[name]Ever[/name] heard a name and thought, “dang, I wish I had thought of that.” [name]Ever[/name] have a family member steal a name?
A few names I love but can’t use anymore: [name]Hank[/name], [name]Blake[/name] ( for a boy) , [name]Riley[/name] (my husband throws this one in), [name]April[/name].
Some of my friends have pretty awesome names for their kids that I adore:
[name]Seraphina[/name] & [name]Thaddeus[/name] (Twins
[name]Nova[/name]
[name]Maxwell[/name]
[name]Wilhelmina[/name]
[name]Gemma[/name]
[name]Olive[/name]
[name]Lavinia[/name]
Thats just some. Some from my kids daycare and school are:
[name]Josephina[/name]
[name]Christina[/name]
[name]Charla[/name]
Merit
[name]Persephone[/name]
Aiofe
[name]Eleanora[/name]
[name]Twain[/name]
[name]Phoenix[/name]
There are so many names I love and like that it has never been an issue. I might have named my son [name]Daniel[/name] after my Dad, if my sister hadn’t already named a daughter [name]Danielle[/name] but I just used my Dad’s middle name for my sons middle.
Edited for privacy.
I have a stolen name story. I was a few months pregnant with my sex-unknown at the time daughter. My brother in law & sister in law were very pregnant with g/g twins. They initiated a conversation about names saying, “[name]Don[/name]'t steal our names and we won’t steal yours.” which I laughed at cause, I mean, I would obviously learn their daughters’ names before ours was born anyway…so stupidly I revealed to them that I would name my daughter [name]Nina[/name] AFTER they said they had settled on [name]Catherine[/name] and [name]Samantha[/name]. Of course a few months later [name]Catherine[/name] & [name]NINA[/name] were born. I found out thru email birth announcement which was sent to multiple recipients so they didn’t broach the fact that they had stolen a pregnant family member’s dream name by tricking her into talking about it 
A few weeks later my [name]MIL[/name] asked my husband if I was “upset about the naming confusion” she and a few others were present for the initial conversation. [name]Even[/name] more members of the family had heard me refer to my unborn kid as [name]Nina[/name]. My [name]MIL[/name] told my husband that baby [name]Nina[/name] was born with complications and in the NICU and they were fighting about whether to use [name]Samantha[/name] or [name]Sabrina[/name] & settled on [name]Nina[/name] thinking I wouldn’t mind and ANYWAY I still didn’t even know if I was having a boy or girl and ANYWAY no big deal if cousins share a first name, right? Ummm aren’t you forgetting they will share a last name as well? Oh, and the same age no less. Why bother with 2 ss#s? SO obviously I couldn’t saddle my kid with future identity issues by naming her [name]Nina[/name] Samelastname, same age, I mean what if we ever end up living in the same town. Two in one grade??!?!!
Did I find a more distinctive name that I love more? Yes! Did I make nice with my in laws? Yes, though I hold them at a distance cause it was such a shady move. They’re grabby handed & the least creative people ever. While I am pleasant to them 100% of the time, I trust them 0% of the time.
Now [name]Nina[/name] sounds shrill to me.
I also got to use [name]Simone[/name] in the middle, a family name via my dear cousin [name]Simon[/name]. It would’ve been unusable with [name]Nina[/name]
Not yet, but my sister-in-law gave her babies names that would have been top contenders for me had I been “ready” a few years back.
[name]Samuel[/name] [name]Allan[/name]
[name]Naomi[/name] [name]Rose[/name]
I love names that are pretty/handsome, simple, deep (long history or evocative sense), and fresh. [name]Naomi[/name] is pretty much the perfect name to me. [name]Rose[/name] is my sister’s first name. [name]Samuel[/name] is again perfectly balanced [name]IMO[/name], and as my name is [name]Hannah[/name], there is a special connection there as well.
I’m not angry or jealous tho, I’m just happy to see such solid names in our family! I just hope I can do as well as she did when my time comes.
My good friend named her baby [name]Aurora[/name] [name]Joy[/name]…again that was a name that I had been “saving” (my husband likes it due to the NASA mission, haha!), but I mostly only liked it because my husband did. Now that it’s off the list, I don’t have to worry about it anymore.
Finally, an acquaintance from college named her baby [name]Temperance[/name] [name]Ruth[/name]. I think it is pretty much the most perfect name ever. That being said, I’m not sure I’d ever ACTUALLY name my baby that (and even less certain that my husband would agree to it!) so I’m just really happy that she used that named because it is gorgeous.
Not really, most of my friends and family have used super popular, trendy names. Examples of nephews/nieces and friends kids:
[name]Alfie[/name]
[name]Ollie[/name]
[name]Jake[/name]
[name]Ryan[/name]
[name]Mia[/name]
[name]Holly[/name]
[name]Sophia[/name]
[name]Emma[/name]
The closest I’ve come to have a friend steal a name is a friend (who isn’t pregnant or planning to have babies any time soon) who claimed the name [name]Noah[/name] not knowing it was a top contender for us, if we have a boy. It isn’t relevant any more because its no longer our top pick but it made me really upset.
taz, it sucks that happened to you, but now I’m genuinely curious; what’s your daughters first name (if that isn’t too personal)? After all that trouble you went with [name]Nina[/name], I wonder what you settled on. [name]Simone[/name] is lovely mn btw, or maybe I’m just biased because it’s my sister’s name.
My grandfather was [name]Walter[/name], and my brother chose it for his son. I admit I’m a tiny bit jealous because I’ve grown to like it so much more than I ever thought I would. Sometimes I play around with [name]Walter[/name] in combos (as a middle name), with the idea that it wouldn’t be the end of the world for two cousins to share an honoring name–one as a first name and the other as a middle–but using it would not be worth the potential drama. For the most part, I just let the feeling go and enjoy my nephew and his name because 1) I really do believe names are “first come, first served” and I missed my shot, and 2) my brother and grandfather were closer than my grandfather and I, so it’s a more meaningful choice for him.
[name]Leonie[/name]! I had some trouble adjusting to a new name. I felt really uncertain for the remainder of my pregnancy and a few months after that…but she couldn’t be anyone but [name]Leonie[/name]!
Ohh also my sister claimed [name]Vera[/name], our great grandmother’s name! I kind of mourn that one. I also love [name]Veronica[/name], but I think that would step a bit too close to [name]Veronica[/name]!
I’m the would be thief. Our grandfather’s name was [name]Theron[/name]. It would have been my name were I a boy. [name]One[/name] of my cousins named his boy [name]Theron[/name]. I’ve wanted to name a boy [name]Theron[/name] as long as I can remember. I told my cousin when I found out I was pregnant with our first I still planned to name it [name]Theron[/name] if it is a boy. He said he didn’t care and that the important thing is I name is something I don’t mind yelling a lot lol. I’m on baby number two. [name]Both[/name] my eldest and this one are girls so it became a non issue. I was glad he took it so well. Besides… His son is I think 7 now and I haven’t seen him since he was an infant. We live 2000 miles apart so it would not have been a daily issue.
I love the name [name]Charlotte[/name], although the popularity had put me off since it’s the number 1 girls name here. Now I couldn’t use it anyway as my brother-in-law and sister-in-law used it for their daughter. At first I was disappointed but I think it really suits her, even if she is only 3 months old!
Sometimes I have worried that I was a “name thief” as we named our eldest after my Grandma. I am married with 2 children and another on the way where as my siblings are no where near that stage of their life, so in best dressed!