Personally I would not stress about a name too much.....you have a bit of time after the birth to sort it out.

If you really are that stumped, wait until the baby arrives and over the first few days (up to a week) get to know him. Once you do that, the name that best represents your son will certainly become clear.

With your idea of the name Riley....I would also not worry that an acquaintance has a child with the same name,  especially when they are only passing acquaintances. If the name Riley stands out as the name you want, stick with it. You will not be being rude, or be being a copycat if you chose that name. You had that name in mind for some time, and perhaps that name is the one your son is destined to have. Go with your gut with this, after all you think the name Riley, you wanted the name Riley.......that means that your son should have the name you had in mind while being pregnant with him..

This is just my view anyhow.......Please let us know how you go, and what name you decide upon.

 I just thought i would add that there are so many johns in our family (not all chosen names but yeah.

I have like 3 uncles and my boyfriend is john as well lol then at least 5 family friends its so weird they seem to be atracted to our family, you should have seen my mums face when i  told her my bf's name lol! Then my sister was going out with someone a little older and she was more worried about telling mum that his name was john! hehehe

i dont think this helped but its still funny lol

First, I hope you enjoy the rest of your pregnancy and have a wonderful birthing experience! I am married to an Italian and we were expected to call our baby son after my husband's father. When we didn't do this it didn't go down well at all! It is still a sore point now, nearly three years later! I don't personally think there is anything wrong in calling a baby the same name as your friends. For other suggestions, have you looked at some names from other countries. Italian names for example are very beautiful. My daughter for example is called Ilaria Grace. Now you don't get many Ilaria's back home in the UK!

 Nope, there's no reason to skip out on a name just because you have acquaintances who gave their kid the same name.  It's not like they made it up!

I come from a large family with abour 24 first cousins and 26 second cousins on my Mums side alone, my dads side of the family isn't small either so you can imagine choosing names!!!

We do have some duplicates in the family but to be honest I think its fine, although I wouldn't personally follow the names of my siblings choice.

I do know though, when I was pregnant with my oldest son, I loved the name Matthew, there was someone in our church who already had a son called Matthew so it didn't feel right, within 16 months of my son being born we moved away from the area!!!!! Then when pregnant with my other sons, I again still like the name Matthew, however at the time I was best friends with someone who had had a baby boy called him Matthew but he died within  a few hours, so again I didn't feel right calling my sons Matthew!!!!! I know I did the right thing but ironically this friend hurt me very badly during my marriage break up and I'm not in touch with her now.

Mum says she wanted to call me Sharon but her cousin had a baby girl before I was born and named her Sharon, Mum then decided on Deborah, when I was born Mum decided I didn't look a Deborah so named me Helen???????? I think sometimes its not until  you see the baby, you just know in your heart the name you want for them

I personally think that if family members choose the name you have selected, then it's best to change your sons name, and the same for your closest friends, as your sons will have to live witht he confusion of duplicated names for a very long time. But acquaintences come and go, and if they feel disrespected, they are too sensitive and probably you wouldnt have stayed friends long enough for the boys to say their own names even. Just my opinion though! If you dont fancy upsetting them and you do see them all the time, or the boys are going to end up in the same school class for years, then how about choosing a similar name, or using Riley as a middle name? Eg. Ryan, Ripley (sorry, just been reading about Alien films!)..... mind gone blank but you get  the idea!

 Our son is called Henry we pretty much picked out the name early on in my pregnancy...  When our neighbours son was born 5 mths earlier than your son they also called him Henry.  We wondered if we should then change the name.  We didn't of course.   We see our neighbours when out walking etc...  We chat most of the time when we see each other but hey in the end they are not our best friends..  We don't go out for dinner with them etc...  So we decided to keep the name we chose.   

when our neighbour found out about us naming our son Henry they were fine with it.  We explained how long we had the name picked for and they actually loved that we called our sons the same name and they even laughed about it.

If you like the name stick with it...   By the sounds of it you are not best buddies with this person,and don't  spend time with them so just go for it.   I say name your son the name you have picked out already.

We found it hard to choose a boys name but in the end chose Mitchell we call our son (Mitch or Mitchy Moo).  His middle name is John so he also gets MJ.  If you really like the name Riley go with that.  It should not matter if they have the same name.  It's what you feel is right.  All the best.

i personally would go with what i wanted whether someone has that name or not. It really doesnt matter .

names are going to be used over and over because the worlds populations is billions . Names like everything else doesnt exclusively belong to an individual. if you are  sincere and you wanted that name go for it. No harm done. 

if it becomes an issue then is it worth seeing "that friend" life is too short as it isfor anyone to behave in a childish manner "over a name" im sure she wont act childish over it 

annie 

There are some "rules" for naming your baby.......If your best of friends never use it and never tell! If their family never use it and never tell! Unless they are ok with it. If they are acquaintences or associates (ppl you see occasionally) then it doesn't matter what they think.

I made the mistake of telling a family member my baby names I picked out and she stole my boys middle name! I was pretty sore over it for awhile. (Sorry sandy!) But looking back now I think my son's middle name is perfect for him (Lachlan Matthew) My younger son's name is Jaxon Aaron (spelt the proper saxon way not the surname spelling meaning son of jack). I will mention for the sake of adding more names to the list that it was James (Nicholas James) Her eldest is Kurtis Zachery and her youngest is Riley(I can't think of his middle name) and her daughters name is Maddison Susan (I think Susan, I could be wrong!)

Another "rule" is not to name your child with popular names. When I had my eldest daughter Alexis, the names mikayla (spelt every single way possible and Jessica were the most popular names. The birth notices everyday had at least 4 during the week on each day and 15-20 in the saturday paper. My daughter now goes to school with a couple different mikayla's and jessica's!

Don't forget to get check the intials (My SIL's friend named her daughter and her intials spell BAG).

These aren't "rules" per say but suggestion or courtsey's when naming your children.

I will also add don't let anyone influence your choice of names, my mother and grandmother wanted a family tradition continued (mine and my grandmothers middle name is marie and my mother is louise), they forced me to use Lousie as my daughters middle name rather than Hannah which is what I wanted. (emotional black mail) I've told my daughter that those two names are not be ever used. I'm breaking the tradition and I've told my daughter that when she turns 18 or even before if she wants to change it I'm ok with it. She's considering it.

So theres my 2 cents worth, I hope it helps and sorry Sandy, I don't think I mentioned how much that hurt me at the time! But I'm over it!!!!

Cheers Raven

In my opinion if someone used the name i wanted before me then i would probably find a different name cause they will think you are copying them but it depends if you told them before the name you planned on using. If they knew they were going to use that name and they used it then i will still use that name cause i know we decided on it in the first place and they are the ones who copied... lol... but thats just me. 

When picking a boys name for us we actually found it in a baby name book. We were looking for something different that no one had. For our first born son we chose Keandre (pronouced.... Key-On-Dray) but my husband pronouce it Key-An-Dray) but i use the first pronouciation and so does our son and most people   Our third baby which is due in 4 weeks is going to be a boy and we too found the name in a baby book. Sorry i dont really want to say what it is yet til baby is born . The kids and i have voted and we are sticking to the name we chose so hubby said if we are doing that he gets to decide how to spell it... LOL...

 I have 2 girls and i named my 2nd one savannah, and my cousin has a daughter named savannah and she was happy that i named her the same, they probly wont meet any time soon cause they are in a different state :)

But if you like the name then use it, your the one thats going to have to yell it all day long lol

After tossing around many names, we chose Anthony (tony) but I would of preffered mitchell (mitch)! If you don't know these "friends" so well and only see them occasionally, I see no harm in using riley! Where as if they were close friends you spent alot of time with, it might be a bit awkward! Good luck and look forward to hearing of the safe arrival!