A five-year-old child has had her name legally changed after “hating it since she could talk”, according to her parents.
Amanda Biddle and husband Dan have given their daughter – born Margaret – a rather unique birthday gift this year: a new name.
Ever since the tot first started speaking at around the age of one, she made it clear that she didn’t like her given name, and instead would answer to Maisie.
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The nickname stuck, with the little girl adamant that it was her true name – and with her refusing to answer to Margaret.
With the headstrong child never wavering, her parents decided to honour her choice, and are surprising her with a legal change of name, which has been granted and will come into place in March – including a new birth certificate being issued for her.
“My daughter began expressing that she hated the name Margaret basically as soon as she could talk,” Amanda, 33, told What’s The Jam.
“She started by saying ‘No Margaret, I Maisie, to now, ‘I don’t like Margaret, I’m Maisie’.”
Thankfully, her parents weren’t offended by her response to the name, and had originally liked the name Maisie for her – but had chosen to honour Dan’s grandmother by naming the child after her.
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As the nickname of Maisie grew, it became harder and harder for them to explain her more formal, birth name.
Amanda said: “It just sounded more and more like we just should have named her the name we originally wanted [Maisie].
“So when she began rejecting it, we accepted that and immediately began thinking about changing it even before she asked for it.
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“It just never felt like it represented her and she was clearly unhappy with it.
“We did wait until she was old enough to have a conversation about it so that we could find out her true feelings.”
The Michigan, US-based family had multiple conversations about it, and Amanda realised her daughter wasn’t changing her mind.
She said: “It wasn’t a difficult decision at that point because it was so clear that it needed to happen for her, and that it was finally time.”
Their petition for the change of her name is set to be granted and official on 11 March, which they plan to tell Maisie about on her birthday later this month.
Soon, she will legally be called Maisie Margaret-Olivia, retaining her birth name and original middle name as one, hyphenated middle name.
The little girl found out this month, on her birthday, and was thrilled.
Amanda said: “Family and friends have been so supportive, they are so excited for her.
“They all knew that her name should be Maisie and they’re all so excited.
“Everyone just knows her as Maisie and only a handful of [people] actually knew that she also had the name Margaret.
“So they are all excited for her to have the name that everyone knows and loves her by.”
Amanda, who is also mum to Jack, 10, shared the news on Threads, in a post which has since gone viral, garnering 14,000 likes.
She said: “The response was overwhelming.
“I had no idea that this would be such a huge deal and the support we’ve received has been amazing.
“Sure, some people don’t agree but so many people think it’s amazing and shared their own personal experiences with names they hated, and it really just solidified our decision.
“After the response we got, I knew that we were doing right by her [Maisie] and that she would be thankful now, and in the future as she grows older.”
