Before my baby daughter was born just over a year ago, my partner and I decided to name her Fisher. No reason. I’ve never even been fishing. We just love the name. Love it.
We made the rookie error of telling family and friends before Fisher was born. Apparently this means you’re asking people to give their honest, unfiltered opinion of the name.
Anyway, we found that most people under the age of 30 thought Fisher was cool, but a lot of people over the age of 30 hated it. Especially my dad. He didn’t even bother to try to hide his disgust.
“That’s not a girl’s name,” he kept insisting. “That’s a surname.”
As are Taylor, Mackenzie, Madison, etc. It’s a thing. But not to him.
I even got a phone call from my brother – no doubt with my father egging him on in the background – telling me that calling my daughter Fisher would lead to terrible confusion for her later in life.
Did I mention that my partner and I both love this name?
So Fisher was born, and we gave her the middle name Frances, which I don’t even particularly like, but my partner had a sentimental reason for it.
My dad latched onto the name Frances – which, in his view, is a real name – and started calling my baby Fisher-Frances. Or just Frances. Or sometimes Frances-Fisher, which would always make me look around the room to see if the acclaimed actress had turned up.
Anyway, Fisher is now a year old, which you think would have given my dad enough time to get used to the name. Nope. She’s still Frances, Frances-Fisher, or at the very least, Fisher-Frances, to him.
I’m not alone here. The UK websites Mumsnet and Gransnet recently did a survey of 2000 people and found that around 20 per cent of grandparents hated their grandchild’s name. Six per cent of parents had a falling-out with the grandparents over the name, and in some cases, it brought an end to the relationship.
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Among the reasons for hating the name were that it was “too odd”, it was “made-up”, it was “too old-fashioned” or it reminded them of someone they didn’t like.
Names that grandparents hated included Aurora, Charlotte, Elijah and Finn.
A mere 31 per cent of grandparents felt that the choice of name for their grandchild was “none of their business”.
Well, at least I didn’t have a falling-out with my dad over the name. I just laugh it off and hope that one day, he’ll accept that he has a granddaughter called Fisher.
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Have you ever disagreed with a family member over your baby's name?
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