What we name our children is intensely personal, and most people will defend those choices like they’re making a last stand.
Even, let’s be honest, when they should be embarrassed and have many, many regrets.
These 15 parents are ready to get honest on whether or not they wish they’d named their little bundle something completely different.
15. This is why I made a popularity rule.
There used to be 7 kids named ‘Ayden’ in my grade but all were spelled differently, or had different last names, until an 8th Ayden showed up with the same last name and spelling as another kid in the same grade.
We called him ‘new kid’ for the rest of the year.
14. So many baby girls whose name was once beautiful.
Isis. Back when it was just an Egyptian Goddess (7 years ago).
We don’t yell her name out in public anymore.
13. Yeah, that’s a no from me.
I’m named after a song. It was also in the top 5 names for the decade in which I was born. Pretty sure they started to regret it the first time there were more than 5 kids sharing my name in my class.
12. That’s such a pretty name, though.
My friend’s name is Sepfora, and she was named that before the popular make up company Sephora got big.
It’s the greek version of the biblical name Zipporah (Moses’s wife).
11. Someone is a drama queen.
Before I was born, my dad wanted to name me Harley after his favorite bike, but my mom insisted that I needed a Bible name. At age 4 I chose a nickname for myself because I couldn’t pronounce this Bible name, but then as a teen I questioned my younger self’s choice and explored new nicknames, including Harley.
When I brought this idea to my dad thinking he’d be pleased, he got red in the face and said “I had to sell that bike to put you in school! It’s nothing to me now, just a random chunk of metal. You want to be named after a random chunk of metal? Fine! I’ll call you Crankshaft how about that!” And he did, for like 2 years. I don’t know where the regret is in that story, but it’s somewhere.
10. This is a very weird story.
My wife and I don’t like all the family politics of naming the children. Someone’s going to get bent out of shape because one family member got used and not another. So, we racked our brains to agree on a name not used on either side of the family.
Didn’t announce the name until the birth. Neither my mother or father said anything for a year. Then, one day they casually mentioned the name of my uncle’s first son that I wasn’t even aware of. He had died at only 6 weeks old, 15 years before I was born.
I don’t know that I regret the name of my son. But, it would have been crossed off the list of contenders had I known.
9. Kids are merciless. Remember that.
There was a girl in my elementary school named Nida Butt.
I suppose it’s hard to come up with a good name ending in Butt but “need-a” would not have been my top pick.
8. Depending on the kid, this could have been epic.
I was almost named Luke Sky.
One guess as what my last name is.
I honestly probably wouldn’t have minded much, I already took on a lot of flak in school anyway
7. A sad tale, this one is.
My dad regrets my name. He wishes he had named me after his father. When my parents had me both his younger brothers were engaged, so he figured they’ll probably have sons and name him after their dad.
Well one had two sons and the other had one. None of them need after my grandfather. My dad regrets picking the name he preferred and has said, “If I could go back in time, I would name you Thomas.”
6. Well that’s awkward.
Well I don’t think they regret it or care but my name is Latina and I’m black.
I always get asked about it and have to explain that it was completely arbitrary and I speak no spanish.
5. They probably don’t regret it. Because they should.
Not me but my SO teaches two sisters named Princess with their middle name as the differentiator.
If they haven’t regretted it they will when both ‘Princesses’ grow up………..I hope (gulp).
4. Oh, man, no you’ve gotta change that.
I knew an analyze once, and when she was 8, they realized that the unique spelling of her name was a popular personal lubricant.
3. Something to think about with the “he can just go by his middle name” decision.
As far as I know, my parents don’t regret my name, but it’s an odd situation… I was their first born, and my dad wanted me to be named Jerry, after himself. But we have 7 other Jerrys in my family… So they named me Jerry, but they decided, from birth, that I would go by Caleb (my middle name).
I don’t mind, because I don’t like the name Jerry. But it makes things confusing at work, cause I don’t like to explain to everyone that I prefer to go by my middle name… So I usually just go by my first name at work.
2. Like a name out of ‘Twilight’
My name is Jessica, which is the name my dad wanted. Mom wanted to name me Clarissa. I was born early and they hadn’t settled on a name, a nurse suggested combining them… they seriously considered naming me Clarissica.
They had even decided my nickname would be Rissy. I am so glad Mom decided Jessica was fine, I never would have forgiven them.
1. Why would he want to memorialize that?
If I had been a boy, dad planned to name me Luke…in honor of his mother getting diagnosed with leukemia that year.
So thankful I am female. Of course, they still let my sister name me, who was 3 at the time.
I love both of my kids’s names, so fingers crossed nothing happens in the world or pop culture to change that anytime soon.
Do you regret your kid’s name? Tell us why or why not in the comments!