Mum warned her son will ‘hate’ her over unique baby name – and there’s an awkward slang link to erections too

Fabulous' Deputy Editor Josie Griffiths reveals the turmoil she faced with her own name while growing up.

When I was a child, all I wanted was one of those personalised keyrings with my name on it.

But no joy, the closest I could find was Rosie, Joseph (not great for a little girl) and Joanne.

Josie is short for Josephine, which is a French name, and I managed to reach my 20s without ever meeting anyone who shared it.

When I try to introduce myself to people, I get all sorts of random things - like Tracey and Stacey - which can be pretty annoying.

Although I have come into contact with a couple of Josies over the last year - there seems to be a few of us around my age - it’s still a much rarer name than most of my friends have.

On the whole I don’t mind it, at least it’s not rude or crazily spelt.

And it means I can get away with ‘doing a Cheryl’ and just referring to myself as Josie.

I’m getting married this year and some friends are shocked that I’m changing my surname, as it’s not seen as very cool or feminist to do so these days, but I explain to them that I’m not that attached to Griffiths as I’d always just say ‘hi it’s Josie’ when ringing a mate up.

I think it’s nice to be unique and I’ll definitely try and replicate this when naming my own kids.

It’s the rude names you’ve got to watch out for, so after nine years as a lifestyle journalist I’ll definitely be avoiding those.

At 35 weeks pregnant, by far the trickiest part of pregnancy for me in the past few months (minus the insomnia and countless night-time wee breaks!) has been trying to decide on a baby name.

The dilemmas are endless...

My partner and I went for a private scan to find out the gender as early as we could - partly due to the fact we thought it would make baby naming so much easier because we'd only have to come up with a list of names for one gender rather than two.

How wrong we were...

I was absolutely thrilled to be told I was expecting the baby girl I'd already dreamed of, but being one of the last of my friends to fall pregnant, I've had countless conversations over the years with excited pals discussing their top baby names...something which I wish I could go back in time and un-hear.

With each friend mentioning at least 10 possible monikers, I can't help but feel like several are now a no-go even though I know it's something that none of them would mind in the slightest - it's a total me problem!

The debate comes up time and time again on social media forums - can you choose the same name that was a "potential" for a friend's baby?

It's a very divisive topic and opinions are always mixed...and I don't want to be THAT person.

While some will argue there's thousands of other names out there to choose from, others will say you need to choose YOUR favourite...after all, there's no guarantee that person will even have another baby.

Then there's also the issue of finding a name you adore...only to research it online and read one negative comment amongst hundreds of positives that you just can't shake off.

I made that very mistake when I fell in love with a certain name (I won't reveal it because I don't want to ruin it for others!) ...only to see someone point out that it constantly gets autocorrected on a phone to something rather rude instead.

So, back to the drawing board we went..

Just five weeks to go and it looks like our little one is going to be known as 'baby gal' for a little while longer!