[name_m]Just[/name_m] wondering if anyone did anything cute or special to announce their baby’s name before the baby was born. We haven’t quite settled on anything yet- nor have we decided if we want to reveal it before birth, but I’m looking for fun ideas just in case. 
Thanks!
Thinking back to when I was young and my aunt was pregnant with her kids I know with her oldest she had everyone think up a name that started with the correct letter and whoever guessed the right name got a prize. With her youngest she had it hidden in a word search of baby related items.
We announced our little girl’s name at the baby shower. It was on a banner that the hostesses made when people came into the shower.
In Iceland it is traditional to keep the name a secret within the family (meaning just parents and older siblings). The name is decided after birth but will be kept a secret for a while after it has been decided. Then it is revealed at the christening party or, for those of us who are not [name_m]Christian[/name_m], at a naming party. If it’s at a christening, the name will be announced as part of the ceremony (although some people usually already know because they’ve seen the cake!). For naming parties, there are various ways to do it, but generally all of these parties have a cake with the child’s name on it, so people find out that way. I have been to a naming party where the older sibling revealed the name through a game of hangman. That was pretty cool.
We will be having a naming party after the birth and after we decide something. All of the Icelandic family will be invited, so they will all find out together. It is unlikely that my family will attend, because they live in a different country. I’ll probably just phone them up beforehand and let them know. Beyond family and close friends, we may put something on social media about it or we might just let the word get out / tell people as we meet them.
My husband and I are both [name_m]Math[/name_m] teachers, so we made a [name_m]Math[/name_m] puzzle that revealed our pick for both genders at our gender reveal party. They then used the sheet to vote for what they thought it was. It was so much fun! And people are really bad at [name_m]Math[/name_m] so some of them got it wrong. Which was funny. A good time had by all!
These are all such fun ideas! Thanks for sharing. 
Jackal- the Icelandic naming traditions are so interesting! I love the thought of a naming party.
We didn’t really do anything special with our daughter. We didn’t find out whether we were having a boy or a girl until birth, so after she was born my husband just sort of announced it. It was 2:00 am, so he texted everyone.
We know we’re having a boy this time, but my husband wanted to keep the name a surprise. I don’t know that he had any clever plan for how to announce it. Our daughter has been telling everyone, though. She got to go with me to a sonogram and she loves showing people the pictures and she tells them “it’s baby [name_m]Patrick[/name_m]”. So everyone at my job/ her school knows and my mom knows, but I don’t know if she has told anybody else. I’m going to try to make a video of [name_f]Maura[/name_f] talking about the sonogram pictures so we can send it to our family and friends who live far away.
We tell people who ask beforehand but when the baby is born we tell people as we’re telling them the baby is born. For many people that means we’re putting up a picture on Facebook with the name mentioned. So nothing clever. We also did a birth announcement with our second child and that of course included her name.
Thanks so much! It is really a difficult decision to decide whether or not to tell people the name before or after birth. So many people ask! But I do like seeing how many of you handled this. Thanks!
With my son we texted pictures of him along with his name & stats just after he was born. That was to family & friends, then we posted a short post on facebook to tell everyone who we aren’t particularly close to. This time we’ll probably just do the same. We’re really boring haha!
I decided to announce the name at my baby shower. But I’m terrible at just standing up and making announcements – so I did it as a game. I had a bag of [name_u]Valentine[/name_u]‘s M&M’s as the prize (pink for a girl) and let the guests know that the name started with an M. No one guessed it correctly – so I got to keep the candy LOL. I don’t know if people really liked the interactive nature of the announcement since it kinda put them on the spot, but anything is better than that melted-candy-bar-in-the-diaper game [name_f]IMO[/name_f]. And announcing the name was definitely a highlight of the shower. It’s a relief to me that the name has now been announced and I can answer friends’/strangers’ questions much less awkwardly, especially now that I’m huge and get the name question daily. We haven’t made a final decision on the mn yet, and even if we do before the birth, I plan to keep it secret until then. And I figure that even the fn isn’t set in stone. If she doesn’t seem like a [name_f]Maeve[/name_f] somehow, then she won’t be a [name_f]Maeve[/name_f]. I don’t imagine that anyone I know would order something with personalized embroidery or anything. The only name-related thing I’m ordering is an M for the nursery wall.
We’re keeping the final decision a secret but we do tell people we have a top 5 list for either gender and reveal those in no particular order. Eepy-Our top name if this babe is a girl is [name_f]Maeve[/name_f] too! Shhh though!! [name_f]Do[/name_f] you have a MN for her?
We plan on telling our family in person at the hospital when the day comes and eventually we’ll put a picture with all the info on social media for everyone else. My biggest hurdle will be making sure nobody leaks it to social media before we do!!
Great name choice! LOL We have a list of possible mn’s. I want to wait and meet her before making the final decision, though
I go back and forth with whether or not to tell people before the baby is born. In a way I want to hear people’s opinions in case I missed something like a bad nickname or association but in a way I don’t want to hear people’s opinions because it is a name my husband and I will choose because we love it