Title self-explanatory. I’m not sure if this has been asked before or not…or at least, not for awhile. I’m just really curious as to whether you’ve noticed people you know leaning any which way on this. [name_m]Just[/name_m] to throw this out there, I’m not caring to debate whether or not there is a right or wrong way.
For a long time, I’ve noticed that the majority of people I know have told the name immediately after learning the sex. Sometimes they make a few changes to it over time, but still reveal the actual name before birth. This seems to be the norm, to me. [name_m]Even[/name_m] a quick Google search on ‘name reveal ideas’ yielded over 55, 000, 000 results. YouTube is filled with a surprising number of name reveal videos (which I love to watch, lol)…so it is definitely not an uncommon idea.
However, I have noticed a steady trend of people I know keeping the name a secret until after the birth. They’ll usually use a pet name or nickname for the unborn child, or maybe call it “[name_u]Baby[/name_u] first initial”, but that’s usually as much as they’ll give away. [name_m]Even[/name_m] though we likely will keep our future childrens’ names a secret until birth, this realization truly surprised me! Which lead me to this post
Almost everyone I know has not announced the name until the baby was born, even if the sex was known (many have chosen to go green too).
Of the 10 babies born to close friends/family in the last 10 years, only once did we know that the baby was going to be [name_u]Rowan[/name_u] before he arrived - he was the second baby, they didn’t announce the name of his sister until she was born, though they did talk quite openly about which names they were considering ([name_f]Holly[/name_f], [name_f]Bethan[/name_f] and [name_f]Faith[/name_f]). Other than that, most people won’t even discuss name options let alone announce until there’s actually a baby. A few discussed the name options up until they were down to a couple/until the parents had decided between themselves, and then although we knew a few of the ideas we didn’t know the name.
My sister will not share her choices at all even though they are not expecting.
With this trend, I should make it clear that ‘gender reveal’ parties are much less common in the UK, the closest we got is the parents of Row@n and Ho!ly gave us cupcakes with coloured icing, but they were our youth workers at the time so I think they mostly wanted to do something fun for us. The idea of a ‘cute’ gender reveal cake, balloons etc. is very unusual in the UK (at least around me) so there’s less of a name reveal opportunity.
@maerad: Interesting! It sounds like the ‘norm’ over there is much different than over here! That is a good point, that different cultures have different customs. It sounds like there isn’t really pressure on expectant parents to divulge names, then? Over here, it seems like the second or third question everyone asks pregnant women is, “what are you going to name him/her?”
Also, thanks for including the bit about gender reveal parties/name reveal opportunities! A friend of ours actually just did this…they had a party and revealed both the sex and name of the baby. [name_m]Even[/name_m] before the party, people were bugging them about revealing all…
We just had a baby explosion in my family, and in each case, the parents announced the baby’s name relatively early. There wasn’t a lot of pomp and circumstance surrounding the name announcements either— only one of my cousins had a gender reveal party, but she and her husband had a name for both genders already picked out beforehand. At her baby shower, which was later in the year, some of the decor included the baby’s name, which I thought made it more personal.
The other two just sort of let the news travel by word of mouth about what name they had chosen.
We picked out our names pretty early on, and shared the names right after. When I had my baby shower, my brother made invitations for the shower with a picture his friend drew and [name_f]Noemi[/name_f]'s name on top. Then we sent out birth announcement pictures with her full name after she was born. I have already told almost everyone [name_f]Kiana[/name_f]'s name so far.
I haven’t had a lot of friends who have had kids, but of the ones who did, they told what name if they had one picked out, or what they were considering.
My husband’s family in Mexico on the other hand is a whole different story. They don’t have to fill out the birth certificate right away, so the babies aren’t officially named until a month or two after they are born. My brother in law is having twins in [name_u]November[/name_u], and they don’t even know the genders yet, so they probably won’t have names until after my daughter is born.
I wonder how cultural this is… I grew up in a Southern state in the US, and even now, most of my friends/family back home tend to reveal the name pretty early on. They post the name in hashtags on social media or just share through word of mouth.
I moved up north (to Minnesota) and most of my family/friends here will talk vaguely about names until the baby is born, but ultimately they wait until the baby is born to even choose a name! My friend had a baby yesterday and they brought a list of names to the hospital - I see this happen a lot among people I know. Then they select a name and after the baby is born, they announce it.
When a relative revealed the name and referred to the baby by that name before birth my parents thought it was pretty weird.
Most of my friends don’t reveal, or even hint, at the names they’ve chosen.
Only 1 or two of my friends would even discuss names before the baby was born. My friends must all have very opinionated family members they were trying to circumvent!
I’m in Australia and my sister is currently pregnant with her third, her first she didn’t know the gender but did mention the names they were considering, with [name_f]Maisie[/name_f] and soon to be born [name_m]Patrick[/name_m] she’s literally told everyone the gender, their full names including middles, etc.
Other people I know will normally mention the gender if they know but basically never the names. In fact I don’t think I know anyone but my sister who has told people ehat names they were even considering.
We don’t normally have gender reveal parties here but it’s not unheard of either.
When I do eventually have kids I don’t plan on finding out the gender and while I might mention names I like I probably wouldn’t tell people which names I’ve selected. I’m a pretty private person and will probably wait as long as possible to tell anyone that I’m pregnant at all, including family. [name_m]Even[/name_m] the idea of a baby shower makes me shudder, nothing against them but they’re definitely not for me, people bringing presents and playing games awkwardly, no thanks.
My husband and I have actually gotten a lot of flak for not having a name picked. We have options, and we’re not even secretive about them, but everyone wants to know the name for sure. We would rather see our daughter face-to-face before deciding, so we’ve been calling her Blueberry throughout the pregnancy.
Obviously, based on their reactions, it’s uncommon to keep the name a secret among our group. Everyone wants to monogram junk haha
I live in the southeastern US, sort of, and of the people I know who have had babies within the past few years, there was a balance between those who shared the name and those who didn’t. We don’t know if we’ll share the name we choose on social media or anything until after the baby is born, but we will likely tell at least some people. I have found that people are much kinder about a name they may not like if there is an infant they can see in person who is already attached to it.
