To Change a Name

News flash!  Even celebrities second guess their name choices.  Recently (as in today), I found out that David Boreanaz and his wife decided to change their baby girls name.  Originally Bardot Vita, the little Boreanaz is now officially Bella.  I'm sure you can imagine that I love this name, but the important thing is that it fit for the parents and their child. 

If you suddenly decide that you made a wrong decision about your child's name, don't just live with it!  You'll be thinking about the other possibilities for the rest of your life and that's no way to think about your child or anything to do with your child.  This is probably why I immediately start thinking about what to name my baby when I find out I'm having one.  Hell, I was thinking about what I would name my kids well before I actually conceived. 

Anyway, sometimes you can fall in love with a name but when the baby comes it simply doesn't feel right.  What do you do?  Do you stick with it?  Do you find a new name in the hospital?  Are you able to find a new name in the hospital?  Some parents can't come up with their new choice in the hospital and either leave the birth certificate blank or just use their original choice.  Sometimes, parents also run into the problem of waking up when their child is a few months old and realizing they suddenly can't stand the name they've chosen because it doesn't seem right for their child. 

Now, for whatever reason someone decides this, it is pretty important to be sure to think through this thoroughly.  I don't think that any parent should leave their child with a name that they don't like but the parent should also be sure that there really is a problem with the name and that there is an obvious replacement that should have been chosen in the first place.  A person's name is so important that you can't just change it at a whim without seeming completely insane.  So, again, the parents need to really assess the situation.  What do they not like about the name?  What do they want in a name?  Does it fit their child? And most importantly, do they love the new name?

Ideally, you choose a name that you are in love with to begin with and it stays that way.  I honestly don't understand how you can choose a name for you child that you love and then suddenly that changes.  But I wouldn't judge someone because of that (until they start doing it multiple times...).  I think that you need to love your child's name, not just like it.  With that in mind, can you see yourself changing your mind about a name that has already been given?  More so, would you be brave enough to change it if you did?