Out of interest if you were in a previous relationship & had discussed baby names or even had a child & had considered a certain name would you feel happy using/considering that name for a child within a new relationship?
I’m no longer with my children’s father (he has no contact with us) & during my youngest’s pregnancy we had 2 names on our shortlist (I ended up using none of them & went with something different) & I still really like them now. Problem is they are names he suggested & I sometimes struggle to think of those names without thinking of him, which isn’t something I’d want to think of when looking at my baby from a new relationship. There’s plenty of other names I love so I’m thinking that I should probably scrape those 2 names of my list… just after opinions really.
Since you are having problems disassociating them from your ex than I would scrape them off your shortlist. I scraped some names of even my long list (the names in my link) because of associations with other people~
If you ever get past the thought of him at times when saying or thinking them, then I’d say use them. Unless they are names that had some kind of other special association to him other than who suggested them, then maybe. (though probably not together)
I don’t think I would use the names myself if I were in your position, if I couldn’t get past the thought of the ex. If you do end up having another child, you could try looking for names that are similar (variants, or names with a similar style/feel - you could try using the namehunter tool). If that would still remind you of your ex, or if you don’t like any of those other options, I would just look for some new names. Good luck with figuring something out!
Cheers for the replies. Thankfully there’s tons of other names I really love but those 2 names do go great with my other children’s names so it’s hard to forget them, having said that being reminded of a bad ex isn’t something anyone wants lol. Think the names will definitely have to be off limits for now at least.