By Tamara Abraham


Unusual: Nicole Richie and Joel Madden named their two-year-old son Sparrow - but as ten per cent of parents admit to baby name remorse, do they regret it?


With the likes of Suri, Sparrow and Sunday tossing sand at each other in Hollywood playgrounds, one doesn't need to look far to know that parents are constantly striving for the original when it comes to baby names.

But for almost one in ten, it seems that an ill-chosen moniker is causing baby name remorse.

A new study, by yourbabydomainname.com, revealed that eight per cent of mothers and fathers regretted the name they had given their child.


Over half of those admitting to baby name remorse said that they had been swayed by fashion trends that were no longer relevant.

A third explained that the name had been original at the time of birth, but ended up being more widely used than they expected.

The statistic shows a rise of three per cent on previous studies into baby name regret.

Pamela Redmond Satran of baby name website nameberry.com said that parents probably didn't realise how rapidly baby name trends can change.

Setting trends: Would Gwyneth Paltrow and Nicole Kidman have regretted their daughters' names if more new parents had called their girls Apple or Sunday?

She told MailOnline: 'First-time parents especially may be out of touch with quickly-changing baby name trends and so a name they believe is really original may be overused by the time they choose it for their child. Then they're dismayed when they get to the pediatrician's office or playground and discover there are lots of other little babies names Lila or Grayson and so suffer baby name remorse.

'We also see baby name regret in parents who listen too much to the advice of others, who cave in to family pressure to name the baby after grandpa, for instance, or who give up on a name they love because the in-laws make fun of it. They often wish they had listened to their own hearts.'

For Daily Mail writer Lucy Cavendish, who called her fourth baby and only daughter Ottoline, it was one of her other children who inspired a name change.

She wrote: 'My eldest son took one look at her and said "Isn't Ottoline a silly name?" and: "Isn't she a sparkly baby?"

'We had to agree with him. Ottoline did seem a bit of a grand name for such a tiny baby, and she was so very sparkly so Sparkle she became and the name stuck.'


What's in a name? Writer Lucy Cavendish with daughter Sparkle, four, who was originally named Ottoline

Now, Cavendish is loathe to call her daughter, now four, anything else.

'In truth, I feel we have misnamed her. I believe we call her Sparkle because, deep down, neither of us really likes her name. [Ottoline] was a compromise name; it wasn't Lilac (my favourite) or Elizabeth (my husband's favourite).

'So now we are considering the unthinkable ... changing her name... I love the name Sparkle but no grown woman will want to be saddled with a name like that.

'But Ottoline? In the end, I suppose it will be up to her.'



source:dailymail