I put it out there on Instagram. And now I just wanna talk openly about this dude.
So his name.
I had issues.
When Jeremy and I went into the hospital to have our darling fourth bouncing baby boy, we narrowed it down to two name options. They were Charles Gray (both family names) and we would have called him Charlie….or Knight Davidson (I became obsessed with the name Knight because of the meaning and because I think it was unique as a first name and David is a family name). Jeremy really liked Charlie and felt like Knight was more of a last name. We joked that if he came out blonde, he would be a Charlie and if he popped out with dark hair, Knight would be it. Well, low and behold, dark hair adorned his little head and my first thought was…well, I guess it’s Knight then.
The problem with the name Knight is that it has a silent K. And so phonetically it is hard for people to think Knight as in the honorable and brave dude in shining armor and not the dark time of our day.
Also my mom didn’t dig the name. And honestly, I care very little what other people think EXCEPT my family. I wanted everyone in my family to be nuts over the name but I get that it was odd comparatively. The weirdest name she used with her kids was “Katie” which at the time was a nickname and not a proper name. So wild-woman she is not.
So while we were in the hospital, I said to Jeremy I don’t think he looks like a Charlie but I get that you are still on the fence about Knight. And he brought up the name Max. It was a name I had originally suggested months earlier but we both turned it down because of the obvious “maxi pad” reference. Jeremy kept on saying it in later days but I think he was teasing me because it was always “Maximus” after his favorite movie…Gladiator.
It was about two in the morning on the first night in the hospital when I looked down at my sweet newborn and decided that if we didn’t make a decision soon…it wasn’t going to happen. Charlie was out. Knight seemed like it appealed to only me. And Max seemed like it was the only other name we could agree on….sortof.
I woke up Jeremy and said that I would be okay with Maxwell Knight….not just Max because I like “proper man names”. He agreed. And REALLY wanted to go back to sleep 🙂
We told our family and friends. We announced to the world. We printed out the birth announcements. I did all the normal things you do but inside I still felt this twinge of doubt that we made a mistake. Did I really just name my kid Max? Did I give in because of peer pressure? Since our last name Bower means a lady’s house…did I just name my kid Maxwell House? My brain went a little crazy.
I spent the next weeks going back and forth on the name. In private I would “try out” other names….calling him everything under the moon. I secretly still clung to Knight as my favorite. I cried to Jeremy a couple times that I just couldn’t FEEL the name “Max”. It seemed foreign somehow. Like Max wasn’t my baby’s name. But I also felt weird calling him ANYTHING else. I didn’t believe we made a mistake in naming him Maxwell Knight…but I just didn’t know what I would call my sweet ball of squishiness.
Then I put it out there on Instagram. Little did I know that ‘name remorse’ was an actual thing that A LOT of people go through. I felt normal again. Like a weight had been lifted (thanks you.) and just hearing so many other moms tell me that it was okay for me to feel that way made me do an ugly cry in a good way. The general consensus was…
1. I get to call him whatever the heck I want
2. he might grow into the name
3. he might not
4. either way #1 still applies
Oh how sweet it was! Jeremy had told me that we could call him Knight if I wanted but honestly he is a good husband and was probably saying that to be supportive. I needed to hear it from outside sources. And when so many virtual friends made me feel like I wasn’t being crazy, it gave me the confidence to think more clearly.
So now I call him Maxi Knight. I call him that majority of the time. Jeremy still calls him Max and the boys still call him Baby Max….and I am perfectly okay with all those names. I think the name suits him perfectly. I never thought we would officially change his name…I just needed to know what to call him and what I FELT fit him. And now I have that.
Sometimes Weston will call him Maxi Knight and it makes me smile. I love that it’s my own little version of his name. I love that there is peace in it now. I love that I have such a wonderful community online to call on when I am too much in my own head. And I love that there are no doubts now. My Maxwell Knight is probably going to have a million nicknames and some will make me cringe and some will make me smile and some will leave me head scratching…but in the end, he will always be mine, no matter what.
Also…this is my favorite picture ever 🙂
If you have ever gone through name remorse or changed a name or whatever, I thought it would be encouraging to others if you shared. I would love to hear your story if you want to comment. I know there isn’t a one-solution-fits-all for you mama’s out there…changing names, nicknames, waiting, etc….but that doesn’t mean you are crazy or weird or whatever…we are all just figuring this parenthood thing out…I say let’s do it together with no shame 🙂
I had a Christopher Lee back in April and it took me a while to feel like that was the right name. We call him Lee. I have a cousin named Lee and my mom’s middle name is Lee. There was just something that didn’t ring true I my head when I would think of him as Lee. Even still it doesn’t sound completely right to me. But my husband really likes it and it is fun to honor my mom with the name. And my 2 year old calls him wittle wee (bc he can’t pronounce “l”) and it’s the cutest.
I’m confident Lee is supposed to be his name and everyday it gets more normal to me. His name means “Follower of Christ” and “shelter from the storm” (our take on it) and I love the strong meaning.
I love you and all of your honesty!
My sons name is Dash-please think Incredibles not Kardashian 😉 We both agreed on Dash with no issues. Our family and friends weren’t so sure, we heard it sounded like a dogs name and kids are gonna call him dashboard, etc. Not once did we ever waiver (and I am one that does care what people think).
HOWEVER, at our one week check up when I heard the nurse call his full name… Dash Walker-I cringed!! How did I never notice my sons name is an oxymoron, Dash and Walker are total opposites and in my head it sounded strange. It sometimes still gets to me when I hear it called out loud, but I really don’t think other people notice at all. It’s just me- I’m my own worse critic.
The pictures were sooooo beautiful!
my second child is Florence Leone after my husband’s granny who passed away a month before our wedding and my maiden name. My husband and I both love Florence but also really like nicknames. His granny always went by “Flo” and that didn’t sound right to us. Too short, too much of granny, just not right for our baby girl. We really liked Rennie but our son goes by Benny and that was too much to have a Benny and Rennie! My son started calling her Baby Flo and still does but I don’t want her to be Baby forever. She’s now 16 months old. We’re still working on a nickname that we like and that feels right. We introduce her as Florence, we all call her Baby Flo, some people call her Floey, and recently we started trying out Florie, which I also really like but it still doesn’t flow off our tongues! I never heard of name remorse before your post but it is nice to hear that other families go through it. I kept apologizing to my daughter through the first sixth months (or more!) of her life when I just didn’t have a good feel on what to call her. Even recently I’ve become so tongue tied I’ve called her Flor (“floor”) on more than one occasion, which makes my three year old laugh hysterically!
At least our love for Baby Flo has never been in question!! Maybe one day she’ll let US know what she wants us to call her!
Okay, you’ve done it. I’ve got a soon-to-be 20-month-old and could not imagine having another baby yet. I just can’t fathom getting through the day with two kids. 🙂 But this has done it. I need another one. 🙂 Oh, and P.S. I had some name reservations on my Ellie too. Daddy wanted Lily, I wanted Ellie and we went with Ellie. For several weeks (months?), I questioned if I’d pushed us into the wrong decision. Yep, she’s totally too sassy to have been a Lily. 🙂
Yes! I love Maxi Knight, too cute! My oldest boy goes by his middle name, Cash, and at first we didn’t know any other Cash’s out there. People would be confused, ask questions and make us doubt. I have clung to Cashy. No one else calls him that, and frankly, I love having a name for him that is mine and mine along. Of course his cousins will hit him with the Cash Money and what not, but what seven year old doesn’t like being referenced to a rapper (haha, mine. he doesn’t love it!). Needless to say, I LOVE the name Maxwell, as with the rest of your names, and you’re right, it is yours and yours alone, 🙂 Happy Monday, precious boys, as usual!
-Alex
What about Flora? It’s not a true nickname but still “feels” like the name. Names are so hard!
I’m expecting my first grandson in January, and I hope his parents have name remorse really soon!! However, I’ve decided his pet name from me will be “Sprout,” so other than praying he doesn’t get picked on in school, that’s all I can do!
I’m glad you posted this! I am 8 months pregnant and we’ve had a terrible time with the name this go-round. We’ve decided on Alice Anne, but some people (even family) seem to hate it. I’m afraid of name remorse (I didn’t know it was a “thing” either)! What if it doesn’t fit her? What if SHE hates it when she’s older? AHHH! Too much pressure!
I’ve had 4 boys and I’ve questioned the name of my 4th his whole life (11 months). My third was a still born I named Seth and I know that was supposed to be his name but I can’t help but think sometimes I wish I could have named my 4th son Seth because, while I have always loved the name we gave him (Cameron) it hasn’t “clicked” with me yet–even my sister comments that it doesn’t seem like it’s his name. He’s 11 months old and I still wonder if we should have chosen a different name for him but Cameron was the only one that worked for both of us. Maybe I just ran out of boy names by #4 🙂 . So glad I’m not the only one.
I definitely had name remorse for baby #3. We had picked the name because we couldn’t think of anything we liked better, and both admitted that we didn’t LOVE the name. When he was born, I just couldn’t call him that. I don’t know why, but it just didn’t suit him. So I called him “baby” for a long while, and I also tested out other names on him in private. I am not sure when in the last 2+ years that I stopped calling him “baby”, but somewhere he has become the name he was given. So I don’t know if he grew into it, or I got used to it, but now I can’t imagine him having any other name!
Whatever you call your fourth little man, he is still such a cutie!!
Flor means ‘flower’ in Spanish 🙂
I adore the name Max and wanted it for one of or boy’s but my husband had a beloved dog named Max as a child and he just could not see the name for anything other then his sweet old friend. Not saying it is a dog name at all, he just could only think of his Max with the name. With my kids, I have a Nora and Gavin which I adore. My middle son Caleb is the one I question. Not because I do not love it, I really do. But who knew it would be mispronounced so much! He is called CAL-UB so often. His name is Pronounced CAL-EB. i know it is not that big of a deal, but it changes the whole feel of the name. Around our house we actually call him Cabe, that is what our daughter called him when he was born and it has stuck. I also regularly call my son Gavin George, which is his first and middle name. My daughter is called Missy Moo, don’t ask, no idea how she got that name. I blame post-pregnancy brain. My Caleb is also called Mr. Man quite often. Like you said, kids will have a gazillion names. I have a list of baby names that I will never use….. if you go for a 5th and need some names. Better you and your super-woman handling it all powers then me to have more babies 🙂
Good Lord, you make beautiful babies!! 🙂
I love the nickname Florie! It sounds sweet and feminine.
This whole post made me smile! The whole name thing can be so dang confusing. I had all three names picked out months before my babes were born and even called them that while still in utero. But within months of their births, my husband and I had come up with our own names for each of them… not even on purpose, it was just organic. My first is Heidi, but my hubs calls her Mindy. My second is Lukas but I only call home Luke, and my third is Jakob but I’ve called him George or Georgie since he was a month old lol. In public I call them all by their given names but around the house, I have Mindy, Luke and George lol
For me, I couldn’t definitively name my children until I saw them. We had names we liked, so there were options. With our first son, we liked the names Declan and Jack. We really thought we’d go with Declan. He was born and the second I looked at him I KNEW he was Jack. When our second son was born, he 100% looked like a Declan to me, so that name got used after all! Driving to the hospital to have my daughter, I would’ve sworn she was going to be Phoebe Catherine. Of all the names we were considering, I loved that one the most. Once again, the moment I laid eyes on her I knew she was not Phoebe but Emma Catherine.
I so identified with this post. My fourth pregnancy was exactly like yours (but my surprise is turning one next week). I always thought we would have a house full of boys and it made baby names hard for me. Our first is William/Will too and then we had all girls! By our number four I really wanted Emily but it didn’t go with out theme (we have all British royal names. The first two were an “accident”- Kate before Will and Kate the Royals). Emily didn’t fit the theme and I didn’t want to repeat first letters so Emily was out. So I named her Jane Caroline and I still “feel” like it was the right decision but I am having a hard time seeing her as a Jane. I think I would probably even make the same choice again which is what is making this so hard. Everyone else seems to love it but I am just not quite on board yet.
With my other three, I had a “click” feeling before or right after they were born that their name was FOR SURE the right name for them. I am almost a year into this baby and it’s still not here. Some have suggested that it’s because her pregnancy was unplanned and short and I didn’t have time to plan and think and feel her with that name for so long (we deliberated until the last week). I hope she likes her name when she grows up and knows we tried really hard!
I hope you’ll keep calling him Knight. It’s very sweet and has great meaning. You should read “The Greatest Knight” by Elizabeth Chadwick (about William Marshall). You’ll feel extra validated calling him Knight and with Will’s name.
Also… I highly recommend Swistle’s name blog for any name questions or name nerds out there. Lots of amazing suggestions. She’s posted on name regret before, too. http://www.swistle.com/babynames/
Thanks for the validation today and reminding me that it’s not just me. Hugs!
thank you for this post! Name remorse is real for me too and I didn’t know so many felt the same way. My son is 2.5 and i still cringe just a little when I hear his full name. Here’s my story.
My husband, his dad, his grandfather and great-grandfather all have the same middle name, Paul. We definitely wanted to keep that tradition alive and I like the name Paul so the middle name was picked the minute we found out he was a boy. The first name was much harder to choose. A couple months before my due date, my husband suggested John. He LOVED the name John. I really liked it too, but did not like the name John Paul. It sounded like a double name to me (not something I was interested in) or it sounded like the Pope. I couldn’t get past not liking that combo, but we also couldn’t get past using Paul as a middle name.
Eventually, my husband convinced me that middle names don’t matter and as long as I like John we should use it. So we named him John Paul.
And as much as I love the name John, I’m also a little squirmy when someone asks me his middle name. It sounds dumb, but I still don’t like it. Plus, there are a handful of people who call him John Paul and I reallllllly hate that, but feel stupid correcting them because that is the name I chose for my kid.
I am currently 34 weeks pregnant with boy #2. We don’t have a name and I’m so freaked out about making the same mistake twice. Wish me luck!
This is interesting you wrote this because my sister changed her name. Really, you can do that. My mother named her Jennifer Sheridan but the person she named my sister after (first name) never even came to visit my sister or family since my mother got married (three years earlier). So, when my sister was legally able (16) she changed her name to Sheridan and used a family name for her middle name.Even better, my brothers name is Robert Othniel and ALL. MY. LIFE has gone by Niel.
True story. so names can be what we want them, middles can become firsts and things can be changed completely. At the end of the day, the person behind the name will always be the same. 🙂
“Since our last name Bower means a lady’s house…did I just name my kid Maxwell House? My brain went a little crazy.” LOLOL
It’s true, you can really call him whatever you want. I had a boyfriend who was called by his middle name his whole life until college, at which point he decided his first name was more “grown-up” so he started introducing himself that way. He has friends who fall on both sides of the line, and we all just know both names mean him.
First, beautiful pictures of your beautiful baby!
I also really struggled with my daughter’s name while she was a baby. I called her “Birdie” for the longest time. I just loved how she would root around when she was hungry and she looked like a little birdie to me. She has totally grown into her name and at 5 years old will tell me or anyone else to call her by her real full name because she likes it the most 🙂
I’m so glad you are finding peace with little Max’s name…whatever it might be to you 🙂
We’re big nickname people, so when deciding on our kids names they had to have good short forms or nickname forms. We agreed on Thomas for my son, but it always felt too formal, Tom didn’t quite fit either and Tommy just didn’t fit right. While singing a lullaby one night, we came up with the nickname T-Bird and to this day (he’s 9) we have stuck with “Bird” as a name just my husband and I call him. Just goes to show you that in the end, it’s entirely up to YOU!
Good Luck!
When we had my daughter 7 years ago I really wanted to name her after my grandma, Vetra Mae. I thought the name Ella Vetra was beautiful or even Eleanor Mae and call her Ellie. My husband nixed both, but loved the name Ellie so alas we named her Ellie Mae. Yeah, apparently I lived under a rock and had NO IDEA about the Beverly Hillbillies. And for some reason no one in our family mentioned the fact to us. Thanks a lot, mom.
I still love the name Eleanor and call her that most the time, even in public. People tend to think that’s actually her given name, hah! I love that it’s a little “inside joke” or whatever for just the two of us. And love that she always gives me trouble that her nickname is longer than her given name 😉
My daughter is 8 and I still have name remorse. She goes only by Ellie, which I LOVE and would never ever change, but her given name is Elena, and I just feel like it is such an exotic name and that it doesn’t fit her at all. I really wish we would have named her Elisabeth, which I didn’t even think of before she was born! I still think all the time about changing her name, maybe to Elliana, which is close to Elena, but has “Ellie” in it, but then I think it is probably not even worth it. Sigh.
Both my girls were born in China, and my first daughter was always going to be “Hannah”… until the night of her referral when I found out her Chinese name was Guo Li Bi (Guo is the sir name). From that moment on, she was always Libi Hannah (Libi is pronounced Libby).
Enter daughter #2: I changed names 1000 times while waiting for her referral, and finally ended up with Meg. Her Chinese name was Yi Si Feng (Yi is the sir name). I couldn’t do a thing with Si Feng, so she got the name Meg. Eight weeks later I traveled to China to bring her home and she was so NOT a Meg!!! She was this funny little kid that did a “duck lips” face, and Meg was way too serious a name for her. It took me a three full months after she came home, but we finally decided on Meisi (Mei means beautiful in Chinese, and Si from her original Chinese name). Meisi is pronounced “Macy”. And it fits her perfectly. 🙂 And she’s still the funniest kid I’ve ever met.
my husband’s family has a long tradition of naming the first son Paul, after the paternal grandfather and middle name after the maternal grandfather. So our son was automatically Paul Thomas. Paul was not a name I ever cared for- I really wanted a Benjamin! But my husband really didn’t want to sway from tradition. We call our son LP for Little Paul or Paul. It was a loooooong time before I started calling him just Paul myself- and I still almost always tack on the middle name as hubby is Paul and FIL is Paul and it gets confusing. And now that he’s almost 7 he’s grown into the name and I can’t imagine him being anything else. Would i put it on my first choice list of names? Probably not, but I’ve grown to like it for him…
Before I was even married I had the name Zachary picked out if I ever had a boy. Then in 1984 I had a baby boy! My first words were “my Zachary!” (yes, I had discussed it with my husband and he was good with it.) But this was 1984 and not many Zachary’s around and someone in the family was mortified as in did not even think it was a real name….tried to get the nurses at the hospital to talk me into changing it. And so for the next day or so our son had no name 🙁 Then I said to my husband it’s our son and I couldn’t imagine him named anything else. So, we named him Zachary and guess what? We never heard another word about it! To think we almost didn’t do it. He could never have been anyone but “Zack”
Naming a human is hard!! I’m impressed you made it to baby #4 before running into this. Our little guy, Otto August, is 2 months old & though I love his name, it feels weird for me to call such a tiny baby by a “real” name! Like it’s too adult for now. I call him “baby” all the time which makes sense to me because I call my husband “husband” and not by his name. Then I feel bad that our baby might not know his name so I sing his full name to him all the time or call him Otto baby. I think he will grow into it! Or maybe I need to grow into it.
Glad you’ve found your name peace! He is a sweetie pie! That picture of your four is perfection <3!
So I know it counts less if the baby isn’t born yet. I’m 28 weeks pregnant and we did a gender/name reveal when I was 20 weeks. We had a name picked out early and I loved it. Then………..I didn’t so much. Mainly because of the stupid comments from everyone. I started to panic and think “Oh my gosh we’re stuck and can’t change it!” And it was silly really, I still loved the name but started getting sick of people asking “Jackson….oh is he named for…etc”. But we’re not changing it. I love it now more that we have a middle name picked, “Hunter”. So if we really get sick of people bugging us we’ll just start calling him Hunter haha.
I just want let you know that we named our son Maxwell too (he’s 18 months now). So solidarity in the name choice! I love it. We had a really tough time picking a boy name and couldn’t agree on anything. We liked Max, but like you, didn’t feel it was a proper full name. So we agreed on Maxwell assuming we would just call him Max. But as it turns out I use Maxwell a lot more than I thought. I use it as a nickname and affectionately (or if he’s in trouble). So kinda the opposite way nicknames usually work. Whatever works for you!
Beautiful!
Beautiful Boy!
You two make the most beautiful children!
Katie,
I know my opinion will mean very little to you as you don’t even know me, but for what it’s worth, I thought it was such a precious little name for a precious little baby! I think the names for your boys all flow very well together and have such uniqueness in their own way! I think sibling names are harder than the first as you fell SO in love and knew everything about everything for the first child and then the pressure is on for all names thereafter! You gave him a solid name that will age well with him! And I personally LOVE Maxwell for the full name!
I so hear you on the ‘name remorse!’ I had my fourth baby in April and for a few days after she was born all I could think was, “Did I seriously just name my daughter Elsie Jane?!” But I love it so much for all the meaning behind it (Elsie – an amazingly Godly great-aunt of mine who died last year at the age of 105, and Jane – after the lovely Jane Austen who my husband and I both adore.) We got some funny looks at first and people calling it an old lady’s name, but I love my little Elsie girl and I think her name fits her perfectly!
First these are the cutest pictures EVER! And second, names are just hard. They are a big thing to me – I took over a month to name my cat. I kinda felt like I waited my whole life to name a baby. And when we had our now2-year-old, my husband and I had a hard time agreeing on a name. The only one we could really agree on was Lily (short for Lillian). And I definitely had name remorse for a long time, and for ages, it just didn’t seem to fit her. I won’t lie and say that I can now not imagine her as anything else…I still think she would have made a really cute Pippa (short for Philippa – a nod to my maiden name) or Evie (short for Evelyn, after my grandma), but truthfully, she is an awesome Lily and does the name proud.
We named our son Charles William – Charles is my husband’s middle name (and HIS first name is his dad’s middle name), also his maternal grandfather’s name, and William is his paternal grandfather’s name. My family has never said anything about the choice, but I hope they don’t feel left out! We decided before we even got married 10 years ago what our first son’s name would be and while I wasn’t super fond of it then I understood the significance for my husband and the name grew on me long before the little guy ever existed. Now I absolutely LOVE it. He goes by Charlie and when he says his name (baby Charlie) it comes out sounding like “baba twee”
For our second who is due in just a couple months, we threw some ideas back and forth but hated what each other came up with. One day I sent my husband a text and said “how about Owen?” and we both realized we really liked it. We’ll pair it with another family name – Lee – which is my mother in law’s middle name and also my brother’s middle name.
If we have more boys in the future I have no idea where we’ll look for name inspiration. We’ve sucked the family tree dry of names that we both like, and we have such different naming styles! We never came up with a second choice for either of our boys’ names, so if we are blessed with a third we’ll have to start the naming cycle from square one.
I love the name Maxwell and am glad you found peace with it. It will suit your little man well and is a good, strong name.
Oh Katie you are in good company!! It took me years (YEARS!) to get used to the middle names I picked out for both my daughters. I didn’t use family names and had ‘buyers remorse’. In the end both of them mean something special to me (and now them) and thats all that matters!
I remember crying when you posted on IG, and now reading this post I am crying all over again! Katie I have been there!
Going into the hospital to have my baby boy, my husband and I each had our favorite name. I was set on naming my baby Lincoln and wasn’t going to give in. Upon meeting our baby my husband called him Lincoln immediately, but now that I was holding him, I just didn’t love, or even like the name anymore. I remember when the nurses would ask his name, my husband would attempt to respond but I would cut him off saying ” we don’t know yet” and my husband would just look at me baffled.
When our baby was 6 days old, we introduced him to our family as Lincoln and literally the second I said it out loud to them, I wanted to take it back. I cried myself to sleep that night and really thought I was suffering from weird PPD or something.
Later, as I was nursing my baby, I looked at him and began apologizing to my son. I told him how sorry I was for not giving him the name God had intended for him, for subjecting him to a life of the wrong name ect.
When he finished nursing, my baby looked up at me, and all of the sudden I knew his name. Holden-it was a name we had never even considered, but it was his name. I woke my husband up and told him that his name was Holden and my husband said “You’re right-mom, you’re right!” Within the hour I had filled out the birth certificate paperwork that I had been avoiding for 9 days, and I finally felt like I could call my baby by his name. He has been my Holden for 2.5 years and never have I doubted my decision, nor has my husband.
I guess my point is, that as mother’s we put pressure on ourselves to do the best for our kids and just like many other parenting decisions we tend to over think instead of listening to our mothers intuition. Your intuition knows his name is Maxwell Knight, and “You’re right mom, you’re right!!”
Thank you for sharing your story. I have always been a little embarrassed about how my son’s name came about, and your story has helped heal a few more scars.
Thanks for sharing these! He is so stunningly-preciously-adorable!
My experience with naming so far has been that no name ever feels good enough at first. Before having kids, I probably always could rattle off 10-15 names that I liked, but then when the pressure actually comes to name a real child, it’s like “Do I REALLY like it ENOUGH?????” let alone the fact that your spouse has to agree, and that you have months (or weeks =)) to think it over a ton, including everything it rhymes with, what images it conjures up, what other people have that name etc. But then, in my experience, you name the child with what feels like an imperfect name and your love for the name grows along with your love for the child. They take over what the name is, sounds like, and means to you as they grow up in front of you with that name, and the rest fades away. Also, I totally respect nicknames as a way to make it your own, and grow and change as the child does too.
also, for what it’s worth, I, your random reader, loved the name Maxwell Knight as soon as you announced it, and like how Knight kind of ties in with Knox as a middle name too…
As an aside, I’ll be welcoming my third child under three years in the next 4-6 weeks, and so although I initially followed your blog for DIY stuff, it has taken on a new dimension, watching you guys grow so quickly, similarly. May God continue to bless you with his grace, strength and generosity, especially on the really hard days when you really need it!
I had name regret with my second child. I thought her name was beautiful, but I also wasn’t sure that it necessarily fit her. We talked about changing her name but ultimately decided to stick it out since nothing else felt right either. She’s 3.5 and somewhere along the way her name fits her perfectly. Her name is Adria Faith, but I always call her Adri Faith. I’m glad we didn’t change her name!
Names are never easy. My middle child, a boy, whom we named Clarence, after my grandfather always gets double takes on his name. We usually shorten it to Clare as I have an uncle Clare and a male cousin Clare too. He was born in ’08 just as the name Claire was gaining popularity for girls. We wouldn’t ever rename him but my friends wonder if he will want to go by Clarence in middle school. I still love the name. Thanks for writing about an issue no one ever does.
I love that you are at peace now! We are expecting in just about six weeks and have already picked out her name. I just hope that when we see her, we know it’s the perfect fit. I’m learning to be prepared if not though! I’m sure someone has suggested this, but I love the name Wells for a boy. Being that he is Maxwell, he could even use the end of his name to be Wells. Just another thought for your list of names! 🙂
The only tinge of remorse I have for my first-born son’s name is that I felt like I compromised on his middle name. My husband and I both agreed on naming him Jonah almost immediately. But we went back and forth on the middle name. I really wanted his name to be Jonah Michael after his Daddy, whose first name is Michael. But my husband wanted it to be Jonah Campbell (Campbell is his paternal grandmother’s maiden name). My qualms with that was our last name is Cheatham. We ended up going with Jonah Campbell Cheatham and I am fine with it. I don’t think it flows as nicely as Jonah Michael Cheatham would have but if it makes my hubby happy, then I am fine with it. I did pretty much give him hardly any say in our daughter’s name though. LOL
You could’ve named him Pumpkin McSquashface, and he could pull it off. He’s adorable. You’re 4 for 4 in the beautiful baby department, that’s for sure!. I can really relate though. We struggled with our 4th too. We ended up choosing Evan, which wasn’t even on our list going into the hospital, but my husband suggested it on our 3rd day (as we were getting pressure to name him before we were discharged), and it just felt right. I don’t hate his name at all; it’s not one I necessarily thought we’d use, and I still sometimes look at him (he’s now 2 1/2!) and think, “Was that the right choice?”, but I really think it was. I’ve always said I don’t really feel like I choose my kids’ names, I just have to figure out what they are. Sounds like yours is Maxi Knight 🙂
I have an Emberly and while I never had naming remorse, it wasn’t a favorite among my parents. But amazingly? They call her that and love her! We are 2.5 years in and we call her “emmie” “Emberly” “emmie Grace” “sissy g” and “sissy grace”. She actually called herself sissy g this morning and I LOVE that because it’s what I always say 🙂 I love that we went with what we loved- at our wedding we gave candles as our gift to our friends and family to remember that we are a light in dark places. We named our first Luke which means light. And Emberly- with the obvious “ember” root word is the glow left after a fire.
I have a Dash too ! Named him after The Incredibles. Full name is Dashiell. Debated on whether to leave the ‘I’ in and wish I removed it. Everyone thinks he’s a girl when it’s a boy’s name. Then we had Violet, naming her after my mother, not the movie. Didn’t even get the connection until she was a week old.
You guys seriously make such cute babies! These pictures made me smile- just what I needed 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Okay. I’m putting this out there for anyone else who may have had this happen to them. When my first daughter was born it was around the same time Angelina Jolee and Brad Pitt had their daughter Shiloh. Shiloh was born just a couple weeks before my daughter and I actually had time then to pay attention to all the media that was surrounding Shiloh’s birth. For weeks after by daughter was born I would look at her and think “Shiloh”. And then I would think “What the hell is wrong with me? Her name is Brea.”
It may also have something to do with the fact that we didn’t have a name for her until a couple days after she was born because we had planned on naming her Drea until the doctor said it sound too much like diarrhea. And back then I was a person did care what other people think.
I get it!!! I named my son Wyman after my granddaddy and it took me months to feel okay calling him that. I never once waivered on whether it was the right name or not, it just took some getting used to, calling my sweet, chunky, BABY by such a mature name. He did grow into his name and now, at age 9, I can’t picture calling him by anything else.
I’m glad you have settled on what makes you happy! 🙂
I have had this with all of my kids! It’s awful to second guess yourself, but at the same time like you’ve said, no other name really fits either. I have found each time after a couple of months calling them by their names it just starts to click, and eventually I have absolutely no regrets and love each of their names.
I commend you for putting this out there. I am obsessing over baby boy #2’s name to the point where I’m pretty sure Nameberry has labeled me a stalker. We wanted this name for #1, but found another that we liked a little better. Now #2 is getting sloppy seconds. Honestly, I did think about giving him second choice, but I still do love the name, so there’s that. I just want to make sure it’s IT.
Have you thought of using “Flora” as a nickname?
My daughter’s name is Salinger, which is admittedly not your standard name. We made the decision after 32 hours of labor, an emergency c-section delivery, and me on a whole lot of meds. Two days later I had a total breakdown over it because I felt like my husband just let me pick it because I had been sliced open and he wasn’t in love with it. He assured me that wasn’t the case, but I wasn’t so sure. I kept worrying everyone was going to ridicule her as she got older. People mispronounce it all the time (Sal-ING-er) and I kept stressing out about it. I still loved her name, but I was afraid I’d saddled her with some sort of burden.
As she’s gotten older, it fits her more and more. When we shorten it, we call her Sal, but the truth is that 90% of the time we end up calling her “peanut” or “booty” (because she’s acting like a booty, obviously), because that’s what nicknames are all about. In the long run, if she hates it she can go by her middle name, and I don’t stress out about it anymore. But there were a few weeks where I was like “Well, step one to ruining her life was that name….”
At least I know what she’ll be talking about in the therapy I’ll have to pay for when she gets older.
Katie, my daughter was born the day before your son. I remember when she was about 8-9 weeks old, I finally told my best friend that I didn’t feel that the baby fit her name (Scarlet). She said to me, ‘You HAVE to read Katie Bower’s Instagram! She’s going through the same thing!’ How ironic! Fast forward to two weeks later and my husband and I went to the courthouse to change her name (now, Isabel, which is what we originally planned). Thank you for this post and your Instagram post, it showed me that I wasn’t alone and that other moms go through this. 🙂
Flossie is a common nickname for Florence – it’s my sister’s name! (Just Flossie though – not Florence). My mom always loved the name and we can’t imagine her as anything else even though it’s a more unusual name!
thank you so much for writing this post. i CANNOT believe that i spent so much time after reading the IG comment looking for what is essentially this post. HA HA! Anyway- things that must be said: THESE pictures are wildly awesome. SO WELL done and great. I still wrestle with my kid 3’s middle name. It does not roll off of my tongue. I still call him Asher Bean instead of Asher Trenton. He is 5 years old (6 next month) and this summer it finally clicked that bean is not his middle name. so funny.
MKB is super cute, and super blessed to have you all as his family!
I think Flor is sooooo sweet! Like flower! (Is it the French fleur?) when reading your comment I immediately thought of Flor and liked the nickname so much it jumped onto my list of girl named!
I cannot imagine having to name FOUR boys!!! We found out we are having Girl Irish Twins (literally 3 days apart unless I move it forward) and I are stressed out. We have time until March 2016 but it took us that long to name the first one!
But LJ is so sweet and he melts my heart with every picture!
When we were expecting our youngest daughter 14 years ago it was an extremely high risk pregnancy and full of serious complications. So when she arrived 6 weeks early I let my husband convince me to compromise on her name. I knew I wanted her to be named in memory of my grandmother Alise and loved the name Annalise . My husband thought it would be better if we named her Anna Alise and she could shorten it later if she wanted.. All I have ever called her is Annalise and it suits her perfectly but now her friends call her Anna and there is always confusion about her name. I wish I didn’t still struggle with it all these years later. What is her opinion on the matter-she tells me all the time if you wanted me to be called Annalise then that is what you should have named me.
I’ll have to bookmark this post and come back to it later. I don’t have any littles yet but have been thinking about their names for years… Hubster and I might be the most indecisive people alive [and I have a bad tendency to care WAY too much what others think] so I’m preemptively bracing myself for this to happen, and hoping the right answer reveals itself when the time comes.
As always, Katie, I love your openness and honesty. Thank you!
For the record, I think your boys’ names are adorable [almost as adorable as the boys themselves!].
My mom names me Katherine, but when she received the birth certificate in the mail she decided she didn’t like the way it looked. So now I’m Kathryn. Same name. Different spelling.
We named our girl Alice Rose, after my grandmother and great aunt, with the intention of calling her Ali. At first I couldn’t call her Alice because it felt too much like my grandma’s name, but now it’s almost all I call her because I like that she has that connection to my grandma.
I love the name, all of your boys’ names! I hope you don’t mind if I steal a little piece of your blog to try out my names. We are expecting our first child in about a month and it took FOREVER to come to a consensus on a name for our little one. I’m still not sure if I’m completely sold. We haven’t told friends and family yet either (mainly for fear of changing it when we see the little one, but also because I don’t really want their opinion.) Yes, I want the WWW’s opinion, just not that of my family. Ha!
So, if you readers want to chime in, we’ve chosen Grey Weston or Caroline Virginia. We don’t know the sex, hence two names. There is a little bit of family history in each name and then just what we liked and could agree on. (Thanks for letting me hi-jack a little bit of your blog space!! 🙂
My sister named her little guy Roman Matthew and everyone loved it, but for the first few days it just didn’t feel right. When people asked what the baby’s name was she had to think about it. It was hard to remember to call him Roman, so they never did. He was just “the baby” or other nicknames that had nothing to do with his name. A few days after they got home from the hospital, her husband came home from work and said his first thought when he saw the baby was to call him Lincoln. The clouds parted and angels sang. So they changed it. He’s five now and I can’t imagine him being anything other than Lincoln Matthew…but that may have been the case if they had stuck with Roman too. Hard to say. Naming babies is hard!
I’m glad you’ve made peace with your name choice.
His eyes. You can get lost in those eyes.
You have a beautiful family, Katie!
such beautiful pictures! and such a handsome little man, like his big brothers!! My third was born on May 1st, and his name is Maxwell David, and I’ve always called him Maxie as well, and the big sibs call him “Baby Max”, which sounds like “Baymax.” 🙂 When you originally made your name announcement, I was so excited to show your name choice to my hubby, and use it as evidence that we are probably soul mates. Not weird. 🙂
My first daughters name is Madeleine. I love the name. I love writing it, saying it, everything about it. Was there remorse in her name? Yes. You see, she passed away after three days. I felt I “wasted” my favorite name. I now have a beautiful daughter with an equally beautiful name. I never feel anymore that I ‘wasted” the name. How can an angel’s name be a waste?
Our son is Henry Graydon. Both are family names on my husband’s side and both I love. But for some reason I was always dead set on not calling him Henry. Maybe it’s because his namesake goes by “Hank” and that always reminds me of “yank” or “hankie” and I just can’t. Mostly it’s because Graydon is just so unique without being weird and the fact that it is a family name makes it even cooler. I didn’t like Graydon Henry.. just doesn’t flow, and we didn’t have any other ideas for names that would pair with either. My husband was very firm on wanting to name our first son “Henry” so that was pretty much a done deal, at least for the birth certificate. People would ask the name and we would say “Henry Graydon” which usually was followed by, “What are you going to call him?” My standard answer was, “we’ll wait until we meet him to decide” while in my heart I was saying “Graydon… he will be Graydon for sure”. Once he was born the different name combinations started swirling around from all family members. HG, Henry, Graydon, Gray, HenryGray, etc. Anything but the name I wanted drove me crazy for a while. Eventually the rest of the world fell in line with my heart and Graydon has stuck all though my MIL still calls him HG and my FIL calls him Henry Gray. I did have a lot of back and forth once he was born because I knew how much my husband wanted a “Henry” but I just didn’t feel like it fit the little pumpkin doing somersaults in my tummy. It’s definitely a tough decision and I’m glad that now I know what my little man is to me and other people can give him whatever nicknames they want. Maxwell Knight is a fantastic name… I can see it written in lights one day 🙂 So glad you found peace with it!
3 people had recently used the name I wanted for my second daughter (a name I’ve liked for years before even getting married and having kids) so we choose not to use it and had nothing. We agreed on a name a few days before she arrived and I had problems really feeling it for a while bit it’s just become who she is now.
Not only did you give me baby fever with this post, but I also want a new camera now! Adorable pictures and little boys! Thanks for keeping it real, always 🙂
I’m a girl and my name is officially Brandon. My mom always loved that name for a girl (Brandy for short), but it occurred to her a little later that she should have spelled it with a Y to make it more feminine. At that point it would have required an official name change which cost $ that they didn’t have. They did send in my SSN info with Brandyn. Fast forward 30+ years and my birth certificate and driver’s license still say Brandon. I looked into changing it, but it would have been about $80 ( not a big deal), a bunch of paperwork, and a court date. The time involved has always kept me from officially fixing it.
So not a huge name regret, but the small issue causes me problems from time to time (esp at airports).
My MIL had twin girls after having 4 boys. They decided to name the girls Anna Marie and Emily. After a few months they decided they had made a mistake and had to go through the process of changing their names to Rebecca and Rachel.
My grandmother-in-law named one of her daughters (7 of her 8 kids) Molly. Her mother in law gave her such a hard time she changed the babies name. It was only when we heard the story that we knew our daughter would be named Molly(for his side of the family) and Jean for my grandma. She now how’s a very special name unique to the whole family.
So my story is about our PUPPY’s name, but I swear it’s completely relatable. I’m a mama of two daughters and our puppy is our baby boy. The only testosterone in the house is his. 🙂 We liked the idea of a big strong name. The owner of his mama loved the name we picked and told us it fit him perfectly. Turns out he was the alpha of the litter. In the weeks after my girls didn’t feel his name fit and we tried calling him other names…and just like you nothing else ever felt right. I did however add a middle name: Hercules Winston.
P.S. I met John & Sherry at their book event in AZ and mentioned I used to drink my coffee in the morning while reading their blog. Sherry asked what it is I do now and I answered: Oh, I go to Katie’s….Bower….Bowerpower. awkward laughter on my part. They said they’d say Hi to you.
You could go with Flora (since it might flow a little easier for you), I love Ren (Wren), but that still might be too close to Bennie. I also like Effie (for the F in Florence).
You also don’t have to follow her name that close. I’m a Gilmore Girls addict and I always liked Rory which was “short” for Lorelai.
You’ll find something you love or she will:)
I totally went through this after we named our son. I wanted to call him by him middle name, but my husband didn’t. Ultimately, we call him by his full name, which I love. I’m sure it will be shortened & I’ve done it some myself, but it’ll be ok. I’ve prayed & prayed about his name, both while pregnant & after he was here, & I’m certain we picked the right one. It just took some getting used to it for me to finally be at peace with it.
I am so sorry to hear that…what a loss. I can’t imagine.
xo kb
Love both of them! The girls name is very stately 🙂
xo kb
Haha!
xo kb
My father in law’s name is Maxie, but he goes by Max. I think only his mother called him Maxie, but I still think it’s cute when I hear my tall, big, bald father in law called Maxie 🙂
I love the name Maxwell and Max. I am a tiny bit confused though. You said you ditched Max a few months before because of the “obvious” maxi-pad reference yet you call him Maxie? I don’t really get that but it’s not really any of my business on what you decide to call your son. I like the name Maxie too. Just thought that was kind of strange.
awh! Little Maxi Knight. How sweet :). And he looks SO much like Will in these pics. All your boys are just so adorable.
If you didn’t like the reference to maxi pad why would you call him maxi????
Yep! I’m right there with you. We didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl, so we came up with a name for each. Baby popped out, it was a boy, and my sister who was in the room said what’s his name? My husband immediately replied with Xander, the one we had agreed on. But it just didn’t seem right. All of a sudden the X seemed odd, and just like Knight I felt it was hard for the brain to tongue transition. I figured I’d get over it, that’s what we had chosen! Well, 7 months later and I still don’t like telling ppl what my sons name is. I can tell by responses that others don’t really like it. For a while I tried calling him by his middle name, Clark, so that family and friends would catch on but it went nowhere. I still wish we had gone with Clark, and the other day a blogger-friend named her son Clark and I got so jealous. That should have been MY baby’s name. Sigh. It feels good to get that off my chest 🙂 Before this, I’d only ever told my husband.
Yes, the girl’s name is pretty but a little too geographical for me. I love the boys name!
I love the name Wells. You know, if you’re looking for another nickname possibility for Maxwell. 😉
I am so glad someone picked up on that whole middle name silent K name thing. Side note..the other two boys both have J middle names and we always say that our boys have to have one K or one J to represent their parents 🙂
xo kb
If it helps…I love Xander. I feel like it’s such a strong man name…like the guy in a movie that you think is bad but then ends up being the generous hearted hero 🙂
xo kb
It is kinda strange. I guess in the past I only heard maxi in reference to maxi pad so it rolled off the tongue…but now with time when I say maxi knight a million times, I don’t think of that and his name rolls faster 🙂
xo kb
1. your boys are beautiful. 2. I am so happy to hear that others go through this. When I found out I was pregnant with twin boys I could not imagine anything harder than trying to come up with two names! We settled on Bradyn and Brody knowing that we would call Bradyn “Brady” from day one. Our thought was that Brody’s nickname would be “Bo” and Bradyn’s nickname would be Brady. However, it turned out that we never used Bo as a nickname and exclusively called Bradyn “Brady” so much so that when he started preschool this fall I kind of forgot he had another name. Turned to that Bradyn loves his full name and once Brody found at that Brady’s name was actually Bradyn, he became really sad and started making us call him Brodyn. He even insists that his teachers add an ‘n’ to the end of his school papers so his name is “correct”. My husband and I are kind of sad that we did not choose Brodyn from the beginning. I’ll add it to the list of 1,000,001 ways you can mess up your kids!
So glad you are happy I have peace and aren’t questioning what I call my own son 🙂
Seriously though…I don’t think it’s unusual to have an original reference to something or someone when picking a name. I call him Maxi Knight…not just Maxi or any other name.
xo – kb
I’m married to a Max, and I call him Max-man when it’s just the two of us at home. It started because when we were dating, because my parents had a dog named Max, so it was Max-man and Max-dog, for clarification. It stuck and I’m the only one who calls him that. His mom calls him Daxer, short for Maxer Daxer, which is what she called him when he was little. There are so many variations, and each means something different to the person who shares that nickname with him.
My friend used to call her Max “Maxi Baby”
It’s a really cute name. 🙂
That picture of the four of them is amazing. LJ looks so much older! Such beautiful boys and I love little Maxi Knight’s eyes.
I am so, so happy to see this post and that you are growing to love your version of his name! I commented on that Instagram post so this will be redundant for you, but I figured I would post again just in case it’s helpful.
We don’t find out the sex of our babies before they are born so we go in with a few boy names and a few girl names- which take us forever to agree on by the way! The birth of our first was terrible and emotional and resulted in an emergency c-section after 27 hours of labor and the baby’s heartbeat fell off the monitor. I was so out of it during his birth and for the 24 hours following. In the OR they kept asking his name and I just yelled that I needed to have him in my arms and look at his face. The pressure to name your baby in the first moments of their life is beyond ridiculous! Once we got to recovery and I was finally able to stare into his eyes we named our son Harrison.
I kept calling him “the baby”, “bug” or “bubba” for months after he was born. I think I only said his name when people asked me what it was. I just felt a disconnect with his name (not with him). Sometimes I wonder if it’s because we didn’t name him beforehand. Would it have been better if I had called him by name while he was still inside? Now “Bubba” has stuck as his nickname for me and that is what I call him the majority of the time. He’s “Harrison Jay” when he’s in trouble, and boy does he know it! He is starting to come into his name and just last week I heard him say it clearly for the first time. So finally, after 3 years I think that “Harrison” is starting to feel quite right 🙂
Good grief, he is one cute baby!
Maxwell Knight is my very favorite of your boys’ names. That is impressive, to come up with such a great name on the fourth boy! I mean, they are all very handsome names, I just particularly love Maxwell Knight. And Maxi Knight is super cute. Not that what a random internet stranger thinks about your sons’ names matters at all, I just wanted to say how much I like it.
We didn’t feel like our son’s name “fit” when he was born, so we tried calling him by his middle name for a little bit, but it never stuck. But then he definitely grew into his first name. And it turns out that he is not so fond of his middle name but he loves his first name, so it’s all for the best in the end.
Um, your baby is so cute that it’s breaking my brain. And I think most new babes are ugos (which I, of course, keep to myself when meeting them).
We had agreed on a girl’s name after years of discussion when we found out we were having a boy ! We wanted to name our daughter Gabriel if she was a boy but it didn’t feel right so we agreed on Levi – till I realized the only reason my husband liked that name is because he wanted to call him leviathan! So we finally wound up on Samuel, which felt really old man at the time but now I call him that sometimes! Although I am a bit frustrated that Sam smith became a hit about a week before our little Sammy Smith was born!
My husband and I also went to the hospital with two names, Coraleigh Kate or Alexandra Kate. I leaned towards Coraleigh while my husband toward Alexandra. Then after we saw her we switched but decided to poll the nurses and family. My family was Team Coraleigh while all the nurses and in laws were team Alexandra so that’s what we chose. Then I told my doctor and she said she loved Coraleigh more. From that moment I had second thoughts and did for a few months. She is never called Alexandra but rather is lovingly called Lexi by my husband and I or ‘E’ by her brother. She has grown into her nickname for me, though Alexandra still feels odd. Just the other day I tried Cora and it just didn’t feel right either still 10 months later. So Lexi it is and will stay. Hormones are crazy but it’s wonderful to find a common ground in the craziness of hormonal motherhood. Thanks for sharing.
Names are so very personal! Thankful that you feel like you found the right nickname for your littlest man.
We named our son Max William (my moms name is Maxine and William is a family name)…doesn’t really roll off the tongue but love both names. Some folks call him Maxie and it’s not my fave but they also call my daughter Finnegan, Finny…I think both are just really easy and fun!
We call our Max- Maxamilliano (my Italian version) pretty often and I always wonder in public if people think that’s his real name:)
I have two girls, and neither of them had names for the first two days of life. We didn’t find out the sex either time…and when discussing names, my husband only had two suggestions-one for each sex-and I hated both of them. He got to a point where he wouldn’t even discuss names until they got here, saying we’d save ourselves 50% of the argument.
My first, I felt in my heart she was a girl, and around five months pregnant, I found her name, Elodie, and knew that’s who she’d be. Problem was…my husband hated it, because it was “weird” and he’d never heard it before…but I fought hard for it and now have a beautiful little Elodoe Faye. (Faye is both of our maternal grandmothers middle name, as well as his mothers middle…)
Then daughter number two came, and I didn’t know what to think because I’d already used the most beautiful girls name ever on my first little love. When I first saw her, I felt in my heart her name should be “Noelle.”, but husband didn’t love that…and since I still feel bad that I forced him into Elodie, I backed down.
She wound up being Rebecca, which is a name I’ve always thought was beautiful…but never pictured using myself. Honestly, I’m still getting used to it. But she feels like an old soul, and Rebecca suits her. But so will any of the inherent nicknames that come along with it…(my favorite being Bex) if she winds up being more “spirited.” 🙂
I love reading what and how people chose to name their children. I think all of your boys names are wonderful.
We named my son Griffin and thought we would call him Fin. However, when he was born, I panicked and thought this name is too crazy! Are we trying too hard? Shouldn’t this name feel more natural right away? I really kept ruminating over it in my head for months.
Ultimately, even though I adored my baby boy from the start, I finally came to love his name. My daughter kept calling him Griff or Giggy (Gig-ee) and so that stuck more than Fin. It was also hard because people kept saying the name reminded them of Harry Potter, which I hadn’t even thought of before and annoyed me. I know people think they are harmlessly joking, but questioning someone’s name choice or making “funny” remarks can be heartbreaking to already emotional new parents. (Can we add this to the list of non-helpful comments to new parents?!). After the dust settled and I remembered the first reasons we chose his name and the special meaning it had to us, I felt confident it fit him perfectly.
P.S. All the heart eyes for that second to last photo!!!
I love seeing these baby pics- you just have the cutest kids!
We named our son August – I also had another name in mind and made the final choice based on hair color, ha! Funny thing is – what appeared to be dark hair shortly after delivery is now a sandy blonde 7 months later. I had a lot of trouble calling him by his name for the longest time because it just felt too “big” for a baby. I’m happy to say now that he’s growing into it nicely, although it still feels weird to say out loud and I’m not a fan of the available nicknames (plus the receptionist at our Dr’s office always assumes he’s a girl). Thank you for your honesty – I definitely felt like the only person in the world that had ever regretted a name choice so quickly, so it’s nice to read this post and all of the comments and know I wasn’t the only one.
Girl, I honestly cannot think of any negative nicknames for the name max! I never would’ve thought of maxi pad, nor would my husband and you should hear us when we are trying to choose a name for our child! He goes through every possible nickname-gone-wrong scenario and none for max! I’m in love with Knight too and an so glad you have a special name for him that includes it since you were originally so drawn to that name! I think it’s so sweet and will absolutely grow with him!
My youngest daughter is named Noelle, but our family, including my 4-year old mostly call her Noelley (pronounced No-welly). That has morphed into Welly, which sometimes I morph into Wellington, which at that point I realize isn’t really a nickname, but actually longer than her real name. Haha I once saw a quote that said a child that has many nicknames is very loved.
maybe reading about this max (the grown son of another fav blogger) will help you connect with the name.
when I’m iff’y on a name, it helps me remember or recall people who did the name well. I love the name Max, so two thumbs up from me for where it counts!
http://www.71toes.com/2015/06/a-third-adult-in-house.html
http://www.71toes.com/2015/05/tbt-i-will-fix-you.html
http://www.71toes.com/search/label/max
don’t blink, those days come fast
I never went to full-blown remorse but I did question my daughter’s name a bit. We do family middle names and my first (boy) is Gavin Russell, being named after my FIL who passed away a year and a half before Gav was born. The problem in naming my second (girl) was that I wanted her middle name to be Dawn or Mae, after my mother who passed away six months after my FIL. But the single syllable names didn’t go with our favorite first names and single syllable last name. So after a lot of debate, we went with Quinn Delaney (after my paternal grandfather Franklin Delano). Some times I still wonder if we should have done Delaney Dawn but I’ve very happy with our Quinnie Pie!
Katie, I only had to name 2 boys and had the hardest time with #2. I don’t know how you do it. I have white out my birth certificate because my parents changed their mind about the spelling of my name. My granny still calls me Anastasia which is not my legal name. 🙂
Oh my gosh!!! I just breathed the biggest sigh of relief. I can remember sitting and looking at our daughter for WEEKS right after she was born a year ago and thinking, “Did we mess up? Maybe she’s not a Madison. Maybe we didn’t explore enough alternatives.” I even called her Emma in my head for a week or so right after she was born to see if it fit her better, because I suddenly had so much doubt. I never told a single soul because I thought I was CRAZY (one more thing to add to the postpartum list…). In the end, Madison Rose has been a perfect fit for her, and I can’t imagine having named her anything else. Whether she grew into it, or I finally wrapped my brain around it is hard to say, but the thought of her as an Emma now seems so foreign and strange. Thank you so much for sharing this. I totally thought I was the only one that had those thoughts!
I had name remorse for one of my babies and never said anything about it out loud, but inside I had so much trouble with the name. But now 12 years later I finally love it.
I love that you have found peace with what you want to call him, because in the end that’s really all that matters!
And I have to say, HONESTLY you have the most gorgeous babies ever. For reals. Stunning all of them!
xo
Great timing for this post! We named our son Maxim Renly and I just started second guessing myself. I love the name but every time I introduce him I often get the comment “you named him after a sexy magazine?” ugh….no! We love the name Max but wanted to give him a full name not just a nick name. Not a fan of the other “Max” names.
We call him Max,Maxi, Maxi boy and Maxim.
I love it and it fits my son perfectly.
Too funny! Don’t feel bad, everyone nicknamed my dad Gregory Joe, and when my parents were planning their wedding my mom called my dad to confirm that his middle name was Joe or Joseph for the invitations. His real middle name is Edward. They still laugh about it.
I had a strong dislike for my middle name growing up. A family name that was just a difficult to spell last name. Then, when I went off to college and played flag football, I needed a name for my jersey. It was at that point that name came in handy. My jersey would forever say “Tay Mac”.
I will go to my grave regretting I didn’t name my Madison Frances instead.
I truly feel like I should have a Frances in my life. Maybe a grandkid?
I have a Maxwell too (he’s 14 now). Nicknames we have used/continue to use:
Maximum Max
Maxinator
Maximilliano
Maxfield
Mac
Macky Mac
Mak-ee-well
Max is a solid name.
PS: I love how LJ and Max have similar features and Weston and Will do too.
My daughter is 14 and I still love the name I originally chose: Allegra Noelle. I loved the name, but the allergy med, Allegra, had just come out and I didn’t want her being teased. So I went with my second choice: Kyndall Imani. Yup: the Kindle Fire came out when she was young and now kids tease her and call her Kindle Fire. While I still love Allegra Noelle , she is most definitely Kyndall. A strong name for a strong-willed, going places girl!
When I was pregnant with our third child, my husband had to travel to England for four weeks. He spent one weekend in Scotland and took in the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. He came home with CDs of piping music and an intrigue with all things Scottish. He said, “if this baby is a boy, can we name him Angus?”
I took a moment to say I didn’t think I could do it, here in the middle of farm country of Minnesota. Then, we had a daughter. I was pregnant again and he asked again. Then, we had a daughter. Pregnant again, asked again, daughter again. Pregnant again. He asked again. I asked “What would you want to call him?” He said Gus. I said, “I love Gus. Can we name him something else and call him Gus?” So, our beautiful boy (now 12) is Andrew Michael (Andrew being the patron saint of Scotland) and we call him Gus. He is a perfect Gus!!!
When people ask how he got the name he says “it’s a long story. Ask my mom.”
When my second daughter was born, we we picked her name the morning we left the hospital, Kennedy Daye. I’ve always loved Kennedy and Daye was for my husband’s father, however, once we got home I knew that just wasn’t it. When people asked her name I was very ‘meh’ in saying it. After a week I started calling her Blake, and we changed it. Even complete strangers that hear the story say “she is so not a Kennedy”. We changed her name to Blake Kennedy Daye and I usually call her Blakey Daye. I also get the Knight thing, because people are confused by the name Daye until I explain it’s with an e and is for my husband’s deceased father. Picking names is the worst, lol!
You could have it legally changed to Brodyn. We had our son’s name changed between his pre-k and kindergarten year. It’s not that much trouble when they’re still that young. Just a thought…
Omg – that is seriously hilarious!! So many ways to “mess up” our kids! There was a sad moment at our house the other week when my son realized he was the only one in the family that didn’t have two vowels in his first name. There was no easy fix for that!
My mom named me Jennifer Rebecca. My grand mom thought it would be too long to write so my mom changed it to tricia ann after president nixons daughter. Lol. God bless all ur boys. They are precious. I have two and they are the greatest. 🙂
Naming our 5 day old daughter was hard as so many names were popular on both sides of the family. it came down to final days in hospital and she had to have a name before the hospital would release us, Oh please won’t someone come up with a name both Daddy and I could agree on……Lightning bolt struck late that last evening, we had it and signed the paper before we could change our minds..Anne Thurston Parrington Thomas is loaded up with all the family names, surprise after 35 years she still loves the sound of it.
Our little guy is Maxwell Oliver (April 29) – and also gets called Baymax by his older bro! And my hubby also wanted to name him Maximus – Maxwell was our compromise. I keep nodding my head as I read your post and the comments 🙂 And the nicknames keep coming with this one — Max, Maxi, Maxi Bear, Maxaroni and Cheese, Maxamander Salamander (longest nickname ever!!), Baby Boo, Boo Baby, Boo Boo (also? I sometimes get those combinations mixed up and he ends up being called “booby” — poor kid!). I think we need to have a gathering for our little Max men!
i have a beautiful little girl named Madeline Rose, but we didn’t settle on that name until an hour before i was suppose to leave the hospital to take her home. I had my heart set on naming her Emily Rose, i called her that for months before actually giving birth to her. My husband, however, couldn’t get over the fact that there is a horror movie titled the exorcism of Emily Rose-EEK! So we settled on Madeline, i love the name, but i had associated her with Emily and it was really hard for me to call her Madeline or remember that that was her name! At her 2 week old dr. appt. the nurse came out and called for an Emily and i actually stood up with my daughter to go back… only to realize that that WAS NOT HER NAME lol i had to come up with a rhyme- Maddie-Paddie, just to remember remember her name ( could’ve also been 3rd child- tired momma syndrome) and it became my loving nickname for her. i even had a song to go with it lol Soon everyone in the family was also calling her Maddie-Paddie and the nickname has stuck ever since ( she is now 6yrs old)
Oh I feel your pain. I was a very young mom with my first – he is now 17 and I am in my mid thirties. I gave him slightly creative spelling with his name that I would NEVER do now. Oh the naiveté of youth. I find myself acknowledging the spelling every time I have to say it out loud – I usually tack on a “ya, I know I spell it weird” to the person asking for the spelling. Like I need them to know that I know it’s unusual. With my second I gave him a very ethnic sounding name ( the background of their father) and while it’s not unheard of, I sometimes get concerned that people will judge him based on it. I went through major, major regret very late in the game – about 5 years ago. I’m mostly over it now, but I do still wish I had given them other names. For what it’s worth they both say they love their names.
We had a hard time with our first. We had picked out the name Peyton Beau, but made the mistake of telling family before he was born. I quickly got tired of hearing the name with no baby face to attach it to. So we changed it to Camron Lucas and didn’t tell anyone. (Our second we held our name choices closely guarded lol)
The slight regret part…. Not putting an “e” in Camron. We debated on spelling it Cameron, but hubby didn’t like it with the e. I can’t imagine his name spelled the traditional way, but everyone misspells it. Not that I blame them! I feel bad for my son though that he’ll go through life having to correct people’s spelling of his name. At almost 8 he already tells people “no e” haha
Oh, and with my daughter… We couldn’t agree on a name, so we rated our top 10 and picked the one that ranked the highest for both. It was actually in the middle of the pack for us both. It took me some time saying it a bunch to accept it. Savannah Lynn. I call her Nana Lynn most often now though. (Unless she’s in trouble.) When she was a teeny toddler she looked in the mirror and said “nana!” Which was great bc I didn’t have a nickname for her that felt right. Actually when anyone else calls her Nana it feels weird. It’s her special nickname… I can still hear her saying it for the first time. Tear. Anyways, no real regrets there. But, yes, sometimes a name needs to grow on you or you find your own nickname. 🙂
My son’s name is Greydon too! Funny thing is, my husband come up with it when we were expecting our first (who ended up being a girl anyway, so it wouldn’t have been used) but I hated it then! I had no idea where he came up with that name, and he isn’t into name trends or anything so it struck me as a weird name he just made up 😛
But when we were expecting our second, and found out we were having a boy, I came across the old name list we used and Greydon kind of stood out to me. So I put it on our new name list, and every time we looked at the name it moved higher up on that list. Until it was the only name we were really confident about.
I was nervous about my family’s reaction to that name considering no one had ever heard it before, but I was kind of excited because of the uniqueness. Then again, my daughter’s name is unique too (Aubriella) so it works for us 🙂
Whatever name you use, he is ADORABLE! All my boys go by their middle name and not just their middle name but the short version of their middle names. My husband and father in law do the same. Sometimes it is confusing at school but we move a lot and my oldest who is now in high school said it has helped. He has learned to speak up at the beginning of the year and people remember his name when he has to say ” I would like to go by Jack please.” So from the mom of Gerald Jackson (Jack), Thomas Andrew (Andy) and Scott Calvin (Cal) and yes I know that last one is the name of Santa in the Santa Claus the movie, although it never crossed my mind when naming him, you know what is best, we parent from our heart and souls, so go with it!
My first baby turned out to be twin boys. Oh, the names my husband wanted. Rooster was a favorite. I liked the name “Brown” – it was the name of my college roommate’s father, Brown Corbett. Always thought it was different, easy to spell, and distinctive.
But we had to come up with two names. The first born was called Tavis; it means twin in Gaelic. The second baby was named after my father, William. I WANTED to call him William, too, but from day one, it was all “how is little Bill?” So while it sure seemed weird calling a 6 pound baby Bill, he is now 29, and it fits perfectly.
I’m pretty sure we have that white blanket on our couch. I LOVE it!
My first daughter was named at about 20 weeks and we loved her name from that point on. My second daughter had no name when we went in, no name at birth, and no name until they were about to kick us out of the hospital. We kind of had the opposite problem. We both loved Caroline, but couldn’t agree on a nickname. So, we went with that and we just call her Caroline. My husband keeps trying to make Cara happen as her nickname, but I really don’t like it. I usually call her “C” for short. Naming is so very difficult! You don’t want to give them a name they are going to hate later or will be easy to make fun of. You had to name so many in a short period, I think I would have been at a total loss and ended up with something like Apple or who knows what.
You’re an awesome momma and I so love reading your blog. Thanks for sharing your heart!
My husband and I had the same agreement when it came to naming our daughter, I wanted to name her Sarah and he wanted Brooke. So, it came down to hair color. He also wanted her middle name to be Lynn after his sister, but his brother already used that middle name for his daughter, and I thought that was overkill. And besides, I wanted her middle name to be after my grandmother, Helen. Sarah Helen (in my mind was perfect). Since my first born was platinum blonde, I offered a (sure) deal, if she was blonde, it would be Sarah, and if brunette, she can be Brooke. Well, she came out with a head full of black hair (glad I was paying attention during her birth because I would have been certain the hospital made a grave error). When they brought me the birth certificate form to complete, I made a quick decision, without his consent, and named her: Brooke Helynn. I call her Brookie Cookie, and most of the time, its just Cookie. So-YOU ARE RIGHT-anything I call her is perfect (to me) and even though she is now 20 years old, she loves “Cookie” best of all.
Great post…..amazing pictures (cutest babies EVER) and I enjoyed reading everyone’s comments. We named our first son after his two grandfathers, but I sort of wish we had used Christian as his middle name since he was due on Christmas Eve.
I’m glad you found peace about this. Maxi Knight is precious!!
I call my kids all sorts of things… Joseph, Joey, Jo-Jo, J.D., etc. Nicknames are kind of a thing in our house!
My friend has a son named Isaac James. She has forever called him “Isaac Jamie baby dudes”. He is now 15. She still calls him that ❤️❤️
That picture of him peeking over your shoulder is ADORABLE! We picked our daughter’s name pretty much right when we found out I was pregnant and we both LOVE it. There have been moments when I’ve felt a little bit of remorse and thinking what if there was a better name for her?! About a year ago (around her 1st birthday), I found an alternative name meaning for her name and it was describing her to a T. Now I feel like there is no way that she could have any other name but hers.
Doesn’t look like we will be having kids, but Grey was top of both girl and boy lists for my husband and I when we would talk about names. Love it!!
I have a soft spot in my heart for your little Maxwell Knight since you announced his name. I named my son Larson Knight. Knight is my mom’s maiden name. I ALWAYS wanted to name a son Knight. My husband was totally onboard. However, I also loved the name Lars. He wouldn’t agree to a heavy metal band members name, but when I pointed out his grandmothers maiden name was Larson, I was able to sneak Lars in there. We’ve never had one person tell us they didn’t like the name ever. We call him Larson and most of the grandparents call him Larson Knight when they address him because they love his name so much. It’s cute. I’m sure I’ll sneak a Lars in there during some future sporting events!
I’ve been there too, Katie! We choose Adrianne – a beautiful, strong name for our beautiful, strong girl. At the time I thought, “there will be TONS of nickname options!”, I even wrote them all down. I felt totally prepared! Then she was born and all of a sudden her full name felt too bold for such a little squishy and NONE of the “planned” nicknames fit her. “What have we done!?” came to mind. A lot.
I prayed that God would give me peace because the struggle is real. Then He did – I read somewhere that children will often times call themselves something different when they start talking. So I became very patient and waited for our sweet nugget to tell us what her nickname would be, and sure enough she did. Our little “Ada” is now 18 months old.
So happy for you and that you found Maxi Knight’s nickname. Who knew that a nickname could bring such peace and comfort?!
My dad wanted to name me Elizabeth but my mom didn’t like the name. They agreed on Jennifer Kathleen, but my dad still calls me Betty. My older brother Jonathan became Sy in our family when my little brother started talking and called him that, and it totally stuck. My little brother has a billion nicknames in our family, none of which is related to his actual name (Christopher).
Glad you found your own peace in Max’s name! 🙂
Once we found out we were having a girl, we had three names we liked–Gracyn, Reagan, and Riley. She was going to be Gracyn Marie (my middle name) and then two days before our gender reveal party my husband told me he had reservations about the name Gracyn because a good family friend had a one year old named Gracelynn and he felt they were too similar. After that conversation, the name Gracyn was sort of ruined for us. We finally decided on Ryleigh Marie–spelled that way after her aunt, Jenna Leigh. As soon as she was born we knew Ryleigh was the right choice and now I could not even imagine calling her anything else!
We named our first boy William (which – obviously you will agree – is a great name), but we called him Liam. Everyone called him Liam. He calls himself Liam. William seems so strange and foreign. It doesn’t fit him. It’s NOT him. He has never once known that his actual name is William… we’ve never mentioned it or talked about it because it feels SO wrong. Last month (at almost 4 years old) we legally changed his first name to Liam. Now, I don’t know why it sat so wrong with me.. felt SO wrong, but it did.. to me, to my husband, to everyone. Now, his birth certificate matches what he’s only ever known and all feels RIGHT. It’s so weird to think – or to mention – that we changed our toddler’s name because it didn’t “fit him”, but it didn’t and ultimately we know we made the right decision. It’s so funny that you’re supposed to have this baby and immediately name him/her. It should be MORE common practice to let the parents get a sense of who the baby is, how the name feels when said and then decide.
You’re not crazy, or maybe.. we are both crazy. But either way.. you’re not alone!
I can totally relate and think this is so much more common than people realize. I have always been a big name nerd and spent years culminating a list of great names for future babes. We didn’t find out if we were having a boy or girl, and in my mind I thought it was a boy. Boy name was 100% set, girls we were unsure. For a first name we chose Iris, which I absolutely adore and have never regretted. But her middle name is Faye after my husbands late great grandmother. I never met her, he didn’t know her very well. I liked how Iris Faye flowed together, and like Faye on its own quite a bit. But Iris Faye comes off as a tad country for my taste and I just feel I could have really done better. Something truly special like she deserves. In the least I should have chosen my grandmothers name, Sylvia, since we all adore her and she practically raised me. Hormones make you lose your mind and I was just so surprised to have a daughter after all! If we are able to have more babies I would like them to honor my family, and we like Sylvie as a first name so that’s a front runner for a future daughter.
Thanks for posting this Katie! And Maxi Knight is precious and perfect!
Very unique names, and beautiful.
If I had to offer suggestions, I’d say Weston Grey seems to flow easier. But love it either way!
Love both names! Great choices.
We couldn’t agree on a name for our second son. I was in the shower getting ready to leave the hospital and they called saying we had to pick a name. I gave in to Benjamin. I had all the same feelings but nine (almost 10!) years later, he is Ben through and through. I couldn’t imagine calling him anything else. Either I got used to it or he grew into it, but he’s totally Ben to me.
Oh Katie! I have always liked all your boys names, but now, knowing that…..I like them even more! That is just so cute! Was that planned, or did it accidentally come about?
I am so happy for you that you are feeling at peace with his name …honestly, I thought you were crazy (in the most loving way possible!) for doubting his name! I never knew name remorse was a thing — I am happy that I didn’t feel it! LOL! Reading these comments, I can totally empathize with you and the many others that have felt the same way! Lets just always be kind to one another — those post partum hormones are no joke!
One last thing —- that picture of the 4 boys is absolute perfection — That picture needs to be framed and hanging somewhere!!
My Middle daughter is 15 and I still feel like I named her wrong. I loved the name Miranda and wanted to call her Randi but I knew if I ever had a son I wanted to name him Andrew and was so afraid that if I had a boy nicknamed Andy and and girl nicknamed Randi that my oldest, Victoria, would feel left out. My second choice for her name was Emily BriAnne but Emily was one of the “most popular” baby names so I talked myself out of that one. Her name is Brianna Nicole – there are a dozen or so other girls in her class named Brianna and not a single Emily! So ironic…
I love both of those names also! Love Grey and Caroline just reminds me of a cute little girl… For what it’s worth! 🙂
My daughter is almost 20 months old. Her name is Penelope Roux. My husband and I are huge hockey fans. Being from Philly, and our captain being Claude Giroux, we went with Roux instead of Rue. My aunt’s first response on the phone was “you mean like the fat and flour mixture?” It has made me doubt the spelling of her name. My middle name is Geraldine (family name) and I always hated it growing up. Now I don’t mind it. I just hope my daughter doesn’t also hate her name when she gets older!
Thanks for the validation! I am glad I am not the only one in this world with unique nicknames for each member of the family… And I love the “Daxer” story. Too cute. 🙂
Agreed.. the number of nicknames one has is directly proportional to the number of people who love you!!! 🙂
My little is Hugh Bernard III. We went to the hospital wanting to name him another choice, but we were worried we wouldn’t have another boy to use this name on. So we went with it. My FIL goes by Hughie, my husband is Bernie among family and friends (to tell them apart), but is Hugh professionally. The first thing everyone said is, “So….what are you calling him?” Haha! We call him Hughie most of the time, our family and friends (and the kids at the sitter’s) all call him Baby Hughie, but he also gets called Baby Bernie, and Trey (for being the third). Lots of nicknames means lots of people who love them enough to give them a special name right? 🙂 So glad you were able to find peace with his name (although changing it would have been ok too! To each their own!) And I can’t get over how BEAUTIFUL he is!! You and Jeremy have such a gorgeous family!
That picture is the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. No wonder it’s your favorite!
We lucked out, name-wise. When I told DH my first idea for our kidlet, his reply was, “That’s exactly what I was thinking.” First and middle names! It seemed too easy, so we spent the next five months asking ourselves and each other, “Are you sure?” We were, and remain happy with our choice. I can’t imagine our son as anything other than Alexander.
I’ve had name remorse here and there since my son was born two years ago. We named him Cillian Jameson. And let me say I still LOVE his name! Love love love! But, I didn’t realize how much I would dislike people mispronouncing it. I knew people wouldn’t know how to say it….I knew that part. But what bothers me most is when they don’t know how to say it AFTER you’ve pronounced it for them! (It’s pronounced with a hard C, like Killian, by the way.) And I’ve also been reminded that Killian is a beer, and Jameson is a whiskey…… but it’s the only name my husband and I both agreed on completely. We loved it ever since we first heard it on Cillian Murphy when we first say him in 28 Days. So, I try not to let the remorse linger. I try to remind myself that he can change the spelling to Killian in the future if the pronunciation issue bothers him. And no matter what name I would have picked, I probably would have questioned it at some point because that’s just who I am!
And for the record, I’ve absolutely loved the name Maxwell Knight since the day you announced it!
I love your blog and I love your baby’s names! I went through name remorse a bit after our second baby was born. She has my MIL’s name, Eileen, which my MIL didn’t even love. 🙂 But she passed away right before we were married and we loved her so much and wanted her to be remembered with our sweet baby girl, so she is Madelyn Eileen. 16 months later, I now love that her name helps us remember her, and my husband’s family has made comments about how nice it is to have another Eileen in the family. 🙂 Names are so important and it’s so hard to do this mom thing, but I think you are rocking it. Thanks for sharing your story with us. You are my favorite blog (for years now), and it makes me so sad to read some of the mean comments on your blog. Please don’t stop blogging, I love your family!!
My kiddo is 5. I’m still not sure I love his name. Unique and a family name, but hard to pronounce. I love it and I don’t love it all at the same time. You’re not alone.
Our third baby (girl) was born 4 weeks ago. We were stuck between two names “Charlotte Wren” or “Aria Wren.” I thnk we both secretly liked Aria Wren better but my family wasn’t wild about it and neither were many of my friends. They were all “very encouraging” of Charlotte. Lol. My worry with Aria was that it would be a “fad name” that wouldn’t last her into adulthood. But Charlotte gave me worries for its obvious popularity right now.
So the big day came and we named her Charlotte Aria Wren, figuring we could change it later and call her Aria if we wanted. Just like you said, “Charlotte” doesn’t feel quite right to me. My husband and other two kids have both called her “Aria” several times (I know for a fact my husband prefers it), and I have even slipped up several times and called her Aria myself. I’m still torn on knowing what to do.
I have a Henry who we call Hank and we love it. Everyone who meets him loves it, too.
With my daughter my husband wanted Jane for a middle name after his side of the family. Our last name is one syllable so the name I wanted Claire didn’t really go to have 3 one syllable names. Then he came up with Sarah and it was perfect. When we brought her home though it just didn’t fit even though I knew that should be her name. So I just called her nicknames until it was settled.
With our son, he wanted a Jr but he goes by both names Jon Michael. We have a nephew John and he didn’t want to call him any variation of Michael. My goal was to come up with another name he liked just as well. I settled on Jon Carter, calling him Carter. It felt okay but I wasn’t sold. Then one day my husband said, ‘I don’t like it.’ Back to square one. I got a birth announcement from a friend that had 1Samuel 1:27 (For this child I have prayed…) and right then I knew it would be Samuel. I wanted George Samuel after my grandfather but we settled on Jon Samuel while at the hospital. We call him Sam, Sammy, Junior, Sambo. I had a small hesitation in the first week or so but not near as much as with my daughter.
It’s so strange. I’m so glad you shared your story. I too thought I was crazy. I can’t remember if I actually told anybody I wasn’t sure about Sarah. But the two names fit my kids.
We have a very similar story! My Maxwell Cole was born in February and my husband and I couldn’t come up with a name that we could agree on. We always thought that if we were to have a boy we would name him Harrison Grey but once we found out we were expecting a boy we decided it just didn’t seem right. For the entire pregnancy and first day we called him Baby Brother! Finally we took a look at our baby name list and picked the name Maxwell because it means the greatest and Cole because it means dark features. The entire time we were filling out the name paperwork I was having anxiety that we didn’t think it through long enough. For the first two months of his life I called him Baby Brother or Baby. Finally 7 months later I love his name and like your family he already has a million nicknames. I am so glad that I am not the only one to experience this. Thank you for sharing your story!!!
I’m 6 months pregnant with my first, a girl. We’ve decided that her name will be Julia Elizabeth. While I love it as a name, I’m worried that when she gets here, it might not fit. I always thought I wanted to give my daughter something a little less girly and a little “cooler.” My husband and I have such different styles that this became our compromise. I keep hoping that by the time she gets here it will fit and make sense and roll off the tongue. But I’m also afraid that I’ll have the naming remorse.
Swistle writes an AMAZING blog about naming babies, and has great advice about remorse here:
http://www.swistle.com/babynames/2011/08/10/baby-naming-issue-baby-name-regret-3/
http://www.swistle.com/babynames/2011/09/14/an-account-of-baby-name-regret/
http://www.swistle.com/babynames/2011/01/13/baby-naming-issue-baby-name-regret-3-2/
http://www.swistle.com/babynames/2010/12/10/baby-naming-issue-baby-name-regret-2/
http://www.swistle.com/babynames/2010/12/07/baby-naming-issue-baby-name-regret/
http://www.swistle.com/2007/01/17/baby-names-a-study/
Katie, this little Maxwell, Max, Maxi Knight is seriously one of the cutest little babies I have ever laid eyes on! THOSE EYES! and let’s not forget….those EYELASHES! Oh my goodness! All your adorable boys have their own unique cuteness but this little Maxi Knight may just take the cake. Congratulations on a truly beautiful family!
What about Lorie as a nickname?
It wasn’t a hard and fast rule but I wanted them to have it. Now that they all have it, I want to keep it going 🙂
xo – kb
I love all of them. I even like Rooster, Brown and Corbett 🙂 My dad and his best friends in high school all went by nicknames…Bird, Flaps and Bones 🙂
xo – kb
Love love love that name. Seriously still obsessed with Knight. Everyone looks at me like I am crazy.
xo – kb
That was totally us with our firstborn. We talked about other names but we both knew 100%.
xo – kb
I feel that way about my niece…she is Ya-ya. Can’t wait to hear her say it 🙂
xo – kb
That’s what counts mama 🙂
xo – kb
I have a similar issue. I have never waivered on what my little girl would be named. (we didn’t find out what we were having, so we went in with a boy and a girl name) When she came out, I just knew she was Agnes Marlene. I have loved the name Agnes since I was in 8th grade,.. it is my confirmation name. 🙂 She is a beautiful little Agnes. However, we always call her Aggie, Aggie Bear, Bitsy or just Bear. LOL Rarely do I say Agnes. Which is a shame, cuz I love that name. It just doesn’t seem to come out when I refer to her. And you are correct. People will come up with whatever nickname they think of. My older sister calls her AgMar (for Agnes Marlene). I am not a huge fan, but have caught myself saying it a couple times. LOL
If you want to feel better about going with Max, read the chapter in Freakonomics on odd first names. People actually do better in life without them. Employers, teachers, etc. form more negative preconceptions about odd named people than common named ones. I think names that invoke an image of royalty can be especially difficult. I think they can sound pretentious. Not to bash your name choice, it has a cool sound (but I like nighttime)! And one syllable is nice.
I would also worry about some awful celebrity kid sharing the name down the road and that being an embarrassment for him. I felt sorry for all the Paris-named people I know, when Paris Hilton was in the media.
Our last name is Johnson, so we had to be a little creative with names to spice things up a bit. Our daughter is Annika Kaye and we call her Ani. Our son is Crew Isaiah. No one understands us when we say “Crew” (“did you say Drew??)”, and we sort of have to laugh and say we know it’s uncommon. But I love it so much, and am so happy we chose it. We usually call him Crewie (he’s only 3), but I like Crewie Brewie or Crew-Man-Choo.
🙂
Love how you created such fitting and unique name while honoring their heritage and given names. Beautiful!
Nothing meaningful to contribute except to tell you he is beeeeyoootiful no matter what you call him 🙂
We are team green for our deliveries and I swear if there is a third I will be finding out the gender just for this reason! 2nd baby was Gemma Grace finally after hours of postponing discharge. Funny this is…or rather not so funny was that i brought my squish home and could not for the life of me call her Gemma. A week went by and I was prepared to go to court or battle whichever came first. I decided to at least call the hospital to get a little guidance because surely I wouldn’t be the first mom whose post partum hormones effected her ability to call her child by name. To my surprise the sweet lady on the other end of the phone laughed and asked what I wanted the new name to be. To my luck, they had not typed out the birth certificate yet. So I went in a completely different direction, Samantha Laine. Boy did I hear the biggest I told you so in the history of I told you so because second she popped out he said “oh my gosh she looks like a Samantha!” Must have been hormones that told me he couldn’t possibly know what he was talking about when he said that. Lol. Next time I’ll be sure to give him a little bit more credit.
I have never liked the sound of my own name and was terrified to saddle my kids with one they didn’t like. I heard a name while we were trying to conceive and told my hubby. He looked at me like I had two heads. Every time the name question came up, I mentioned it. Two days after finding out we were pregnant, hubby looked at me and said “hey, if it’s a girl, let’s name her Karris”. The name I had wanted all along, posed as his own idea. I was totally on board. We found out the gender at 18 weeks and called her Karris Rae throughout the pregnancy. When she was born, it fit perfectly and now, at 19, she says she loves her name. Her nickname growing up was “K Rae”. Easy to pronounce, but unique. Sometimes I wonder though if we should have spelled it Karis.
Our son was so much harder.. From the beginning, we called him Speck because he was as big as a speck when we found out we were pregnant. At 20 weeks, we found out we were having a boy and it took weeks to settle on a name. Eventually, we decided on Kaden Andrew. Caden was such a unique name when I found it online late one night. Little did I know we were at the beginning of a trend when several years later, Aiden, Braden, and Jayden were in the top ten and Caden wasn’t too far behind in popularity. 🙁 I still haven’t seen many spelled Kaden, like our son though. I first thought we could call him Kade, but it didn’t seem to fit. Hubby is Stephen Douglas and goes by Doug, but has disliked having to correct people who see his name and call him “Steve”, so using Andrew was out. Kaden is now 17, does not really like his name and absolutely hates any shortened version. I still don’t know what we should have called him, but it is too late to change it now.
I love the name Crew!
xo – kb
Haha. Poor Paris 🙂
xo – kb
It’s funny because my sister was OBSESSED with Caris (same pronunciation) and we all thought her daughter Isla would be named that! But let me just tell you…it’s never too late. Jeremy’s brother decided to go by his first name in college and now there is a big group of his buds that still know Torrey as Michael 🙂
xo – kb
Katie,
I keep waiting and waiting till the end of this post wishing and hoping u kept Max!! I love your lil name u gave him ‘Maxie Knight’ so fitting for his little precious dark eyed dark haired self! He is so cute!! He is going to grow up having such a manly proper name. So fitting as he is going to be handsome, kind, and smart I bet!! Love seeing all your adorable kids. Great choice on the name!!
SHOULD you be looking for another nickname idea – every night I see his name written I think of Mak/Mac. I’m not completely sure why, I just do. 🙂
I completely relate. We named our 4-month-old son my maiden name, Elliott, and we call him Leo for short. A lot of people love the name but don’t get Leo as a nickname. That’s fine, but even now, hearing someone refer to him as Elliott catches me off guard a little bit. I have no regrets, but it’s an adjustment!
My sons staryed calling my daughter Ya-ya since they couldn’t say her name, Olivia. Now it has stuck and we all call her Ya-ya. I love it!
Oh my goodness, I relate to this! I had name-regret with our oldest daughter (whose name I LOVED before she was born and now love again). However, after she was born and named, a common response was, “Oh, lovely – like [insert name association]”. And I wanted to scream, “Nooo! NOT AT ALL like [insert name association] – we did not name her after [insert name association]!!”. It probably goes w/o saying that the name association was not something either my husband or I thought was or would be a big deal before naming her … yeah.
None of this bothered my husband at all, but being a first time mom who put countless hours thinking about her name, it bothered me a great deal. All I really wanted at that point was validation for how I might feel the way I did and to be told I would grow to love the name again – that one day soon all would be lovely and wonderful. Well, it actually took a couple of years for me to feel 100% back in love with her name and for this topic to bother me 0%.
She is now 6 1/2 and I would name her the same all over again. Her name suits her SO well, we receive compliments on the name often, and I rarely receive the [insert name association] response that we did when she was born. If/when I do, it sincerely doesn’t bother me one bit. If I think of it at all, I simply say, “Oh yeah! That’s a great association, too — we actually chose it in honor of my Scottish heritage, which I love too”. It’s funny how giving birth AND time both change so much. What was once something that touched a nerve now is something that I love (again) dearly.
I never comment on these but I just had to say–I can so relate! We named our younger daughter Piper. That was the name I had wanted to use since the beginning of my pregnancy with her, but my husband hated it. We considered a million others, Molly, Hannah, Hope, Emily, and on and on. Then we went to the beach when I was 36 weeks preggo, and there were all these little sandpipers around, and I just couldn’t get Piper out of my head. By the time we got to 42 weeks (!) and 15 hours of labor, I think my husband would have gone with whatever I wanted, because he is a wise man. So Piper Rose she became. And then the first time I said “I need to go change Piper’s diaper” I was like oh no. WTF did we do?? We named our child something that rhymes with diaper, are we crazy??! For a while I really regretted our choice. And I couldn’t say anything because I was the one who had wanted that name! She TOTALLY grew into it though. These days she is the wackiest, most spirited ball of 5 year old fun and the name just fits her perfectly. So it all worked out. We called her Nugget, and P-Dog, but mostly now we just call her Piper and she loves her name. The name regret thing though…I totally feel you. For what it’s worth I think Max is a great name and fits a variety of personalities, so I bet Maxi Knight will grow into his name too. 🙂
When my D-I-L was expecting my granddaughter, my toddler grandson called the baby “wuwu” since he had heard his mother refer to her womb. So, enter Adriana Luisa, and we began to call her Lulu. And, she was a Lulu from the get go.! Now she is 13 and wants to go by her “adult” name, Adriana! And, we better remember!!
My daughter is named Charlee, and I love it so much but wish I had spelled it Charlie. My son is Mac and it suits him so well and it is such a great name but everyone (everyone) calls him Max. It drives me nuts! He was in preschool for two weeks and one day came home with “Max” written on all of his work! I was so mad! Now I tell people they can call him Mac Attack or Mackie (his nickname at home is either Bubby or Mickey).
Hi Katie! We were in the same boat too with our son. Naming boys is SO hard compared to girls! We had a dozen names we loved for our daughter, and exactly zero for our son (that we agreed on). Shortly after delivery, my husband was pacing the hospital room offering name ideas & writing them on the nurse white board while all I could think about was our precious new baby and didn’t have the energy to care about his name. Huge mistake. Hubby always loved the name Ransom, and kept saying “I just think that’s my son’s name, let’s just do it”. So we did, because I was too tired to care. All along I wanted to name him Graham; which seems to fit his personality so much more (he is very mellow and contemplative) but it doesn’t have the same depth of meaning to my husband (Ransom is the name of a character in a CS Lewis book series, and an obviously huge theme throughout the Bible). He’s almost two now, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished we named him Graham & that my pride has stopped me from changing it so many times (what will people think?!). So crazy, but his name has been a reminder for us both, although people think we’re insane for choosing such a weird name (“like a ransom note?!”), it’s a reminder that points us to our true “Ransom-er” and stand confidently in that. All that to say, thanks for sharing & I’ve grown a lot too in my appreciation for his name 🙂
I have six boys, Luke Richmond, Blake Parkerson, Jaxon Lee (we call him Jax), Dallas Jonah, Charles Grayson (Im not even kidding. We call him Charlie. Charles is a family name and Grayson because that’s where we lived at the time. Our struggle was do we call him Charlie or Grayson. Charlie won.), and James Oliver. For the first two months of is life we called him James. Then my husband’s father who had abandoned him as a child found him on facebook. As it turns out his legal first name is James. My husband didn’t want to call our son James after that so two months in we switched to Oliver. He’s 5 now. I will always wish we could call him James.
I think I had a little name remorse with all of them except Luke and Charlie.
You too make the very best looking children. They are like the quintessential ‘new human’, photos of whom should be included in the time capsule as white representatives of the human race for when the aliens come. Also, maybe just you take the photos, eh? I’m saying great job on the photos, and what a joy to see photos of your children.
🙂 thanks!!
Thanks for the replies everyone!! 🙂
I had a lot of name remorse when I had my daughter back in June. My husband and I had been fighting about her name for months – he wanted Emmy, I wanted Emmarie. When she was born she was two pounds smaller than the dr told us to expect and I just felt she needed a full, feminine name. We decided to spell it Emmarie instead of Emarie because Emarie reminded me of E-Marie, like E-Mail… Looking at it written out, I started to think that we should’ve gone with the one “m” spelling. In the end it doesn’t matter because everyone we know LOVES her name, and we call her Emmie anyway!
Who CARES what that sweet baby’s name is? I am not even a baby person and he’s so beautiful it’s killing me.
Sweet lordy, that boy is adorable. Goodness. I can’t take it!
Mr. Knightly is a favorite character of mine from Jane Austen so I can relate totally. What a dear, dear baby he is. You two sure make beautiful babies.
What does it even matter what his name is? He’s going to be called by the other three first when you’re hollering in the other roomroom to tell 4 BOYS to settle down 😉 Congrats on that adorable little bundle!
Truth!
xo – kb
I had a little remorse with my oldest son’s name, but now I love it and think it suits him. I like the name Charlie the best out of all your options! Max is cute too though. 🙂
Oh my, I can honestly say I have never enjoyed looking T someone else’s baby pictures as much as I did this little guy’s. What a charmer. He is a Knight in shining eyes! All you boys are adorable but Maxwell or maybe M. K. Is going to be a charmer. We had decided on a name, not knowing the sex, but then in the eighth month he told me he had dated a Rebeccah, so we started looking for a name he hadn’t dated…long story short we decided on my maternal grandmothers name and I told him I didn’t care if he had dated a Jennie she was being named after my grandma. You are going to love him even when he asks you why you gave him that name, they all do.
Max is such a cute name! And Knight is cool, too! I’m not going to lie, I’ve already called him Meta Knight (my favorite smash brothers character) in my head…. sorry. What are the nicknames for your other boys? Will, LJ, what do you call Weston?
Munch or Munchie or Munchkin 🙂
xo – kb
I’ve got 4 kids and the only one I struggled with was my second (second kiddo, second boy) We decided to name him Payton (which is Scottish for Paterick) I thought it would be a fun nod to our ancestry… turns out there are about a trillion GIRLS named Payton. I loved his name but worried that we should have spelled it pEyton so we could always refer to Peyton Manning if people thought it was too feminine. He’s now 8 and I still sometimes wish we had changed the spelling. No matter though, he’s my Payton and I wouldn’t change him for the world! Funny story though I have a neighbor with two little boys their names are Dash and Knight. The kicker is that their last name is Walker. I LOVE that they were bold and didn’t let the humorous combination change their love of a name. ALSO my friends oldest boy is a Max. Her husband REALLY wanted a Max. She too didn’t want Maximus (she said it sounded like a contraceptive :D) so he’s Maxton. It’s definitely unique but he’s a wonderful little Max. Congrats on your 4th beautiful boy!!