I feel bad changing the baby's name :(

[wool_gathering]

At the end of the day, they’ll use the name you’ve picked! What’s most important is that you love the name. You can just say, well after she was born she looked like more of a [name_f]Elowen[/name_f]/[name_f]Eve[/name_f] than a [name_f]Jillian[/name_f]. No one will argue with you! If they’ve already bought monogrammed stuff, you can use it anyway! It’ll be a funny story!

FWIW, I absolutely [name_u]LOVE[/name_u] [name_f]Elowen[/name_f]!!

[lawsonhaley]

Personally, if you do still want to keep Jillian, I would use one of the names you prefer with Jillian as a middle name That way, if they are truly attached, and you do still like it, it’s there, but you and your husband are also getting a first name you truly love. That said, I agree with the others - they’ll love whatever you pick! I remember my mum saying that my little sister was going to be Madeleine until two weeks before she was born, and close family knew that they were likely going to use it. Two weeks before she had my sister, Madeleine wasn’t feeling right, because my sister was born in the midst of the ‘Madison-boom’, when the vast majority of babies they were meeting were all Maddison, Madelyn, Maddie or Maddy. My mum wanted something different, and saw McKaylah in a magazine, loved it, and changed the spelling to Mikayla. Everyone was fine with it, and now Mikayla’s 17, and no one can picture her as anything other than that!

[kirby2015]

@lwj1986

Face the brief awkwardness! A friend of mine announced her baby’s name several months before the birth, at her family’s eager insistence, and felt confident because it was a name she’d liked for a long time. After thinking about it more, she wanted to change it to something less popular, but her family had already purchased baby and nursery gifts customized with the name. So she went with the original name to avoid upsetting everyone and still has some regrets about it years later.

Thanks for sharing her story. That is very sad, she just didn’t want to upset anyone. I can see how she fell into that. You’re so right the facing the brief awkwardness is so worth it and really pales in comparison to regret.

[kirby2015]

@bluecurry

@kirby did you decide on a name?

Not yet my DH and I are trying both out for a couple of days

[kirby2015]

@wool_gathering

At the end of the day, they’ll use the name you’ve picked! What’s most important is that you love the name. You can just say, well after she was born she looked like more of a [name_f]Elowen[/name_f]/[name_f]Eve[/name_f] than a [name_f]Jillian[/name_f]. No one will argue with you! If they’ve already bought monogrammed stuff, you can use it anyway! It’ll be a funny story!

FWIW, I absolutely [name_u]LOVE[/name_u] [name_f]Elowen[/name_f]!!

Funny my mom did buy one monogrammed dress but I found the shop on etsy she bought it from so I figure I’ll just order the exact dress with our final name it would be kinda funny to get a picture of her in both though.

[mktee]

My friend and her whole family called her baby a name they thought they were going to use the whole pregnancy. After he was born, she had second thoughts and they came up with an entirely new name and he’s one now and no one thinks about the old name. You can DEFINITELY change it now! Better now than later! By the way, I have a love affair with [name_f]Elowen[/name_f], SO PRETTY!

[carolinawren]

With my son, we were set on [name_m]Eli[/name_m]. I wasn’t planning to announce it but ended up doing so and then starting doubting it. We ended up retracting the announcement and saying that baby would not be named until he arrived. We went in with 3 names, and he ended up being a [name_m]Miles[/name_m]. It was kind of awkward “changing” it before he was born, but as soon as I saw him I never associated HIM with being an [name_m]Eli[/name_m]. Like, the fetus was [name_m]Eli[/name_m] for months inside me, but this baby was definitely not… And I can’t imagine him being anything other than [name_m]Miles[/name_m] now! Now is your chance to change it so go for it and keep an open mind! This time we haven’t told anyone our names and probably won’t after that experience. Also, I [name_u]LOVE[/name_u] [name_f]Elowen[/name_f]. It would be on my top list but my husband nixed it

[system]

Go with what you love. [name_f]Elowen[/name_f] is a beautiful name.

[kirby2015]

Thanks so much for sharing and all the supportive comments. I’m feeling much more confident in our choice to make the change. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one.