When do you choose a name?

[Desert Strawberry]

We are working on our 5th child. 

 

My first had a name long before he was conceived. After that if has taken...longer. 

 

At least two of my children didn't have names until I was in labor. I am six months, and it hasn't come up yet. 

 

Until the last one, not having a name really stressed me out. Last time, I let it go, and told D he had to choose on his own. He was utterly clueless, so I did eventually give him a short list. He's traditionally been the shooter-downer-of-all-ideas, so coming up with something on his own was nearly impossible for him. 

 

This time, I'm keeping my eyes and ears open, but not putting a great deal of effort into it. There's no point in spinning my wheels for months over nothing. I hope that we stumble upon something before or shortly after baby is born. 

 

We found out gender with the first 3, not with the last two, in case that's relevant. 

 

 

I'm wondering which of us is more normal  :laugh:

 

Do you wait or do you like to choose early?

 

 

 

 

 

[vonfirmath]

We've had names chosen before conception. But we finalize before the 20wk ultrasound when we find out if the baby is a girl or a boy.  (Yes, our pre-conception names have changed when we start thinking about it as an actual child)

 

[Just Kate]

Prior to my first pregnancy, dh and I came up with a boy name and a girl name that we loved (well, I came up with them and dh approved!). First pregnancy was a boy...second was a girl. There went our names! Easy peasy :)

[Desert Strawberry]

We've had names chosen before conception. But we finalize before the 20wk ultrasound when we find out if the baby is a girl or a boy.  (Yes, our pre-conception names have changed when we start thinking about it as an actual child)

 

 

I did have a couple of names picked out before birth, but only twice have we stayed with it, and those were both boy names. Even then, we changed the middle names. Girl names are so much harder. I don't even know where to begin. 

[Kerileanne99]

Ha! I think I might win most-name-procrastinating mommy award.

Hubby and I went back and forth for ages! He hated everything I liked, I hated everything he liked. Part of it was cultural I think.

 

So my dd4 was BORN and we still had no name decided! Her hospital bracelet says 'Baby Girl X' on it. However, on the day it was unanimous:)

 

For the record, I had a name I called her throughout the pregnancy...although she may or may not of originally been called Cleo the Embryo, followed by Cletus the Fetus before I settled:)

 

Does that make me a horrible person?!

[Crimson Wife]

With #1 we had agreed upon a boy's name early on but debated the spelling of the girl's name until a few weeks before delivery (we didn't know the gender).

 

With #2 we knew we were having a boy and had a name picked out (different from what #1 would've been) but could not agree on the spelling. So we ended up using that as the middle name (using DH's preferred spelling) and picking a different first name. We may have even done that at the hospital but I don't remember.

 

With #3 we knew we were having a girl and had a name picked out but couldn't agree on a middle name. That one we definitely did pick while filling out the paperwork at the hospital.

[Dmmetler]

We start working on it and discussing, but not with people outside of the immediate family.  We also have  a "development name" as well that is used until birth. DD was "Cuddles" until she was born, for example. That comes from DH's background in software engineering, where there is usually an in-house project name that bears no resemblance to the official product name made up by marketing.

 

 

 

 

[Lawana]

We had names picked out before we got married. 20 years later, I still have the post-it note that has the names written on it. We even got the order right- girl first, then boy. There were two more girl names that we didn't get around to using. We were too old and tired.

[Um_2_4]

I went through 7 years of infertility before SURPRISE! So I had a long list of names. 1st boy/girl names were 100%, rest were if more came along...

I still have some names that won't get used I guess....

[PrairieSong]

We never chose a name until after birth, but we started talking about it in the last few months of pregnancy. We had a short list by the time of the baby's birth, so it was a matter of choosing from the list. The list morphed and changed during pregnancy, with names being added and deleted. Names are hard, I think! I always hoped the child would like we name we chose.

[Loowit]

We talked about names all throughout my pregnancies. We narrowed down to two girl names and a boy name for our oldest but decided to wait to see her before deciding.

 

As bad as it sounds I really don't remember when we decided with middle dude. I think we had a boy and girl name pick before he was born.

 

We had a name picked for our youngest before he was born but changed it at the last minute while in the OR.

[bobbeym]

We always started talking about names once we found out about the baby.  With DS20, we had a name picked out and during lunch the day we found out for certain he was a boy, we knew that the name we'd picked wasn't right for him. By the end of lunch he had a new name and it never wavered from that.  With DS16, we couldn't agree on ANY names.  We ticked and check marked our way through an entire baby name book during the pregnancy, and the week before his due date we finally had 2 names we could agree on.  Thankfully those names suit him very well, so I suppose they were always meant to be his names.

 

 

[LucyStoner]

We have narrowed it down to 2-3 choices each time and then named them within 1 day after birth. 

[happi duck]

My parents only had a boy name picked out. I was nameless for days!

[Guest]

My oldest daughter and oldest son seemed to come with names: I just had to defend them to people who said, "But you CAN'T name the baby...."

 

My younger daughter's father came up with her name after birth. We agreed on a short list and that we were going to "try on" each name for size for a day, but after the first day of using his choice, it fit so well that I didn't make it more than an hour or two into the day of trying on my idea before I went back to calling her by her name.

 

My younger son also had a short list, but it took a week or two after the birth before we knew his name was actually a combination of two of the ideas on the list.

 

The younger three had "opposite gender names" that we called them before they were born.

[peachskittles]

My first son was named before he was born.  I loved the name, and thankfully his father let me name him what I wanted. 

The next two boys it took me a day after they were born to think of a name for them. 

The fourth boy was named as soon as we saw him from our short list of names.  

Boy number 5 did not look like Vlad (he was my smallest baby), so it took us until we were going to be discharged to name him.  I think that is the first time I used the baby naming books. 

My sixth child and only girl of the bunch was named after she was born.  I had two or three names picked for her and when I seen her, I named her. 

My seventh child (and another boy LOL) was named before he was born, but I had to see him to make sure it fit him.  I am disappointed that I switched out his middle name with something else, but I'm not worrying about it.

 

My future offspring have a list that I keep updated.  I'm pretty confident I have the next boy or girl name picked out, but I need to see the baby to name the baby.  Sometimes they just don't look like the name I want to give to them.  I'm sure the nurses think we are crazy at times.  We hold the baby, talk to the baby with the potential name, see how it feels...We run through a few names before we tell them the official name.  Every time they want the baby to pop out (It's another boy!!!) and then they ask the question "What's his name?".  Well, I'm not sure just yet.  Give me a few minutes before I throw a name on him and look even more crazy when I say, no wait, I don't think I like that one anymore.

[Guest]

For our first, I made a list of names (both boy and girl until we knew the sex) that I whittled down during the pregnancy, and I had chosen a name by the time ds was born.

 

Same for second child, who was a girl.

 

I kept the list of names that I loved and used one of them for next ds.  It was chosen before he was born.

 

Chose names off the same list for youngest ds, but did not decide for sure until we saw him.

 

If we have more children, I will choose a name off of the same list.  

[vonfirmath]

I did have a couple of names picked out before birth, but only twice have we stayed with it, and those were both boy names. Even then, we changed the middle names. Girl names are so much harder. I don't even know where to begin. 

 

DS ended up with the name we chose pre-conception.

 

DD ended up with the girl name we had for DS with a different middle name.

 

But DD's name if she was a boy got changed after she was conceived because our original name turned out to be the same as some famous basketball player who behaved badly. And then we couldn't come up with another middle name we liked with our chosen first name and switched names around to end up with Daniel Isaiah.

[Mandylubug]

For all of ours we had names picked out by the gender ultrasound. We already had a boy and girl name chosen before 9 weeks with my girls. That's when I learned it was twins and we had to pick a secondary name to go along with each name.

[horsellian]

We shortlisted names - in combination with middle names - for both boys & girls, since we never found out the gender beforehand.  However, we didn't decide definitely until they were born.  Fortunately in both cases we were in agreement as to which of the options to go for!

[KRG]

First one we had names picked out, even told a few people at some point during my pregnancy and promptly changed the name sometime in the third trimester.

Second one we decided sometime during my second trimester and stuck with that name.

[Word Nerd]

We had it down to two names when my older DD was born, and we both agreed on the one that suited her better after she was born. We picked DD2's name before the birth but didn't make it official or tell anyone until after she was born.

[BlsdMama]

Only two of our children have had names by the end of the 2nd trimester. (1st and last children... but William only had a name that soon because he's named after DH and my grandfather and we've known for 7+ years that's what our next boy would be called.)

 

We don't discuss them in the first 34 weeks or so.  Maybe a, "Hey, have you heard this one," or a "I like such and such, it should be a contender."  But we don't get down to truly hashing it out until the end. 

[Hypatia.]

With DS1 and DD1, we found out the sex and picked out names before they were born.  With DD2 and DS2 (didn't know the sex), we discussed names and had a short list for each sex and made the final decision after they were born.  With DS3 (didn't know the sex again), we didn't even start discussing it until after he was born and named him a few days after he was born.

 

With this baby we don't know the sex and won't even start talking about it until after s/he is born.

[Dory]

Some names I had chosen before I had ever conceived any of my kids. When I found out I was pregnant with each of them I created lists for first and second names. We went to the hospital with two different name choices and would give the baby his/her name when we saw them.

[VeganCupcake]

I can't name a baby until at least a day after his/her birth. DH wanted to work on naming our twins a few hours after they were born, and I was just not having it. A and B were working just fine for me. :)

[Farrar]

We were 90% on the names and had some backups, but it felt wrong to name the children before we'd met them.

 

That happened to me. My parents were set on Catherine Porter to be my name and my mother wanted to call me Porter. But then she met me and changed her mind.

[Wabi Sabi]

I'm the obligatory other.  :lol: 

With our first child we had a name picked out for him by the time he was born. We had the first name chosen pretty quickly after the 20 week ultrasound when we found out his sex, but didn't settle on a middle name until shortly before birth. 

Second child, however, didn't have a name until she was three days old. We had some ideas we were kicking around, but nothing firm for the first couple of days. 

[cjzimmer1]

Here's how it works for us.  Naming isn't even thought about until the 20 weeks ultrasound (although I've already figured out what we are having before then).  Sometime in the next week or two I will give a list of names I like to DH.  He will either outright shoot them all down or he'll want to "think" about it.  At some point in the next 19 weeks, I'll pick out a favorite and let DH know that if he doesn't like it he will need to find something really good because I'm now attached to said name.  Response will be "I'm thinking about it".  Somewhere during week 39 DH will comment that maybe we should discuss names,  I'll remind him of what I've been calling baby for the last 19 weeks, he will "think" about it and come back and say that name is fine.  He did change the middle name once but I was totally fine with that since I wasn't sold on the middle name I had suggested but hadn't come up with anything better.

 

It's way too much effort to pick out one name, I would never handle being surprised and having to pick out two.

[DawnM]

I had a couple of girl names all picked out!  Then I had boys!  :lol:

 

I know this is going to sound corny, but we prayed about the names and felt that God gave us names.  They all hold meaning for us.

[Scrub Jay]

Two or so years before #1, 3rd trimester during #2.

[daffodil]

We were all over the place on this! Our first daughter was named once we found out she was a girl. Our second daughter wasn't named until after she was born. We decided on our son's name 8 years before he was born.