be fad name that was over used.
My brother was a jr. We have always called him by a nickname.

For my son, yes. My husband wanted Maximillian (#1 name in Germany for many years) and I was completely against it. We finally agreed on Alexander, Alex for short. I regret it because it is a VERY common name these days. This past summer, he had three Alex/Alexander's on his baseball team. My daughter, a few years younger also has three in her class.
So yeah, I regret not going with my husbands wishes, it would have been Max for short.

I don't see that would be an issue in our house - I only call my husband by his name if I'm mad, haha! Usually it's hon, babe, or sweetie.

My father was a jr. His name is Joe jr... Not Joseph

So my grandmother called my grandfather Joe and my Father Jose.. Some of his friends called him Joey.

My Nephew has a great name, but since he started playing sports.. his friends call him G.. That is how he is now known..

Who knows.. Maybe your sons friends will give him a nick name..

Our daughters name starts with a P.. and she loved Winnie the Pooh when she was little so every once in a while we called her Pooh,or just P..

She likes her name and we are pleased too.

Maybe you need to reconsider your "I will not call my son a nickname", if it really drives you crazy.. A lifetime is a long time.

I watch a girl named Zarajane and her brother's name is eilynd (island). If I were THAT mother, yes... I might have changed my mind. My kids are Julia and Aubrey, so no. I love their names. :)

My friend has a Jr and she took the first letter of his name and took the J from Jr. and made him an R.J. Could you do that? So he could be AJ RJ CJ DJ, etc...

Good luck

I really wanted our second daughter to be named Olivia but I had to compromise with Sophie, because my husband didn't want Olivia. I do like Sophie, but really loved Olivia. The funny thing is this past weekend at church 2 separate people who didn't know about my Olivia choice called her Olivia. I told my husband it was a sign we should have name her that. Oh well, Sophie is pretty too.

My husband's father's first & middle names are Donald Gustav-Rudolph. Husband is Donald Gene, "Donnie" growing up. I met him when he was 29, as Don. We never lived near the folks until the past 2 years. Of course, his whole family calls him "Donnie." And it's hard to get used to.

The pastor who married us also knows my FIL. He kept putting "Jr" & "Sr" in our wedding bulletin. Annoying -- had to correct him at least twice.

Only had a daughter & I don't regret her name; it was a compromise but I got to pick her middle name, so that worked for me.

I'm with Jubee. My BIL Is Little Tom and his father is Big Tom in their family. Seems to work for them.

To answer your question, I have not regretted my sons' names.

How sad for you!! My ex is a Jr and when we found out we were having a boy I told him NO WAY were we naming our son the third!!! Not only did I not like my husbands name, but his fathers crappy credit was always getting mixed up on his and it was a pain to deal with. And I'll have to tell you my moms story. She litterally got pregnant by the boy next door when she was 19. When she found out I was going to be a girl, she told everyone she was going to name me Bianca Nicole...she LOVED that name. Well, the boys parents freaked out, said it wasn't a good "christian" name and convinced her to change it. So she named me F.. How much more christian can you get??!! Anyway, she to this day (I'm 44) hates that she didn't name me what she wanted. And the funny thing is (well, not really funny) but I have NEVER even MET my father! So she basically did as they asked to make them happy and then none of them were even a part of my life! UGH! So I feel bad for you but I think you really should think of a nick name for your son. Good luck!!!

I have never regretted the names that we used for our children...and even though both of my grandsons have "less than usual" names that I had a hard time wrapping my tongue around at first...I can't imagine them with any other name now!!
If you do not want to use nicknames for your son or your husband...then you are going to be stuck with calling them both by the same name. Why not call your son by his initials (James Thomas becomes JT for instance) It sounds to me like you might be feeling "forced" to use the Jr. for your son and are just digging your heels in a bit. Most nicknames just come about naturally...they just happen...so see what "happens" with your son!!!
It is too late to change the name...so you need to find a way to live happily with it...relax...if this is the biggest issue that you have to deal with...you are truly blessed!!

We have a lot of repeat common biblical names in our family. Michael, Paul, James, Daniel, Thomas, Matthew, John.

My oldest son is not a JR but does have his father's and grandfather's first name.

I think it's nice. Hard to explain why. But no, it doesn't annoy me so many boys (and girls too, Margaret, Theresa, Suzanne, Catherine...) in our fam have the same or similar names. It's familiar, it's comfortable, it's US.

:)

My friend just named her son the first born of theirs the 6th! yikes...and the name is not a ahem wonderful name it is one that did back then and still now gets a lot of laugther...but it is a tradition. anyhow they call him the first letter of the name and then the number 6 at first I was like what ....it's growing on me now...lol

I disliked my first borns name but my husband was adimant that we use it....it is growing on me now...it is definately her name....but it is too common for me and I am just not a fan of it...but it is her name.

I, personally, refused to name my son as a Junior. Not that I see anything wrong with it, but it was my first son, not my husband's first.
I felt that if the junior thing was to happen, it should have already been done.
We compromised. My son has the same initials.
My ex husband has a beautiful ruby and diamond ring that he was awarded for writing over a million dollars in sales at his firm in one year. His initials are on it. It is to go to our son when the time comes.

If you won't make a nick name for your son...make one for your husband.
My kids both had nicknames and they weren't necessarily named after anybody. Nicknames happen. I don't see a problem with it. They still know what their names really are.

I know a kid that is known as Bing. He couldn't pronounce "big" when he was little. It came out bing. "I'm a bing boy" instead of big boy. Bing stuck.
He'll graduate high school soon. Still Bing.

I don't think you should regret the name. It's chosen now.
But, you can find a happy way around it if you are willing to look outside the box a bit.

Best wishes.

We were deciding between Isabelle and Julia for our second daughter. We went with Isabelle, only to find out after the fact that Isabella (not Isabelle, but close enough) was in the top 5 names that year! The year before it was nowhere on the list! Ugh. So now she's in 2nd grade with 3 other Isabelle/Isabellas. How annoying. We should have gone with Julia (but we didn't, because her aunt is named Julia, and that would have been confusing for all involved). Oh well. We call her by a nickname now anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter!

I don't regret our name decision but I did have a more favored name that my husband did not like. I do think about having named her that instead. I think you should have a nickname or a short name for your son to make it different. Maybe tell us the name and we can help you come up with some cute nicknames or short names. I would maybe even tell your husband that you wish he had a name of 'his own'. A lot depends on how old the child is if you can start calling him something else. I think you can, I sometimes come up with cutesy names I call my kids randomly and if I pushed the nicknames, they would stick. I surely wouldn't call him JR if your husband happens to

I have no regrets, my daughter's name just fell perfectly into place. She's named after her grandmothers. I did, however, grow up with 2 Stephens. My Father and Brother share a first name. My Father was always Steve and my brother Stevie. Since you don't want to nickname your little one, or shorten your husband's name, is there some way you can change your boy's middle name and use it?

Just a thought.

My oldest brother is a junior.
My husband is a junior.
There was NO way our son was going to be anything other than exactly what we picked. He shares my husband's name as his middle name.
We know who he is and who he belongs to! :)
No regrets.....

(Interestingly...there was a similar question asked not too long ago...maybe you can look at those responses, too?)

I named my daughter after my legal first name because I go by a nick name. It's totally fine except when I have to go by my legal name. When doctors or businesses etc. call me, they use my legal name so now that my daughter is 16, there is confusion sometimes if someone calls for her. I don't regret it but it's more of a pain in the neck than I thought it would be. Especially with our health insurance and we see the same doctor. We have different middle names but it seems like middle initials aren't as important as I thought it would be. So our insurance card has our name twice with no middle initial. Hmmm...

Before my son was born, I couldn't come up w/ a name. I offered to name him after his dad but his dad did NOT want a junior. I came up w/ a name I loved and then "dad" decided he wanted a junior (not because he really wanted a junior but rather he didn't want his son "named after another guy"...I liked Matthew James and we had two close friends named Matthew & James who were both in our wedding and like brothers to us both and actually introduced us). Since I said I would name him Jr. I kept my promise but has also been abit annoyed about it.

Someone asked this question last month. Yes, and now that my son is almost 2, I still don't really like the name.

Could you call your son the shortened version instead?

No. Don't regret the names we gave ours. I had a friend who told me she did once, and she was looking into getting it legally changed to something else. But she never followed up and the name stuck. Haven't heard any complaints since then...

Yep! We named our daughter Emily - 12 years ago. At the time, it was a hard sell for my husband who thought it was a little "old lady-ish". I named her after a dear family friend's mother and Auntie Em from the Wizard of Oz. I never consulted the baby name lists or books. I eventually won my husband over on the name. We come to find much later that Emily was the number one name for several years running. Co-incidentally, we had also picked Jacob as a boy's name (we didn't know the sex of our baby ahead of time). Jacob & Emily were the number 1 boy & girl names. Now we're often surrounded by Emilys wherever we go. Oh well.
PS - my husband is a jr. and his only request in the name process was that if we had a boy, we WOULDN'T name him Joseph. I come from a long line of that name already and my husband never did like the idea of two people in the same house with the same name. He was Joseph to his family (still is) and his father was Joe. I of course, always called him Joe. My father, FIL, BIL, nephew, cousin - all Joe. Ugh!

No, I love my daughter's name.
I have a cousin who is a Jr. We call him J R or Junior. When he was little everyone called him "lil" or "little" and then his name and we called my uncle "big" and then his name.
I would re-consider not going by a nickname if it drove me crazy enough..but the question is just how crazy does it make you.

We had debated about going the Jr. route with my oldest. My uncle was a junior and some of my older cousins still call him Uncle Junior (he just turned 80 this past year). He said he really disliked being called Junior as he became an adult. We decided to use the same first name and a different middle name (which happened to have the same middle initial as my husband's so they still have the same initials). Their full first name is Robert, but my husband has always been Bob and we decided to use "Robbie" while our son is little and he can be "Rob" when he is older that way we can still distinguish between them yet not have "Little, Big" or "Junior". " My son is in 2nd grade now and so far still prefers Robbie. I had thought that when he started school he would want to shorten it, but so far he hasn't.

My husband is a Junior because his mother thought for sure he'd be a girl and didn't have any boys' names picked out. This was before ultrasounds. She didn't want to call him the same name as his father so he has always gone by initials J.R. for Jr. Now that he's older he uses his first name for business, but still goes by J.R. with family and friends.

I love the names we gave all 3 of our kids! I was adamant that I would not have a junior.Thankfully my husband agreed. Each child needs a name of their own because they are not the same person as their father. The closest we got to family names is my first son has his dad's name as the first of his two middle names. That is a tradition that goes back as far as my husband can remember and I was good with middle names that way.
We thought long and hard when choosing our children's names. We looked into the meaning of the names. They are chosen after people or characters in books/movies that we admire. We did not pick names with the express desire to nickname them X. If you want a child named Andy don't name them Andrew, just name them Andy. I have a niece who's parents picked a first and middle name solely for the initials and always calls her by those initials. I think the only time I hear her first name from them is when she's on trouble.
I have never understood the convention of naming a child something you never plan on calling them. My kids don't really have nicknames, or at least not ones that are shortening of their names. Largely because we didn't name them anything easy to shorten into a common nickname.
My kids love their names and are very proud of them. They wouldn't go by anything else. I think we picked good ;)

My ex husband is a Jr, Anthony is his first name, and everyone calls his father Tony, so for a more casual name amongst family he was called TJ. I can imagine being called Junior your whole life would be a bit of a bummer. c: I'd definitely look into nicknames, I mean my ex went by his first name for school and work, and even most friends, so its not like the nickname will be the only thing used. Just avoids confusion.

men! lol. i have a coworker whose baby is going to be "william jr." she hates it! lol. my son's middle name is Stuart and i hate that. for some reason i was okay with it being "stewart", when he originally proposed using his dad's name...when i found out it was "stuart" i hated it immediately and have ever since. thank goodness it's just the middle name...

Well, you probably could do a legal name change but it may not be worth the trouble and confusion. I would not have named my kids to be a junior (or a first name the same as any living close relative) My son has his great grandpa and grandpa's first name as a middle name but only because he has his great grandpa's birthday as well. My daughter is named after a friend who died young so no confusion but the name is super popular which gets annoying. We have to call her by her first and middle names often.

What about just calling your son by his middle name?

I don't really have an experience with a junior situation, but why not keep calling your husband by his full name, as you are accustomed, and call your son by the shortened version?

The only regret I have is that although I love my daughters name, I wish we had used her middle name as her first name...and I switched what I would name my first son based on an off hand comment my mother made regarding a nickname she would use. I don't know, after a while your children's names just are what they are. I figure when they become older they can decide for themselves = )

Updated

The only regret I have is that although I love my daughters name, I wish we had used her middle name as her first name...and I switched what I would name my first son based on an off hand comment my mother made regarding a nickname she would use. I don't know, after a while your children's names just are what they are. I figure when they become older they can decide for themselves = )

well, i hear ya. my husband and i weren't interested in 'juniors', probably because both of us have brothers who are juniors and both of whom spent all of their childhoods and most of their adulthoods as 'little mark' and 'little keith.' we have friends who have gone the junior route and have resorted to calling the little one 'gregory' to differentiate him from dad greg, which works but sounds oddly formal.
you may have to resort to initials, middle name or surrender to a nickname. it doesn't have to be a cutesy nickname, you CAN make it whatever you want. let us know what you decide!
:) khairete
S. (who was nonetheless annoyed when shortly after having a 'dylan' it went viral)

I regret the middle name is a combo of ours plus two relatives who turned out to be crappy people. My husband told me we should stick to just our name, but now it is too late. Thankfully it is a middle name.

When I was a kid my childhood friend was a junior. He shared the name Andrew with his father. Everyone always called the dad 'Andy' and the son 'Drew'. Maybe you can split the name?

I grew up with my grandpa, my dad, and my brother being Sr -- Jr and the 3rd--then a cousin on my dad's side also had the same first name and my Mom's sister maried a man with the same first name. Talk about confusing.
Oh and then me, my grandma's name was R. as is mine and 2 cousins. Luckily the cousins had different last names but I had the same last name as my grandma until I married. For years I used my middle intial for all official records like banking and medical.
My son was about 6 when I took my daughter to her Ped for something and since we were there I stopped at the desk and asked if they could check to make sure my son was up to date on his immunizations and low and behold there was another boy many years older than my son and not related to us who had the same as my son. The file clerks had mistakenly mixed up their files. So from then on we used my son's middle intial on all offical documents. Now over 25 yrs later he finds that his credit report gets mixed with the other guys and he has really bad credit.

I love my kids names they fit their personalities well.

But as far as your family goes you could call your hubby by the formal name and your son my the shortened version. For instance William can be Will or Bill -- James can be James, Jim, Jimmy or Jamey.

I have found though that no matter what you name your child and for what reason there will come a time in their life when they HATE their name.