Choosing the first name of her future baby is always the subject of debate. During the pregnancy, the ideas fuse so much the parents torture the spirit to find the rare pearl. Should we opt for a classic, original or completely new first name? This is the eternal question. And for good reason, as Anne-Laure Sellier, associate professor at HEC Paris, and researcher in social and cognitive psychology, pointed out in an interview with our colleagues from 20 Minutes in 2019, “a first name is a tattoo for life, For better or for worse”. It is therefore better to be sure of yourself before declaring yourself to the Civil Registry. If this decision is obvious for some dads and moms, others end up biting their fingers.
The ranking of the names most regretted by parents
According to a study conducted by ChannelMum, the results of which were relayed by the Daily Mirror, one in seven parents regrets the choice of their child’s first name. To carry out this survey, 2,000 people were questioned. Among them, 1/3 admitted having made the wrong choice. So much so that one in twenty parents prefers to call their child by a nickname. In order to deepen the subject, the Washington Post obtained data from the Social Security Administration, the American social security. The newspaper was thus able to establish the list of 10 first names that were changed on a recurring basis between 2017 and 2022:
Isaac
chole
Aidan
Know
Elliot
Michael
james
Isabelle
Sophie
David
As you can see above, Issac, Chole and Conner are at the top of the list of names most missed by parents. And the reason is simple. These first names, which should rather be spelled Isaac, Chloe and Connor, are far too often misspelled. Hence their modification. For the others, “there is nothing really unusual in the first names that have been changed,” says Stephanie Coffield, first name consultant, who had fun deciphering the list on TikTok. A subject that did not fail to react to its community. “Wait, didn’t the nurses check the spelling?” commented in particular on a surfer, while another confided: “This is why my children will have basic and easy to spell first names.”
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