My 4yo has a beautiful, classic name but already hates it

"She has no idea how bad names can get these days - she's lucky!"

2 min read

June 3, 2024 - 10:41AM

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In a world where one mum called her baby Holden Commodore, you'd think that a beautiful, classic name would be appreciated.

Well, in this tale, it is - just not by the little girl whom it belongs to.

Now, her frustrated mum has posted about it online.

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"My daughter doesn't like her name"

Writing in an online parenting forum, username Escalus90, shared that her four-year-old hates her name and refuses to accept that's what she's called.

The mum explains: "I read the name in a novel and I absolutely loved it from a young age.

"So when I had a daughter I named her Philomena.

"We call her 'Pippa' and she insists her name is 'Pippa'. She is not Philomena."

The daughter's attitude has made the mum re-think the name. She finally asks, "Did I make a mistake calling her Philomena?"

She caveats her question with: "I still love the name. I don't think it's weird. It's spelled properly and it's not absurd."

The woman also had a two-year-old son, who she had named Malcolm, but his nickname was ‘Macko’.

The mum-of-two admitted she had a "really hard time" naming her kids and "didn’t want them [to be] super common."

"I also didn't want them weird," she remarked. "Do you think Philomena is weird?"

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Her name is a big deal to this little girl. Image: iStock

"At least they are real names for once"

Parents had a lot of opinions in the comments.

One wrote, "At least they are real names for once so this isn't that bad."

Another commented: "Both Philomena and Malcolm are super old-fashioned. Never hear Pippa for Philomena but all fine names I think."

And a third shared, "A friend named her daughter this (family name) and she mostly goes by nicknames. I think it's beautiful though."

This commenter tried to reassure the mum:

"Nothing is wrong with the name. think the kid hates it the same way I hated my old-timey name my whole childhood and teenage-hood, Agatha, so much that I never go by it."

Finally, there was this very direct opinion: "She's four and it's a name that's a b**** to learn to write.

"Just call her by the nickname she likes and see what happens."

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