How would you feel if your kid changed their name?
 

If it was nothing deep to do with disassociating with the family and was purely a surface-level change, if they said they just hate the way their first and last name sounds and said it was making them miserable, would you be ok with that? And would you start using their new name?

I 100% would be fine with that. It's their name, not mine, and if it's making them miserable I'd never be entitled enough to prioritise my weird sentimentality over their happiness.

Some parents out there would want their kid to tolerate a name they hate purely because the parent likes their name and that is so selfish to me!

their name, their choice when they are old enough

No problem, like people who take their partners names

I don’t have kids so i wouldn’t be bothered

Like oh you don’t like your name? Well you don’t even exist so shut the fuck up

My son changed his name quite often when he was a toddler.
Normally lasted a day or two then reverted back to norm.

Hope they change their address too and don’t tell me so I never have to see them again.

How does that even relate?
That's not the point of the question and you know it.
Care to rationalise the hostility?

I don't think I'd be that bothered :think: though I;d likely "slip up" a lot.

I've known a number of people who have gone by their middle name.

I didn't actually know that my mum's sister "Aunty _____" wasn't originally called "Aunty _____" until I was 10, when she sent me a cheque for my birthday with her "real name" on it. She'd (at that point) gone by her middle name for nearly 40 years but she's never actually legally changed it, so is still her birth name on any official documents.

I also knew a guy at school who went by his middle name, though everyone knew it wasn't his actual first name, and if people used his real name he would go absolutely bat**** crazy on them. Staff etc. knew to use his preferred name but one time we had a substitute teacher who called out his name on the register, he refused to answer, people pointed out it was him, he explained that he doesn't go by that name, sub didn't believe him and thought they were being trolled and continued calling him by his name as it was written on the class list... he went nuclear and stormed out the class. Heh.

Tell you what was a tough one - one of my best friends who I've known since I was literally a baby, and ALWAYS went by a nickname (so to our friendship group it was essentially just his name), decided at 20 that he no longer wanted a nickname and insisted we all call him by his real name.

It's bloody DIFFICULT to change someone's name in your head when you've known them your whole life!

Got there in the end though. Now I just call him his nickname sometimes ironically/to piss him off/when we're reminiscing about school. Which is quite a lot cos we're sad old men.

It’s ok unless they want to change to something stupid
Like Ben dover.

It wouldn't bother me if my son hated his name and wanted to change it - it belongs to him and he is the one who has to live with it.

My best friend's daughter's best friend has just changed her name - she is 13 and has changed it legally and with school etc. Everybody she knows preferred her old name but have respected her wishes and call her by her new chosen name.

I suppose I'd feel bad that I picked a name they hated :laugh: Thankfully mine both seem happy with theirs. It's a big responsibility naming a person

I know, it really is isn't it? The worst thing was I had a couple of names picked out before finally choosing my son's name and when i told people, their reactions put me off them.

Did you tell people before he was born? Apparently people are more likely to be negative about names before the baby actually arrives :laugh:

Yeah stupidly lol. My Dad was the worst, he literally laughed at a couple of the names I liked :laugh:

I can't imagine him as anything other than Matthew now - all his mates have started calling him Matt now though but I haven't got on board with that yet :laugh:

People will always either shorten names or lengthen ones that are already short :laugh:

With my daughters name I told everyone before she was born that if she was a girl she was going to be called that name and that was it, it was a name I heard when i was a teenager and I just loved it, I didn't care what anyone else thought :laugh: It's an Irish name so I know that can come with difficulty especially if you're abroad and it's not that common in Ireland either so there was that worry (and people do pronounce it wrong regularly) which annoys her a bit but she still loves her name thankfully. It's Doireann (pronounced Dirr-in) I would have gone with an Irish name for Luke too if it was totally my choice but we couldn't agree on one we both liked :laugh:

:joker:

My friend's mum is like this. She hates any shortened version of Matthew for her son and is actually out for blood if she hears "Matty". :joker:

I use a shortened version of my name which I shall not tell you :hee:. The only person who ever used my full name (post-school) was my mum and, with her being dead, if someone calls me my full name things get pretty spooky.

Obviously I also go by the iconic abbreviated “TS” on here and if I get full named it’s usually cos I’ve got an infraction :(.

My name’s John what’s yours

Tarquin. Tarquin Summers. But most people just call me TS for short.

To be honest has a nice ring to it.