You can’t call them that!

Being_That_Mum - 11 Mar 17

Being a ‘Rebekah’ I was 1 of many at primary, secondary and even in halls at university. I have married into the Smith’s so it’s even more important to have an uncommon name. I’ve always had 2 rules that would put me off a name for my children:

1. If someone I knew already had it or called their child it.

2. If it appeared in the top 10 most popular for that year.

Baby 1: I could of told you what his name would be before even thinking about having a baby. I was a bit ‘Monica’ about it, that was my baby name and I couldn’t bear the thought of someone I knew getting to it first!
Despite it being a made-decision, we kept it a secret when we were pregnant, so we had to endure the dreaded conversations with others about potential baby names.

Enter my wonderfully sweet, but opinionated mother-in-law (MIL)…

MIL: Make sure its nothing too modern – i don’t like modern names.

Fair enough.

MIL: Don’t have anything too old fashioned either – nothing like Cecil, George or Henry.

Thanks for that MIL so nothing modern, nothing old…what does that actually leave us with? Sweet FA!

The name we had chosen was Henry (this wasn’t in the top 10 in 2013).

Baby 2: this time we had nothing decided and just had a shortlist to choose from on their birth date. When he was born the first name was agreed within minutes and it met everyone’s satisfaction.

It’s his middle names that still cause controversy 7 months on! They took around 2 weeks for us to be sure of but once we had them, we loved them! We knew we’d get a mixed response but we didn’t expect the following conversation:

Enter my wonderful MIL once again,this time on the telephone…

Husband: Oh by the way we’ve picked Louis’ middle names – but I’ll tell you next time we speak, as I’ve not got time to go into it now.

MIL: Not got time to go into it?! Why what’s wrong with them?? You’ve not named him after a footballer have you? I hate it when babies are named after footballers!!

Husband:(Laughing) Well I’ll have to tell you now – but you’ve put your foot in it again!

MIL: It’s nothing silly and old fashioned like Cecil or Percy is it? You know I don’t like those!

Husband: (Sigh) His middles names are Kasper after Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester City goalkeeper) and Percy because Bex really likes it…

Well that didn’t go down well…the rest of the conversation was spent convincing them it wasn’t a joke.

Both my in laws still cringe at Percy and my FIL can’t even bring himself to say it (Percy was the name of his grandfather who fought in the battle of the Somme – so really a nice nod to him).

Advice? Don’t let others sway you – there’s always going to someone who pulls a face at your choice, but they’re not the one giving birth to them, suffering the sleepless nights and wiping their bums for the foreseeable future! They’ll get over not liking it, quicker than you regretting not picking the name you really liked!

P.S. Yes, if we have a 3rd they will be called Cecil .

Being_That_Mum

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