Good on Kylie Jenner for changing her baby’s name – why keep one that doesn’t feel right?
It’s only right that parents put serious thought into the naming process and if they want to change their minds, then that should be OK
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Your support makes all the difference.This week, reality star turned beauty mogul Kylie Jenner announced on her Instagram story that her newborn’s name is no longer Wolf. Two months in and she and her partner, the rapper Travis Scott, “just really didn’t feel like it was him.”
Like with a lot of things the Kardashian/Jenner clan do, there was a wave of online support as well as a slew of sarcastic comments. I initially felt the urge to eye roll but after reading the comments on social media, I started to feel defensive of the couple’s decision. Why wouldn’t you change a name if you didn’t like it?
We’ve been conditioned to believe that once a name has been made Instagram official, used as a hashtag and, more importantly, inked on a birth certificate – it’s irreversible. But as Kylie and Travis are showing, it really doesn’t have to be.
In fact, in the UK, while parents are legally required to have named their baby by the time it’s 42 days old, it can be changed, according to the UK Deed Poll Office, any time before they turn a year old. It just takes a quick trip to the local registry office to fill out a deed poll form, and it will be official within three to eight weeks. After the age of one, there are a few more steps involved but it still is possible to change a child’s name up until the age of 16.
While changing your baby’s name after a year might seem extreme, as someone who struggles to decide on what to make for dinner, having the option to rethink and rename seems like a saving grace. We’ve all bought a top that doesn’t look good when we’ve gotten home, dated a person who wasn’t the right fit or opted to watch a movie we’ve ended up switching off.
We all make mistakes and if we were forced to live with every single choice we ever made, the world would be filled with a lot of mismatched couples wearing ill-fitting clothes and watching bad movies. So maybe Jenner and Scott have got it right and we should be granted permission to change our minds, free from judgement – particularly when it comes to something as important as a name.
The counter argument is, of course, that there are nine months to decide on a moniker. Many parents have names selected years prior to the arrival of their offspring. But what if, like Jenner says, the baby doesn’t feel like they fit the name once they arrive or, in the wave of postnatal hormones, you don’t like the name anymore, or an influx of opinions from loved ones impact your thoughts on the name?
According to a 2019 survey, one in seven parents end up regretting their choice in name and one in 20 don’t use the name on the birth certificate.
A friend had her name changed at four years old, from Louise Joyce to Jodie Louise. Her mum explained that the name Louise just never really resonated, but that the clincher came in realising that there was a Catholic School called St. Louise’s in West Belfast. The family lived in East Belfast, a predominantly Protestant area, and worried it would cause issues for her. They changed Jodie’s name via deed poll and Jodie says it’s had very little impact on her life. Her brother, however, at three years older, had more difficulty adapting to the new name.
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For her parents, it was just a case of letting everyone know the new name – this was prior to the days of a quick social media post would do the job – but they say that most people embraced the change.
The same can be said for a friend who, at the age of 30, changed both her first and second names. Moving from Beth to Rosie, some gave her a sceptical “is this a quarter life crisis” look but, steadfast in her decision, she said she’d never felt like her name and wanted to reclaim her identity. Since making the switch, she’s been told multiple times how others wish they’d done the same but are too scared of what people would think.
Research shows that having a name we don’t like can impact how we feel about ourselves, and also have an effect on our likeability, workplace success and relationships. And a number of Twitter threads reveal many don’t “feel like” their given names. Even Kanye West, Kylie’s ex brother-in-law, opted to legally change his name to Ye last year. Travis Scott is also just a stage name. The 30-year-old musician’s real name is Jacques Bermon Webster II.
With that in mind, it’s only right that parents put serious thought into the naming process and if they want to change their minds, then that should be OK.
Surely a moment of public judgement – if there is to be any – is better than a lifetime of cringing each time you call your offspring. That’s why, in this scenario, I think Jenner and Scott could in fact be paving the way and giving others permission to mull over a moniker.
After all, it takes more gumption to publicly switch your child’s name than it does to continue calling them something you don’t like.
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