Does anyone else have family members who dislike the name you have chosen for your baby? It took me forever to settle on a name. And once I finally did, about a week ago, I told my family (my parents and my little sister) and they are like "What... Why!?" I tell myself it is my decision, he is my baby! And that I shouldn't care too much about their opinions but I can't help but find my decision tainted now by what they think. Ugh! Been second guessing myself. Anyone in the same boat? My due date is next week (20th).
Re: Family doesn't like name you've chosen?
I've had friends go through this and usually what happens is once the baby is here and everyone gets used to the name, the family associates the name they originally didn't like with a child they now adore, so they stop hating the name. I will say that while you should choose any name you want, a name like Atlas, being uncommon, is probably going to get strong reactions in general, so just be prepared that while some people will love it, some will also really dislike it. That's the risk when you go outside the top 100 names in many cases. It's not a bad thing, you just need to be ok with it.
ETA, after I told them all of that, everyone has miraculously fallen in love with his name and dropped it because they realized my husband and I could give two shits about what THEY like for MY child. Parent decision #1? Check.
DS1 2010
DS2 2013
DD1 2016
DS1 2010
DS2 2013
DD1 2016
So! Long story short, everyone has an opinion, and a reason for that opinion, but it's your kid, your naming opportunity, so try to brush it off.
When we picked a name for our little girl (Aubrey) my sister didn't really like it and kept telling me that it was so popular and we should choose something different. That annoyed me but I can understand how she felt when we didn't approve of the name she and her husband loved. So I say do what you want because it's your child and your choice!
Name trends are different these days, unique is not quite as shunned as it once was. Atlas is a cool name, it's different , it's got neat historical value- Atlas was a Titan, a Greek god, he litteraly carried the weight of the world on his back. Kinda poetic and nice. The name will grow on some people, not others. If you like it embrace it and screw what they think.
And then when DS was born we had two or three names left on the list that we had never mentioned to anyone. We picked one after he was born. (we were team green so we had a couple girl and a couple boy names).
One of the things that really bothered me was that EVERY name I had my BIL would come up with the nickname that he was going to use instead of the name. I loved Henry and he instantly said he was going to call him Hank. We ended up using Malachi and the second day he was born BIL came over and said, "so I decided Mack will be his nickname." It irritated the hell out of me. He still refers to my son as Mack most of the time. However without ANY prompting, DS will correct him every time. "My name is Malachi" is says back to him. It makes me happy even though I try not to react to it.
We haven't told anyone the few names left on our short list this time either. And I don't plan on it until baby has been named.
But, even after all that drama she now calls him Bennett. I'm really glad she came around.
DD 12/20/99, DS 12/14/12, M/C 9/2014, M/C 1/2015
Also, in the middle eastern culture, every child would have the father's first name as a middle name (even if it's a girl). Not going to happen.
New baby's name is Brynlee Harper. I've had a lot of the "how do you spell that?" and the "oh... that's uhhh nice" type comments. Again, these are my children and I don't care what others think, family or not.
BFP #2: 7/23/14 - MC: 8/28/14
BFP #3: 2/22/15 - MC: 3/3/15
BFP #4: 5/20/15 - Stick baby stick!!!
I think Cassius is a great name! But, I bet you and your son will deal with mispronunciations his whole life. I have only ever heard is pronounced cash-us (and only know it form Cassius Clay/Ali and Cassius Clay 1800's politician) so that is how I would have said it. You will probably hear a lot of Ali references too, but your sons generation probably won't know as much about him so he probably won't have to deal with that much!