My toddler calls herself a different name

[emsibub]

Hi, my little girl is 21 months and is a great talker. Apart from one thing. She refers to herself as Tia, her name is Madeleine! Understanding this is a bit if a mouthfull we also call her Maddy. Tia has really stuck though n she's been calling herself that now for about 2 months. The change this week is that she is now correcting us "here's Maddy's breakfast" DD "NO it's Tia's!" any similar experiences? Fixes?

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Why would you want to fix it? I'd just go along with and she'll probably forget about it soon enough.

Apparently I called myself Aslan for ages, but I can't even remember. Really don't like my name though so perhaps she's not keen on hers too!

[emsibub]

Well I hope she likes it, spent 9 months thinking it up! Not too bothered about fixing it right now, just hoping it passes n was looking for reassurance off MN that this is normal. X

[Seeline]

Any idea how she knows the name? Has she got a bst friend with it, or a character from a favourite book? It seems strange to make up a real name.

[DawnOfTheDee]

Don't worry about it...it'll pass. I remember deciding I was going to be a cat when i was young and therefore only responded with 'meow' for a few days. At least your DD is using english...

[BigPigLittlePig]

I used to call myself Paul (I am a girl). It passed. I don't think it caused any lasting damage

[emsibub]

Hahah bigpig. Nope no idea where it came from, no one at nursery or in books. Thanks guys, sure it will pass. Something cute for the record book I suppose

[Ginismyfriend]

DD started referring to herself as 'sassifer' just after she turned two, which I'm pretty sure isn't even a name . I checked whether there was a Christopher or something similar at nursery, but no...

We just rolled along with it (hard because Sassifer's appearance generally coincided with DD being particularly contrary) and your posted has reminded me that we haven't heard from them in a while. Maybe if they re-appear I'll change my name too...

[Haberdashery]

My brother liked to call himself Susan between the ages of two and four. It didn't seem to have any lasting effects and he wouldn't answer to Susan now if you paid him.

[HazeltheMcWitch]

I decided that my name was not exotic enough, as a child, so I demanded to be called... Dawn.

[catladycourtney1]

Haha I went through a phase of telling my schoolfriends that my real name was Ingrid. I wish I knew why. Then a couple of years later I insisted that my middle name was Octavia, literally to everyone - even family. I think I knew I was making it up, I'm not sure why I did it at all

[deleted203]

Shouldn't worry. It's common - we had a thread not long ago about this and I said that my child had insisted on being called 'Antony Weaselface' for quite some time (His name isn't Antony BTW!).

[Jojobump1986]

My niece has gone through phases of only answering to Bob or Emily Adams, neither of which are her name! All perfectly normal!

[DonkeysDontRideBicycles]

I decided I adored the name Pauline. Goodness knows where that came from. I was 5 at the time, it lasted only a short while.

I wonder where Tia came from, OP - trying to think of an endearment someone may have used with DD that she only caught the end of and liked?

[wanderingalbatross]

I can see that 'Tia' might have come from the 'ddy' part of 'Maddy' - t's and d's are really confusable and the switch from 'ma' to 'ddy' is probably quite difficult for a toddler to do comfortably. Then if you picked up on it too it might have got reinforced.

No real advice just that my DD is a similar age and I find it really interesting what toddlers can and can't say :) My DD has a long name too and she's picked up on the last syllable to call herself.

[lola88]

My Niece also calls herself other names and randomly had 2 imaginary friends called Nina and Lisa who lived in her hair (she has an afro) when she was 2 until just after 3, we have no idea where she got either name from.

[JassyRadlett]

I insisted my mother call me Wilma (from the Flintstones) for about four months when I was three. I refused to answer to anything else. In return, I called her Betty.

Poor woman.

[thingamajig]

My twins (2 next month) are convinced that they are both called DT2's name. Other than that they are really good on their identities (whose clothes/cot/high chair is whose)

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Forgot that dd aged 4at the time, insisted we call her Poowee for a while. Think you are getting off lightly with Tia

[Tolly81]

Yes think it's pretty normal, a friend's dd referred to herself as Doris from being about 2!

[EverythingsNotRosie]

My two year old thinks her real name is Trouble. I think that might be my fault

[lizzywig]

My sister called herself 'coya fia doggy' for at least a year....even when asked what her name was by people she didn't know. It always got a reaction!!

[WankbadgersBreakfast]

A friend of my brother's insisted on being Max. As I recall it lasted a year or so. FWIW, her name was Stephanie.

[Skyebluesapphire]

My DD recently insisted that her name was Madeliene. She also crawls around meowing saying I'm DDkitten.

She is 4yo and quite adament that her actual name is no longer her name. A lot of it is influenced by friends names.