Have any of you experienced negative reactions from the people in your life when you shared your baby name choices? If so, what did they say? [name]How[/name] did you respond? Did it change your feelings about the name and did you ultimately end up using the name? Thanks for sharing!
All family & friends (and even strangers who came up to me in the department store where I worked!) had negative comments, with the exception of one male friend. They all thought the name was “too old” or “nerdy” and one friend even said it sounded like a “farmer’s name!” LOL! My mother said she was only going to call him by his middle name, she hated it that much.
The fact that it was almost unanimous nearly swayed me, but I’d chosen a name I loved and decided not to let anybody change my mind. My husband – who had initially taken some convincing on the name himself! – was resolute and gave me the strength to stick to my guns!
I’ve forewarned everyone that they’re (likely) going to hate this baby’s name, too, and Jake (husband) and I have talked about not annoucing the name until after she’s born. Again, nobody will change our minds, but it does start to hurt when you’re getting nothing but ugly feedback, so we figured people might be less willing to say mean things when they see her little face! haha!
And for the record, Henry will be old one day, he is kind of a nerd, and maybe he will be a farmer. He’s worn his name well for nearly 12 years and I’m sure he’ll continue to live up to it! 
My mother in law used to constantly make inappropriate comments concerning names I love and then proceeds to suggest names that are far too trendy, out there or completely made up instead. She has even said, and I quote, “We have chosen the perfect name for you guys!”. Ugh.
Our top choice is [name]Claire[/name] for a girl. She has reminded us on several occasions that it sounds like “an old lady” and we should consider names like [name]Denim[/name], [name]Mackenzie[/name] and [name]Avery[/name] in its place. I don’t want to disappoint her, but I will still use the name. She got to name her children as we will name ours. The worst part is that she knows exactly what it is like because her father in law openly hated her son’s name.
Her and my own mother got together and decided they were going to choose our child’s name. I quickly put out that fire by telling them that our child’s name will be OUR choice and a name WE both love. They will love the child no matter what we decide.
We are always very quiet about name choices before our babies are born. I usually only tell my mom and my best friend. When I was pregnant with our son (which was our first) we had chosen the name [name]Jack[/name]. At my baby shower lunch the other women started talking about names and I politely told then that we were going to the hospital with a list and that we weren’t making a choice until we met him. [name]One[/name] of the women said, “You know what name I really love? [name]Jack[/name].”. My [name]MIL[/name] immediately jumped on her and said that [name]Jack[/name] was a terrible name. It didn’t bother me at all how she felt. It did not sway my decision in any way. Ultimately it is your decision and you should not let negative comments deter you from choosing a name you love. I promise you that they will grow to love the name even if they don’t love it at first. For the longest time my grandmother would not call our son [name]Jack[/name] because her ex-husband went by [name]Jack[/name] and even though we explained that we in no way named him after him she still had trouble with it at first and called him by a multitude of nicknames. I think it took her 6-8 months to come around but now (5 yrs later) [name]Jack[/name] is the only name she calls him.
If you are choosing a perfectly good name and not a cre8tive name like [name]Neveah[/name] or one of the ‘aden’ names like [name]Brayden[/name] then stick to your guns. Always use the traditional spelling, parents who think they are being unique by spelling it a different way are kidding themselves and often the misspelled name makes the parents look uneducated.
If you are choosing a name outside the top 100 you may get some negative reactions but don’t worry and be strong in your choice of a name.
My granddaughter is named [name]Xanthe[/name] and no one had heard of this Greek name and at first we got blank stares when we said her name and had to say it twice and then spell it, now people say very positively, “Oh she looks just like a [name]Xanthe[/name] [name]Paige[/name], or I just love that name!”
Good luck go with the name that is close to your heart.
rollo
PS Keep quiet about THE name you have chosen till baby is born and if you are asked tell them you have a list and tell them a couple of names from the list. You don’t have to be tied down to any name but if you give them one or two names that may satisfy them, just be a bit vague and don’t get into name discussions, and remember you can’t please everyone, so don’t worry it will work out fine.
I would agree with [name]Rollo[/name], keep THE name quiet if you’re particularly sensitive to the negative comments. My mother is always telling me what she doesn’t like about some of my favorite names. Mostly the middle names actually. “[name]Quillon[/name]…uh huh…like a bird feather? That’s weird” “Lykaion? What is that even! It’s really strange” “God I hate [name]Persephone[/name]! It’s just so out there!” “[name]Raphael[/name] is just a ninja turtle and that’s ridiculous”
I don’t let it bother me. My future babies, not hers. She had her chance and named 3 babies. It’s my turn and I don’t care if she likes the names or not. Nothing she’s said has made me change my mind. Well…except when we had [name]Amelia[/name] Faelyn on our list and she said “Oh pretty, i’ll call her [name]Amy[/name] [name]Fay[/name]” and I couldn’t bare that! 
In short, just stick to your guns and hold on to the names you love. It’s your baby, not theirs and they’ll warm up to it after the baby is born. Good [name]Luck[/name]!
I was a little surprised when I told my mom we were considering [name]Evangeline[/name] and she said “ew.” That’s still on the top of our list any way and my mom says it’s growing on her. Although I really love to have my mom’s opinion because we’re very close, my husband and I are going to make the final decision. Bottom line is, if you love a name you should use it! Grandparents and other family members are going to be so happy and excited to see that adorable new baby that they’re not going to mind the name so much any more.
When I told mum we were liking [name]Louis[/name] she reeled back in horror…
[name]Said[/name] it reminded her of the brat kid we used to live next to, that had that name.
Apparently she forgot about the [name]Louis[/name] I went to school with, who she used to say she wanted for a son in law. He turned out to be gay, BTW.
And no we didn’t use it because we had a girl. And I don’t think we’ll use it for future babies either.
Going back a few posts…[name]Denim[/name]?!? Really? That woman sounds so much like my best friend’s M-I-L!
I don’t have any kids yet but I plan to start the adoption process in about three years (likely by myself) so I’ve been getting a head-start on names. I have always have an interest in names, though, so I’ve always bounced names off of my family. They pretty much find a problem with every name I come up with (the arguments for which sometimes make absolutely no sense), but they’ve made sure to tell me that naming my children in the end is MY decision and it’s fine to ask what they think but they really don’t care what I name my child so long as I love it. They promise me that they’ll love my kid despite what I name it so even though I wish they loved my names more I really don’t bother them with many names anymore. I go to Nameberry for that. It’s nice, though, because I know it’s a problem a LOT of other families have, so it’s nice that I don’t really have to worry about their opinions on my favorites… too much.
But anyway, here are some examples:
[name]Isabelle[/name]: “Eww, you’re naming her after Twilight?” (this coming from my brother who knows full-well that everyone in my family thinks that Twilight is inherently dumb, lol)
[name]Arianne[/name]: “oh, no, [name]Arianne[/name]? They’ll call her [name]Ari[/name] the Airhead!” (My mom obviously doesn’t know how popular the nn [name]Ari[/name] is)
[name]Charlotte[/name] nn [name]Lottie[/name]: “[name]Charlotte[/name]… is okay. But [name]Lottie[/name]? That’s a dumb nickname.”
[name]Bailey[/name] (on a boy): (after glares of death) “[name]Ashley[/name] don’t do that to your son! He’ll hate you forever!” (okay, so maybe I agree with them an itty-bitty bit on this one. I so wish it wasn’t true, though!)
[name]Henry[/name]: “[name]Henry[/name]'s an ugly name! It’s too old-fashioned!”
[name]Avery[/name]: “I like it.” (Then I asked her which gender, and she said girl, and I said, “Ohhhh, no. No, no, no, no. On a boy, Mom…” With which she replied, “But [name]Avery[/name]‘s such a girls’ name!” … it blows my mind since her great grandfather or something was an [name]Avery[/name]…)
[name]Beatrix[/name] (I wanted to use it as a mn for [name]Willow[/name]): “Oh, [name]Ashley[/name], don’t do that.” (“Why?”) “It’s way too old fashioned! Your daughter will hate you!”
And it goes on and on and on, haha. I really don’t react anymore, but once I asked them about [name]Liliana[/name] nn [name]Lily[/name], after they’d poo-pooed a bunch of my favorites and it must have been a bad day or something… they were obviously unimpressed, didn’t like it, thought it was too over-the-top or something… They could see I was getting upset so they kept trying to say it didn’t matter what they thought… and I just burst into tears. Like huge crocodile tears, lol, it was terrible. And I’m nowhere near pregnant or adoption, right? All I wanted was for them to like one name and [name]Liliana[/name] has tons of meaning for me (the last gift my grandmother gave me before she died was a lily; [name]Anna[/name] means the same thing as my other grandmother’s MN. [name]One[/name] of the MNs for it I had picked out, [name]Pearl[/name], would have also honored one of my sisters. I thought the combo was perfect, haha). Well I obviously wasn’t happy with their reaction and there I was, crying at the dinner table, and then my sisters felt bad so they had to come and give me a hug and say they were sorry, lol, and through my tears, I explained the whole thing about [name]Liliana[/name] and then everyone started crying about my grandmother, since she’d passed away less than a year before this had all taken place, and my mom had to repeat the whole story to my other grandmother, who was hard of hearing, haha, but at the end of it, everyone loved my reasoning behind the name even if they thought it was too over-the-top, and they do like [name]Lily[/name]. So I guess it was fine in the end, haha.
Who knows what will happen when I actually have kids. My top choices are [name]Isabelle[/name] (which they think leaves much to be desired) and [name]Caleb[/name] (which they think is such a wimpy name and relate it to all the wrong kinds of Calebs), so I guess we’ll see when my first child arrives. I guess I have a few years to work on them.
Before my [name]Ezra[/name] was born my mom pronouncing it izra…and constantly asking me how to spell it. My [name]MIL[/name] said ill just call him baby lol. In the end they love him and his name and it fits him better than any other options. I agree keep it to yourself if u can. Otherwise stay true to what u love regardless of what anyone says. Theyll love ur choice eventually.
I’m not pregnant, so I haven’t experienced this yet. But I now for DAMN sure, I’m not telling anyone until the baby is born about the name ideas.
I’ll post them all online, and get my opinions there, but I don’t want family putting their unwanted two-cents, as harsh as that sounds.
My style is [name]WAY[/name] different from anyone in my family that I’ve seen anyways.
If you love the name, and it’s nothing cruel, then use it. It’s your baby, you have the first right to naming him/her. I mean, shoot. For all anyone knows, they love it or hate it. There’s no point settling to please others, what matters is how you feel about it, and how the child will feel about it.
[name]Ash[/name]… I actuallycried a little bit reading your post…lol I get very emotional over the names I love too and it does hurt when some one shoots down a name that has so much meaning and thoughts behind it…
[name]Just[/name] for the record [name]Liliana[/name] [name]Pearl[/name] is BEAuTIFUL…
Yes, lots of negativity, lots of prejudice. Everything from the more mild “that’s too old-fashioned” to the most asinine of “You can’t name your baby after your own mom because it’ll make my new wife jealous and upset if you do.” Of course there’s also the “I don’t like that name it sounds Jewish or it sounds Southern” almost as if the people saying that are oblivious to who I am. lol
No, it hasn’t changed my mind about any of the names I have liked. It just makes me tell them if they can’t call my daughter by her name or if they are going to say it hatefully, they don’t need to be around her.
Somewhat more well meaning and less spiteful but nevertheless annoying are the name suggestions I’ve gotten from some of the folks I know [name]IRL[/name]. They know I like traditional classic type names so they suggest to me names that read like they are the credits to a porn flick or really hippie-dippy names. I’m assuming its well intentioned, but I could be mistaken.
I was telling my younger sister that [name]Martin[/name] (OH) and I loved [name]Issac[/name] with the nn [name]Zac[/name]. She looked at me and said it’d be Sac, like ball sack, not [name]Zac[/name] because there’s no z in that name. And [name]Izaac[/name] is just spelling it wrong.
My mom also asked me if I would REALLY name a baby something as evil as [name]Lilith[/name]. To which I shrugged. She won’t care what name her grandchildren have since I often say she’s not getting any (which isn’t true but that’s another story).
I didn’t have a set name picked out when I was pregnant with my first daughter…but I know they were “surprised” to meet [name]Delaney[/name]. No one said anything rude or anything…but I could tell they were like wth? lol. [name]Ryley[/name]'s name was pretty set, no one really said anything about it either. My mom did comment once that she thinks I picked “weird” middle names ([name]Brooke[/name] and [name]Kate[/name]…really Mom? lol…but her kids have the mns [name]Lynn[/name] and [name]Marie[/name] so…). I think I’ll keep the name on the DL again if I have another baby…especially since IDK how [name]Quinn[/name] would be received if I have another girl. Still stumped on boy names.