A mother who chose the name of her baby years ago has been urged by strangers to go with a different option, after revealing she had previously given her dog the same name.

The mum-to-be loved the name of her beloved pet so much she decided to re-use it when she fell pregnant.

She took to Reddit to explain her reasoning behind using the name again.

"The baby name I have had picked for nearly a decade (I've had baby fever since I was 16) is the same as one of my dogs' names," she wrote.

"If I have a daughter, I want to name her after my dad's grandma (who raised him) and my sister (who passed away 2 1/2 years ago)," the mum-to-be added.

"The problem is, a month after my sister passed away, I was in a very dark place. I was really struggling emotionally because she was my best friend, and it was a very sudden and traumatic loss.

"In the midst of my downward spiral, my cousin sent me a link for a local FB group, and there was a dog in need of a new home.

"I instantly fell in love, and when they told me her name was Lucy, I jumped in my car to go pick her up," she recalled.

Lucy the dog got the woman through a dark time in her life but now she wants to name her daughter Lucy as well.

"Now that I'm pregnant, I've had people ask if I'm going to change my girl's name (Lucille Arlene) since my dog's name is Lucille Ruth (or Lucy Roo)," she explained.

"If I do have a daughter I want to go ahead with the name I chose, but I'm getting annoyed with all the people asking 'won't that be confusing?'" she added.

"I don't know if it the hormones or just having heard the same thing so many times that has me gritting my teeth every time the subject of baby names comes up, but I surely can't be the only one who's in (or has been in) a similar situation."

The mum-to-be says changing the dog's name is not an option, despite several Reddit users urging her to.

"I would change the dog's name to something somewhat similar-sounding and stop calling her Lucy in any way if my child was going to use that name," one person replied.

"I don't think it'd be confusing," the Reddit user added. "But it's kind of ... degrading to your child."

"It just seems tacky and devaluing to name my child what I've named my dog? I have a feeling others think the same."

Others suggested adopting a nickname for the dog.

"I would name your daughter what you want— and maybe start using a different name for the dog (maybe LuLu or just Roo? Or you could exclusively call your daughter Lucille if you'd prefer," someone said.

"You can definitely start using a different name for your dog. Dogs will respond to whatever. My dog was hard staring out the window the other day totally focused on something and I said, "hey boo boo" and all his attention fell on me immediately. His name is Murphy and nowhere near Boo Boo. Your dog will be fine with a new name and then you can have your daughter Lucy," another person replied.

"I'd just change the dog's name. Animals don't have personal attachments to their names, you won't be harming the dog in any way by just calling her something else," someone else said.