# One month old....too late to change baby's name?



## Oonah (Jul 28, 2004)

I'm having second thoughts on our name choice. She's 4 weeks now and we've already applied for her ssn. How hard would it be to change her name now?
It's just her middle name I don't like....we couldn't find something we loved so we gave her my middle name....it works....but I wish we would have tried harder and not given in to hospital pressure to name her before we left.

Could this be a normal PP phase...anyone else feeling a little name regret?

How hard will it be to change her name?


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## *Karen* (Jul 28, 2006)

I don't think it is hard at all for the first year. I think you have to change it with the state first, and then reapply for a new ss card. If you don't like it, change it!


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## mandalin24kd (Dec 31, 2007)

You just have to amend the birth certificate. Check with your local votal stats office to see what the process is.


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## balancedmama (Feb 16, 2007)

I think I remember MW saying there was a small fee, but it was easy to do in the first year. It took us nearly 2 weeks to come up w/ DS's name.


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## Moonglow Girl (Oct 27, 2007)

If your heart is telling you to, change it.

We changed my baby's name when baby was almost 3 months old. Baby came early, we weren't ready, the hospital pressured us.

I kept giving it another day, another week, another month.

The name just didn't feel right in my heart.

I was too pp and sleep deprived to know what to do. But my DH finally took command and said "this isn't working, let's change it, now and be done with it." It felt weird at first and some people reacted strongly. It doesn't feel weird anymore and some of those same people don't remember that we tried a different name in the early months.

Every state is different with ammending the birth certificate. But whatever yours requires, if changing her name feels like the right thing, just jump thru the hoops and do it.

Years later, I am still so glad we changed it.

Good luck to you.


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## User101 (Mar 3, 2002)

Moving to Life with a Babe.


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## jadedone80 (Feb 28, 2008)

LOL!
It took us about a month to name our 11yo son.

Now we have a 15week old dd and we have changed her name so many times I'm hoping she will not have multiple personalities later. lol
We finally decided on the "right" name a few weeks ago. But *shrug* we might change it again later.

Anyway, it should be easy to do. Call your county court house, they should have paper work, then let SS know.

It is very easy and you can tell her the story later


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## mandalin24kd (Dec 31, 2007)

moved to where?


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## lovetobemama (May 16, 2007)

Interesting thread! My DH actually picked DD's name, and I have to admit that I don't think its the right name for her. He named her Molly, and I feel like her name should be Robin. It hit hard right after her birth that her name was wrong, but I figured the feeling would fade. She's 4.5 mos old now, and I still sometimes look at her and call her Molly and think "That's just not the right name for her!" But, DH LOVES her name and thinks its perfect for her, so I guess I will just live with it!
Good luck with your decision!


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## IfMamaAintHappy (Apr 15, 2002)

it took me a whole year to get used to Lily's name. It was not what I wanted. I didnt call her Lily that whole time. Lillian or Blossom, but never Lily. It has grown on me, but I totally would have changed it. I think you should!! I love to hear these stories about what feels right when you change it after having to decide in a hurry.


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## darciedoodle (May 30, 2005)

I don't think it's that hard. We have a good friend who told us his sister changed their babies name (based on his pressure to have HIS initials) at 6 months. It's worth checking out if you feel the name doesn't fit.


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## thirdeagle (Dec 22, 2007)

It shouldn't be too difficult. I've had three friends now who changed their names as adults for reasons not related to getting married and the biggest pain was changing the name everywhere else they'd registered (bank accounts, drivers license, etc).


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## taransmom (Sep 2, 2004)

we changed dd1's name after a week; the only trouble we had was getting it right w/the insurance co...


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## tree-hugger (Jul 18, 2007)

Go for it! I hated the hospital pressure to pick a name in such a hurry. I have some name regrets too, but haven't acted because DH still likes the name.


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## JustVanessa (Sep 7, 2005)

It must be different here....the hospital didn't even ask what we named ds. His paperwork just said baby boy lastname.


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## katbomumof3 (Sep 16, 2007)

i changed my daughters name when she was almost 2 years old. She had never gone by her first name, (always used a nickname) and i had never like it, it just didnt suit her. So when i was changing her last name when dh was adopting her, i dropped her first name. So now she goes by her middle name, which originally was her second middle name. We're a confusing family. Ds also goes by his second middle name. I dont like that he has 3 names, but 2 are family names that dh really really wanted. I guess i'll just have to deal with that.








If the name doesnt feel right to you, change it


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## sapientia (Apr 22, 2007)

I have knocked around the idea of changing Eliot's middle name. It should have been Walker...I dunno. Everyone says to leave it.


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## ELKMama (Dec 3, 2003)

I've also been thinking about changing DS's middle name. We had 2 choices and I was excited about 1 but I keep thinking the other would have been better and it is a family name... I'm going to talk to DH about it now!


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## russsk (Aug 17, 2007)

Go for it - my mom changed my name when I was three months old, and I'm so happy. The first name was not me at all!


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## 3pink1blue (Jun 23, 2008)

We're in the process of changing my seven year old's last name to match ours. (She carries my maiden name as her last name.) Its not a difficult process at all, at least not here in Michigan. All in all it will end up costing a little less than $300.


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## leafwood (Jun 15, 2004)

I say change it. Hopefully it won't be too difficult.


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## Inspired007 (Aug 25, 2006)

My sister changed her daughter's middle name at about 1 mo. old but NEVER went to change in on her paperwork. To this day (my niece is now 17) we call her Jade Ashley but on ALL of her paperwork it's Jade Lindsay. So I call her Jade Lindsay and she's quick to reply "my name is Jade Ashley". Isn't that funny?


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## butterfly_mommy (Oct 22, 2007)

My mom changed my first name when I was 7 years old! I was Melissa until one day in grade two I got to miss school we went down to the court house were my mom said that she was not changing my name for any illegal purpose and then my name was officially Scarlett. It was a bit weired for the first little while. My friends and most of my family still called me Melissa for a awhile and then people started calling me Scarlett. I do still have a few family members that call me Melissa or Missy but only like two that I don't see often.

It took my Aunt about 4 mons to name her first born and her last baby who is now 9 years old is officially named Mercedes but goes by Anaise because she doesn't like being called Mercedes.


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## jlanda (Jun 15, 2008)

I agree that you shouldn't stick with a name you're not 100% about. But just to throw in a few cents, here's something I experienced:

As I was going to get married, the town where I lived had an issue with my name and wouldn't issue the paperwork I needed to get my marriage certificate. Basically, what happened is that my mother kept her married name after she divorced her first husband. Then, to spite my father, she left him off of my birth certificate and listed father as unknown. However, all of my other paperwork lists my father as my father. Now the town is confused by all this and says I have to go get the hospital issued copy of the birth certificate which can only be done by going in person to the town the hospital was in.

So I'm already nervous and running around like an idiot for the rest of the wedding plans and now I have to deal with this nonsense. I had to go a few counties away to get that information, while THEY now go on to hassle me saying that it's not really the other town's business. Seriously, just want my marriage certificate, can we do that please?

Thank goodness I remained in state or I would have been fuming.

Of course, all your scenarios are for sensical, valid reasons, unlike my mom's. But just be aware that depending on the town, state, and laws, things could get complicated down the road. It's always an absolute joy trying to renew my driver's license, both because of that and because NJ blows giant chunks. They want a traceback of every name change ever done, so I practically have to bring my life history in paperwork just to do something that used to take an hour or less.


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## Inspired007 (Aug 25, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *butterfly_mommy* 
My mom changed my first name when I was 7 years old! I was Melissa until one day in grade two I got to miss school we went down to the court house were my mom said that she was not changing my name for any illegal purpose and then my name was officially Scarlett. It was a bit weired for the first little while. My friends and most of my family still called me Melissa for a awhile and then people started calling me Scarlett. I do still have a few family members that call me Melissa or Missy but only like two that I don't see often.

It took my Aunt about 4 mons to name her first born and her last baby who is now 9 years old is officially named Mercedes but goes by Anaise because she doesn't like being called Mercedes.

All I can say is *Wow!*


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## Ceinwen (Jul 1, 2004)

My dd is six months now, but we changed her name at two months of age.

People looked at us like we had two heads, but what the heck, naming your child is pretty important. So, we sat down with our short list and re-did it.

We thought (in our own strange way, never confirmed by ultrasound or anything) that we were having a boy, so we had boys names up the wazoo.

Girls names were really difficult to come up with, so we thought that proved it...

I had read the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy a year ago, and loved the books, so we named the baby Lyra. Which, IMO, is a gorgeous name.

Except dp kept calling her 'Keira' and 'Kyla' and my dd couldn't not pronounce it, and kept calling her 'Lila'. Now, these are also gorgeous names too, but I noticed that with the movie 'The Golden Compass' coming out, Lyra was quickly becoming a trendy name.

So, we just basically called everyone up, said 'It's not Lyra anymore, it's Rue' (which was a name my dp came up with).

My IL's had a hard time with it, tried to make us feel really dumb about it, saying 'Oh, I don't think we'll remember, etc.', my parents just had a good chuckle - and that was it.

She's been Rue for four months now, no looking back.


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