DH and I are prego with number one. We suffered a miscarriage a couple of months ago and I’m really anxious about the pregnancy but I’m trying to just let lose and enjoy it anyway – so, in the spirit of that, we’re discussing names!
I have a huge list of names I’ve been working on for over a year now since before we even started trying. Two of my absolute favorites for girls are Nina and Beatrix (I have a list of MNs too but that’s for a different post).
My question is: Is it weird to want to wait to see what baby looks like to officially decide on a name for him or her?? The main reason I ask is bc DH has red hair and light skin and brown eyes; I’m a brunette with tan skin and green eyes. It’s a complete toss up as to what this kid could look like but to me a [name]Nina[/name] has always been a darker hair (or at least dirty blonde – definitely not red) kind of name. Whereas I think [name]Beatrix[/name] would be beautiful for auburn-haired little girl. Is it super strange to want to wait to see what color hair the LO has before naming her???
Thanks berries!
(Also this is my first time posting and I don’t know how to do the nameberry link thing for the names??)
Yeah, you won’t know eye color for a while and hair color can drastically change as well…but I do think that you might get a sense when you see your child of which name fits her better.
I’m not sure if you can tell hair and eye colour from birth - so many babies are born with blue eyes that change to brown or grey within the first year or two.
However we waited until we saw our DD before deciding between our choices. It worked for us - she was clearly one and not the other. Can’t even say why she looked like one choice - she just did.
We’re doing the same for our second child too - hope it works again.
We wait until the baby is born, not to see what they look like as looks change so much, but to see what name we like best when there’s actually a baby there to name.
For DD we were choosing between [name]Calla[/name] and [name]Rowan[/name], I half-imagined [name]Rowan[/name] to be darker haired and a bit more natural and tomboyish, and [name]Calla[/name] to be white blond and pixie-like. My DD was born with a head of black hair and rosebud lips. We decided we liked [name]Calla[/name] better and she’s kind of grown into it though her hair is now dark blond, she is very girly and pixie-like though she does have an independent tomboyish streak.
We’ve kind of got all the kids’ names right though they didn’t suit them at the beginning. [name]Finn[/name] is a rough and tumble, cheeky soul, [name]Aidan[/name] is more considered and gentle, but has a fiery streak. I’m worried about this baby as I don’t know if we’ll get it right. Right now it’s between [name]Lyra[/name], Lumi and [name]Wren[/name]. I see Lumi as pixie-ish again, white-blond and very clever, [name]Lyra[/name] as darker more secretive and serious, and [name]Wren[/name] darker, full of energy and tiny but in a more sturdy way, more like [name]Rowan[/name]. We’ll see what we like most when she’s born and hope it suits.
You probably won’t be able to see that from birth.
[name]Both[/name] my boys had blue eyes at birth (most caucasian babies do). My eldest was blonde and pale like me at birth, my youngest had ginger hair.
My eldest now has olive complexion, dark brown eyes and light brown hair. My youngest has partial heterocromia (so his eyes are bright blue with golden brown flecks in it) and blonde hair with darker blonde stribes in it.
But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with waiting until the baby is born! We had a name chosen for our eldest, but didn’t feel he looked like it after we had a 3D scan. We always pick two names - one firm choice, one back up.
We had a short listed and my son was going to be [name]James[/name] as it was the only named we both agreed on. He was born 6 weeks early and it was clear he was going to be a redhead like me. He just wasn’t a [name]James[/name]! Eventually after several days we decided he was a [name]Gabriel[/name] ([name]Gabe[/name]) which is unusual in [name]Scotland[/name] and caused a few eyebrows to be raised!
With our daughter we knew we wanted a classic but decided to wait until she was born. My hubby said as son as he saw her she was an [name]Elizabeth[/name]. I had [name]Hannah[/name] as a front runner before the birth and its still one of my favourite names but my husband was right. She’s not a [name]Hannah[/name] and very much an [name]Elizabeth[/name]. We won’t shorten it until her personality dictates if she is to be a [name]Beth[/name], [name]Lizzie[/name] etc. personally I couldn’t have a firm name until I had looked at their wee face. It may be weird but they have to kind of tell you their name.
I appreciate I sound a bit mad!
Thanks for weighing in! I know eye color can change quite a bit but I still do feel as if, in most cases, if the baby is going to be of darker hair and complexion, you can see that at birth, vs. lighter hair and complexion. This held true for both my sister and I, any way. I guess I’m mostly concerned about matching a name with a ginger-haired baby. I just can’t imagine a [name]Nina[/name] as a ginger! In any case I think we’ll take your advice and have a short-list but wait on seeing her to decide… hmmm I don’t believe they do 3-D scans here but that would be helpful, too!
Not weird, a lot of parents do that! And [name]Nina[/name] is a recent favorite of mine nice pick! And I love the nickname [name]Trixie[/name] from [name]Beatrix[/name]. And as a baby you could call her Bumble [name]Bea[/name] - super cute!
[name]Nina[/name] & [name]Beatrice[/name] are two of my favorite names! [name]Beatrix[/name] is nice too. I actually considered [name]Nina[/name] perfect for a red haired girl. It feels high energy, feisty, spirited, ect to me while [name]Beatrix[/name] feels a bit calmer, more elegant, a bit more introspective. I like the idea of waiting to meet baby, but I wouldn’t base it off of looks which are quite smushed and misleading at that point! I would base it off of her demeanor & her arrival into the world. She might not have any hair, she might have a bit that will change color or fall out as it sometimes does, eye color will just be that baby dark blue and her skin tone won’t be true to color yet even.
It’s not strange to wait to see the baby before you name her…but you still may not know what she looks like! LOL!
My husband has red hair and blue eyes. I was born with blonde hair, which has gotten darker over time so now it’s light brown, and I have brown eyes. Our daughter was born with a dark brown mohawk (seriously, a mohawk!) Her nurse told me she could see some red in it, but I was sure she was just a brunette. My mom has dark brown hair and so does my husband’s mom, so it was totally possible, just not what I expected.
Over time, it did end up growing redder. It was turning this gorgeous dark auburn color…and then it all fell out. Her “new” hair is strawberry-blonde and curly. It’s so beautiful! But it’s absolutely nothing like the hair she was born with.
Somebody I know had two girl names picked out, one for if she was born with blonde hair and the other if she was born with dark brown hair, the baby was born with dark hair and then as she got older her hair got lighter to blonde. So I wouldn’t 100% rely on hair colour as your identifying factor.
My eldest daughter was born with olive skin bright blue eyes and blonde hair, now she has pale skin, hazel eyes and brunette hair. My second was born with light skin, light grey/blue eyes and dark hair, now she has olive skin bright blue eyes and strawberry blone hair with red highlights. So their skin colour, eye colour and hair colour at birth are not an indication of what they will be as they grow up. However it’s not crazy to wait until you meet you baby before you name her. Lots of people do that, including myself
My first looked like he was going to be ginger when he was first born however after a year he is not ginger at all.
We had a few names planned and waited until he was born to name him though although we had to as we didn’t know sex then lol
I mean you may look at your children and think she looks more like a [name]Nina[/name] than a [name]Beatrix[/name] and that’s fine loads of people do that. Their are many people who don’t name their baby until they actually see them and think that’s the name for my daughter/son. However don’t base the decision completely based on looks due to the fact that babies features, eye colour and hair colour changes over time. My sister [name]Helen[/name] was born ginger and then her hair went blonde and has remained blonde ever since for example.
nice pick! And I love the nickname [name]Trixie[/name] from [name]Beatrix[/name]. And as a baby you could call her Bumble [name]Bea[/name] - super cute!