Hello nameberries,
I was just wondering how many of you decided to wait till you met your little one before you decided on the name. Did you have a short list to pick from or did something new pop up when you saw their face? Did you both agree on it or was there further discussions? Anybody who decided to wait to name and still couldnt come up with something they love? I know that is a lot of questions but just wanted to know everyone’s personal story. We are planning on naming at the hospital because we cant decide just yet so its nice to see how others decisions turned out.
We had 2 girl names & 2 boy names picked out. We didn’t know the gender, so we had to be prepared. When we met her–of our two girl names ([name]Juniper[/name] & [name]Genevieve[/name]) we just knew she was [name]Juniper[/name] [name]Anne[/name]. I think we were leaning toward that name the whole time & the pressure of calling her something led us to choose w/in 20 mins of her being born!
I recommend to have some strong choices going in and then meeting your little one to decide.
We named my son the day after he was born 
We couldn’t choose between [name]Everett[/name] and [name]Callan[/name], so we waited till he was born. We still went back and forth for a day, but then, while I was holding him, I came up with the nn Evers, and it felt so right. We used [name]Callan[/name] for the middle name. We were going to save it in case we had another boy, but we decided to use it since there was no guarantee we would even have another boy. Good luck with your decision! I’m sure you’ll come up with something that fits perfectly.
Before having a baby, I always rolled my eyes at people who said “We’re going to wait to meet her/him.” I thought it was ridiculous that the baby would “tell” you his or her name. However, we had a lot of trouble deciding on a name, looked into TONS of names, finally decided on one name definitively, and when my son was born, it just did not feel right. We called him that name for a day, then realized it was totally wrong and came up with a different name altogether (which was not even on our “like” list), and now I can’t imagine him as anything else.
A friend of mine had a very similar experience with her first son, and then with her second, assumed the same thing would happen so didn’t go to the hospital with any names in mind and it took her 5 days (her entire hospital stay) to come up with a name, and she said she was in a little bit of a panic mode because she wasn’t getting any feeling about what the name should be like she did with her first son. [name]Just[/name] goes to show it’s different for every baby.
We had 2 short lists (like, one or two names each) b/c we didn’t know the gender, and decided very quickly when DD was born which one felt the rightest. I don’t think it’s that crazy - although it is weird to wait several days after the baby is born to decide.
We never find out the gender, so we have short lists of two or 3 names we take in and after the baby is born DP asks what we’re going to name them and I decide. We do discuss names a lot in the last few weeks so we have a good idea of what we like. I think DP is so blown away by me giving birth that he isn’t about to fight me. lol
We went in with a few FN options, and a set MN. We thought we were leaning towards one name when we arrived at the hospital, but after our son was born, we looked at him and agreed he did NOT fit that name. It took us our entire 3 days in the hospital to agree that we were going to go with our “dark horse” name. A year later we are still shocked that we picked something out of the ordinary, but he wears his name well! I think we will probably do the same thing if/when we are blessed with another baby.
For me, I like to name them in utero. It helps with the bonding process. I had my dd’s name picked out since before we found out it was a girl, but when I met her I thought “she looks like a [name]Juliet[/name] [name]Rose[/name]!” But I pushed that thought away and stuck with what I picked out. I think no matter what name you pick, the name will fit. Though, with my dd’s personality, she is no [name]Juliet[/name]. I still think about it from time to time and would love to fit [name]Juliet[/name] [name]Rose[/name] in a combo someday.
I decided while pregnant. And most everyone I’ve known does too. I like that they already have an identity and I feel a bit more of a bond already having something to call them. For our first we picked out a set girl name and had a very short list for boy first names. After we found out it was a boy, we quickly settled on a fn and then took Ages to come up with a mn. Though, it was settled about a month before he was born.
This time around, we felt pretty sure about a first name for a boy or a girl. Then found out it was twins. So, names got pushed totally out of mind until we found out gender. I wasn’t prepared to try and come up with two names of each gender. My husband and I would have went 'round and 'round trying to decided on 8 different names and how to put them together! It ended up being a boy and a girl, so the first names were seemingly taken care of (though, I did go through a crazy spell, second guessing myself and driving myself and my husband absolutely crazy for a few weeks). Then I realized that no other names I had found (and I had looked at many Hundreds of names), had the same effect on me as the two originals. Middle names this time around were basically decided on within an evening. My husband suggested mn’s out of the blue while going to bed one night. I liked both a lot and the combinations, so that was that. Other than trying to figure out how to do the combination/double mn for our daughter. It’s all settled now and has been announced to friends & family.
While that’s the normal thing with most people I know, I’ve met a Lot of people after moving to a new country who don’t pick out set names and don’t even find out genders until birth. I totally understand the desire to do things that way and I think it’s nice that they go in with some wiggle room. They usually have two or three options for both, with a pretty clear front-runner and then see what they think fits. It’s just not something that I’ve ever been used to, so it’s not my style. I like to have colors, names,. gender specific clothes, etc… all ready to go before hand.
#1 a son- we had his first name picked out before I was even pregnant. Took a few hours to decide on a MN.
#2 a daughter- spent the entire pregnancy disagreeing over names. I had a name from childhood that I was determined to use, he wanted something completely different. She came unexpectedly premature and I was in a bad way healthwise- he agreed to the name I liked and he chose the middle (which I liked anyway). She was named the day of birth.
#3 a daughter- for over half the pregnancy we had a name picked (knew she was a girl quite early) BUT we got sick of the name. DH wanted to name her a very popular name (which I liked). Once she was born I just couldn’t use the popular name, it didn’t look like her. I had loved another name for ages but a friend of the family’s daughter had named her daughter the same name. In the end we decided we didn’t care and she got the name I wanted with his favourite as a middle after 2 1/2 days.
#4 currently hoping for a new addition: DH said I can choose the name as he knows I love names so much. If he really disagrees then I will listen of course. Planning to take a list in with FN, MN and favourite combos.
7 kids, and it was different each time, depending on how sure we were. Our first son was named after my husband and my dad and that was settled early. My 4th, boy #3, the name just came to me when I was halfway along, and then we picked a great middle name, and I just knew what his name was the rest of the pregnancy with no questioning. My 2nd daughter, #6, we knew all along what her first name was, but there was some questioning of the middle name until we finally had to fill out the form in the hospital.
The other 4, we went to the hospital with our mental short list and this would give us something to discuss while in labor. My husband doesn’t really get serious about names until the baby is practically here. By the time #7 came last year, we both had used our favorites on the other kids, but I had a plan. [name]One[/name] of my boy names from the past that was never high on his list but that I love was going to be the default boy name, and I had found a new love for a girl name. His idea for a girl name didn’t sound good at all with our last name, but he doesn’t care about such trivial issues. So while I was in labor, I had to lay down the law and say that my girl name was going to win out if it was a girl. The boy name was still debatable, but baby came out a girl and it was easy to get my way after he saw my epidural fail and heard me screaming, lol.
A couple of babies we were standing in the room, dressed and packed to go, with the only thing holding us back being that form with the baby name BLANK. I refused to leave without baby being named, but at that point, we would be down to 2 perfectly fine names and it would be a win-win situation and I would just have to pick.
We had several names picked out on a short list - no first name, middle name combos. I wanted to meet my daughter before I named her. I personally dislike when people name the baby while in the stomach, then they can’t go back if the baby doesn’t fit the name. I think you get a “sense” of what’s right when you see your child.
I want to add that I think it’s weird when people wait several days (or weeks!) to name their child.
I don’t believe in naming before meeting them in person but then I also don’t believe in finding out the sex beforehand…
I (somewhat thankfully) had no daddy to compromise with so I spent 9 months widdling down a list of about 50 to 2-3 per sex. I bounced ideas off of close friends and family but didn’t put much value on thier opinions…
Girls names I never had set and were still pretty up in the air on d-day but my boys names, I had 2 that basically didn’t change from day one…as soon as he was out, as soon as they said it was a boy, I said his name out loud and that was that. I didn’t even think twice about the other possibility…
MNs were pretty set in stone though as my dad passed away the same month I got pregnant so it was kind of a given he’d be honored:)
Thank you all so much for the stories. It really does seem split with some people knowing right away and others waiting to meet their little ones. I think sometimes you just ‘know’ or you get a sign or a dream or feeling or something…well, so far that hasnt happened to us yet. Nothing jumps out as ‘THE name’ so I think we will just wait to meet him. (we do know its a boy so at least its a shorter list) And it seems like it might be easier to convince hubby of a name I am more fond of after he sees all the work I have to do to get him in the world. It will be nice to see his face and see what name matches him best but we will definitely name him before we leave the hospital though.