I regret naming my son Hayden. I didn't realize it at the time, but have since discovered that its also a girl's name. We had an encounter with a girl named Hayden when he was young. It was awkward. Fortunately, he doesn't remember that and no one picks on him. I am happy with his brother's name, which is a combo of my name and DH's name and it fits him well.

Interesting that possible regrets come largely from kids ending up with a more-common-than-expected name and fewer from people who regret a more unusual or "ethnic" name even if it's mispronounced. I guess I can see why.

I am in the latter category and have no regrets, though I've been a tiny bit surprised to have met a handful of kids now with my DD's nickname. (It's one of those names that could be either a name or nickname.) It's kind of a classic name found in a bunch of diverse ethnicities... but not terribly common recently (or until recently?)

It's fine, though, and her actual first name is exceedingly rare and ethnically specific. At most there's evidence that a few people have ever used it as a first name. So we kind of get a little of both-- no one has her name but her nickname is universally recognized and pronounceable.

Nimrod is literally from the Bible.

Anonymous wrote:Regret might be a strong word, but we named our second boy Alexander. It's a great name but I just don't love it the way I love our first boy name. There were a couple of other boy names I really liked that DH hated. He wanted to name our second boy Magnus, which I thought was nuts. Now I kind of wish we had gone with Magnus... it just kind of fits him.

the first thing i said about our son when i was found that I was pregnant is that i'm not naming him Alexander. It's been number 1 name for like a million years along Russian speakers. Anyway, long story short, I am happy we named our son Alexander, but I do love that he goes by Sasha.

yes, I named her an L name with a bunch of vowels. It gets interpreted a million different ways by different people. She's give up correcting people. Oh well Luckily all the variations are cute, anyway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to name my son Albert. I named him Nathan and have always regretted it. I was talked out of Albert (my grandfather's name) by a night nurse who told me it was an old man's name. Which it is! but my (now) Nathan could have pulled it off and I wish I'd stuck with my guns.

Nate the great! (Al is cute too.)

Almost all names from all cultures are wonderful, especially for their many stories. I don't know why people agonize so much over them.

The only name I ever heard where it really gave me pause was Nimrod. It's an ethnic Hungarian name, perfectly fine there but I heard it in the US in college and I felt really bad for the guy. He was generally weird too, and the name didn't help.

I knew a Nimrod in college too!

But he was something like Nimrod Varga III. Second generation American but the family kept their cultural names, ( which normally I think is super cool, but Nimrod...). but since he was the third with that last name, we all called him Tripp.

Only a few people knew his name was actually Nimrod

Tripp sounds much better! "Our" Nimrod tried to go by "Nim," which the more cruel of our cohort turned into "Nimmy" which was almost worse than Nimrod. I wonder how he's doing these days...
And I agree, almost all other original names from non-Anglo cultures I've ever heard are great - unique, genuine, full of history, and generally not difficult to pronounce (if you try a tad).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I named my son a Henry and regret it. I wish I’d named gin something more cool. It doesn’t really suit him.

Henry is one of my favorite nsmes. It's not very common now now.

My son's name is Henry and he's two. It is common. We frequently run into another Henry at farm, playground, etc.

We did not have a favorite boy name and we had tons of favorite girl names. I like the name Henry but I am not sure if it suits him. It's not like we have another name that we wish we had named him.

Anonymous wrote:Regret might be a strong word, but we named our second boy Alexander. It's a great name but I just don't love it the way I love our first boy name. There were a couple of other boy names I really liked that DH hated. He wanted to name our second boy Magnus, which I thought was nuts. Now I kind of wish we had gone with Magnus... it just kind of fits him.

I love the nickname Zander, if you want something edgier.

Regret might be a strong word, but we named our second boy Alexander. It's a great name but I just don't love it the way I love our first boy name. There were a couple of other boy names I really liked that DH hated. He wanted to name our second boy Magnus, which I thought was nuts. Now I kind of wish we had gone with Magnus... it just kind of fits him.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to name my son Albert. I named him Nathan and have always regretted it. I was talked out of Albert (my grandfather's name) by a night nurse who told me it was an old man's name. Which it is! but my (now) Nathan could have pulled it off and I wish I'd stuck with my guns.

Nate the great! (Al is cute too.)

Almost all names from all cultures are wonderful, especially for their many stories. I don't know why people agonize so much over them.

The only name I ever heard where it really gave me pause was Nimrod. It's an ethnic Hungarian name, perfectly fine there but I heard it in the US in college and I felt really bad for the guy. He was generally weird too, and the name didn't help.

I knew a Nimrod in college too!

But he was something like Nimrod Varga III. Second generation American but the family kept their cultural names, ( which normally I think is super cool, but Nimrod...). but since he was the third with that last name, we all called him Tripp.

Only a few people knew his name was actually Nimrod

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are named very classic, common (and many would say "boring") biblical names--think Thomas, Michael, etc.

Sometimes I wish I had picked something a little less common. I love Reuben and Abraham now.

Michael and Thomas are kind of boring, but at least they're not ugly like Reuben and Abraham.

I know an Abe and I think he was cool, so now I like the name.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to name my son Albert. I named him Nathan and have always regretted it. I was talked out of Albert (my grandfather's name) by a night nurse who told me it was an old man's name. Which it is! but my (now) Nathan could have pulled it off and I wish I'd stuck with my guns.

Nathan is SO MUCH cooler than Albert. Albert is an awful name. I'm sure your grandfather was a great person, but some names should be retired.

haha I know that some people would have thought that, but I wish I'd done it anyway. Nate the Great is his nick name, so thats okay.

Nimrod - wow.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to name my son Albert. I named him Nathan and have always regretted it. I was talked out of Albert (my grandfather's name) by a night nurse who told me it was an old man's name. Which it is! but my (now) Nathan could have pulled it off and I wish I'd stuck with my guns.

Nathan is SO MUCH cooler than Albert. Albert is an awful name. I'm sure your grandfather was a great person, but some names should be retired.

haha I know that some people would have thought that, but I wish I'd done it anyway. Nate the Great is his nick name, so thats okay.

Nimrod - wow.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are named very classic, common (and many would say "boring") biblical names--think Thomas, Michael, etc.

Sometimes I wish I had picked something a little less common. I love Reuben and Abraham now.

Michael and Thomas are kind of boring, but at least they're not ugly like Reuben and Abraham.

Ugly is in the eye of the beholder!

I let my ex talk me into naming one of our daughters Isabella. I both don't really like it, AND it was very popular. I call her by a nickname of her middle name, and about two weeks after the first time I did that, she started introducing herself to people that way.