I want to SCREAM! My husband and I have decided on the name of our baby boy or girl, I’ve shared our names ([name_m]Jack[/name_m] or [name_f]Penelope[/name_f]) and people keep giving suggestions! Stop it! I don’t want to consider any more options. I feel like I have to think about their suggestions, then I’m wondering, do they not like our picks? Sush people, I’m happy!
[name_m]How[/name_m] do you handle this?
The way a lot of my friends have handled that is by just saying “We’ve got a good idea of the names we want, but we’re keeping it a surprise for after the baby arrives”.
That way you don’t share the names and don’t open yourself up to suggestions. The ball stays in your court.
Ok, I don’t have personal experience with this yet, but I’m sure I will very soon. We didn’t find out with our first, or announce our name choices, until after baby was born. This time around we are finding out the gender and sharing the name at the same time. My plan is to have each of my two sweet sisters and my mom give us a gift that has been monogrammed with baby’s name. That way, whenever anyone starts to say, “Did you consider…” I can stop them by saying, “Too late now. We have too much $ wrapped up in monogramming! Oh well.” 
Hopefully, they will take the hint.
We didn’t tell anyone any of the names we were really considering. When other people brought it up, we just joked about it, like I told my dad, “We’re thinking Deblinda for a girl (smoosh of [name_f]MIL[/name_f] and mom’s names) or Lauroger for a boy (smoosh of FIL and dad’s names), but we’re not sure about the spelling yet. I’m thinking we should use an apostrophe.” He was horrified. It was great.
Their suggestions don’t necessarily mean they dislike your choices. They may just prefer another name or want to feel like they had some input. It’s annoying, but try not to get too bent out of shape about it. [name_m]Just[/name_m] smile and nod. You aren’t obligated to consider their suggestions, it’s your kid to name.
Try to be really firm when telling them the names you picked. If they offer selections explain that you already have your names. We haven’t really had any issues with it and we told everyone our kids names before they were born. But we made it clear that we had selected the names and we were already referring to the fetus using those names.
I’d probably just smile and nod, and basically just ignore the suggestions- look disinterested, give a quiet “mmmhmm” while looking around for a new topic of conversation, or say “That’s nice (but we’ve made our choice).” or “Oh yeah?” and leave it at that.
I basically do that now when my friends get on-topic of their favourite names (which are not my style at all, so I try not to talk names with them).
[name_m]Friend[/name_m]: “[name_u]Elliot[/name_u] is a great name for a girl!”
Me: “Sure… so, how 'bout that local sports team?”
HAHAHA! That’s an awesome response.
[name_m]Just[/name_m] stick with your guns. You don’t have to consider any more names if you’ve decided already. A smart thing would be just don’t bring up baby names with people if you don’t want their input. Once the baby is there and you can say “Meet my baby [name_f]Penelope[/name_f]”, people will just shut up and love her (or [name_m]Jack[/name_m], obviously, if its a boy).
I just said “oh, I like that” or “that’s nice, but we want a longer name” or “we can’t use that because its too close to a relative’s name”.
I just smile and nod and usually say something like, “Oh, thats nice!” or “Oh, that’s interesting!” and then change the conversation. I wouldn’t say it’s worth getting work up about - naming is just something most people find kind of fun and exciting so they like to talk about it. I def wouldn’t assume it would mean they don’t like your choices. We aren’t telling anyone our name until baby arrives so that way they can keep their opinions to themselves - but since you’ve already told people, you’ll prob just have to grin and bear the suggestions.
“What names are you thinking of?”
“Well after tons of suggestions, we’re 100% certain, no doubt about it, going with either [name_m]Jack[/name_m] or [name_f]Penelope[/name_f].”
“But what about–”
“We’ve heard them all. Thank you.”
I went the route of just smiling and nodding. As a name lover I actually found it interesting to let people go on and on and list plenty of names. It’s always a fun game to see how many names they suggest before they suggest their own