A survey by Mumsnet has revealed that 18% of parents regretted the name they chose for their offspring with 55% saying that they started to dislike the name within the first six weeks. Despite this, only 2% of parents changed their baby's name.
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The Mumsnet survey was released in advance of the release of annual statistics from the Office of National Statistics on the most popular baby names of 2015 in England and Wales.
The main reason most parents started regretting a name is because it became too common. Others reasons included “it just didn’t feel right,” they “never liked the name but had been pressured into using it,” it just didn’t suit their child, it was not unique enough, or it was hard to pronounce.
According to the survey one mother said she began to regret naming her daughter 'Elsa' after the release of the Disney film Frozen.
Another parent admitted her child was named 'Isis' before it became the name of a terrorist group.
The names parents lived to regret the most were:
- Amelia
- Alex
- Anne
- Anthony
- Charlotte
- Daniel
- David
- Elsa
- Emily
- Frederick
- Isis
- Jack
- Jacob
- James
- Jay
- Jayne
- Joseph
- Lily
- Louise
- May
- Megan
- Oscar
- Ruby
- Sally
- Thomas
The names also feature in the most popular names.
Last year in England and Wales the most popular were Amelia and Oliver, while in Ireland it was Jack and Emily.
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