[name]How[/name] much does your significant other care about their input into the naming process? [name]Do[/name] they offer suggestions, actively search for names or do they let you take the lead and only offer opinions? [name]Do[/name] they care at all or let you take the lead?
Wish he didn’t care, would make naming my girl so much easier…
When we were naming our baby I felt like I did the research & made lists and he just vetoed everything.
He’s more into boy names though & we were naming our daughter.
My husband is getting into it now (our third time around), but the process of naming our two children was mostly up to me. Which is totally fine. I’ve always liked thinking about names, so it worked out. The only name my husband picked out, actually, is my son’s middle name, [name]Bryan[/name]. But now that we’re awaiting the adoption of our third, he’s relatively interested in the process and has been suggesting and commenting, and it’s wonderful. It’s more fun that way.
My husband is a very fierce corporate securities litigator. You don’t end up in that line of work if you’re a dormouse. Neither am I a shrinking violet.
When it came to names, I was the onomast, he was the ferocious arguer. The man has a gift for dialectics, I’ll grant you (he was the high school debate champion for the US back in his youth); he can argue that black is white, white is black, all for the pleasure of the argument, not out of genuine conviction.
He has no interest in names (except as someone who has an [name]Ellis[/name] Island Mistake as a first name and who is constantly misclassified, he doesn’t want anything ethnically ambiguous). All of his suggestions-- like 2 names-- were scatological. The nicer one was [name]Dick[/name] ("[name]Richard[/name]?" I’d say, hopeful for one he might actually be participating in the naming conversation. “No, [name]Dick[/name]. Like dick.”) Anything I brought up was argued into the ground, for the sheer antagonistic pleasure of needling me. We never at all settled on a girl’s name, and finally when we were driving to the hospital to have [name]Antoine[/name] he sobered up and proclaimed he was OK with my suggestions of [name]Raphael[/name] or [name]Constantine[/name]; once the baby was born we actually had a normal, productive discussion and quickly mutually settled on [name]Raphael[/name].
I actually think the next time around it will / would (still need the subjunctive, not expecting) be much easier, though he finds my participation on this website risible so I am a little trepidatious.
My significant other has his days where he’ll mention a name he heard that he found interesting or likes and then we’ll spend an hour or so going back and forth. He’ll mention a name, I’ll give my opinion and then I’ll say a name and he’ll give his opinion. It normally ends in a compromise but we both love the name we decide on.
My boyfriend is very involved in the naming process. He’s got very strong opinions, luckily for me our tastes are pretty much aligned. He’s been looking for names, I gave him a book and we did it together, it was a lot of fun! Most of the time it’s me taking the lead though, he’s happy with that, and then he approves or disapproves the names. I’m much more interested in names in general than he is, I’m letting him take the lead on things I don’t know about, like which wood is best for our floor. He is, as I said, very opinionated, but not in an argumentative way, he’s an artist and it’s pretty much a simple yes or no. And he changes his mind a lot which can be frustrating, especially as I’m a bit like that as well. But he has suggested a lot of my favourites, like [name]Orlando[/name] and Gwenllian. I’m very happy he’s this involved, it’s fun!
My fiance will offer his opinion when he is asked, and sometimes jest about the names I mention, but never in a cruel or mean-hearted way, but he has said in the past, that when it comes to naming babies, I will always get the final decision and my opinion matters the most purely because I have spent the time, effort and love researching and studying names for endless hours and hours. He defers to me because I am more knowledgeable about the subject, in the same way I defer to him in other areas. (Like big electronic purchases and such, not the same as naming a baby, but you need to go with the best possible option all the same!)
100% let me take the lead and only offer opinions and it drives me nuts. B/c usually opinions are not in my favor. Occasionally he throws out a good one but it definitely takes me egging him on. Not that he isn’t involved, I’m just obsessive about it
- obviously, I’m on nameberry rt now trying to find a girl name and I’m not even pregnant yet!
He vetoes all the things. Our boys list is literally one name.
Usually I supply the names and my husband vetoes. Often I have to practically corner him in order to get his opinion on a name. He does pay attention to my names now and again, but most of the time he avoids the topic.
Hmm I have a very opinionated and outspoken husband, his interest in our children’s names has surprised me completely, so naming our first child was an interesting experience. I mentioned it on a thread a couple of days ago but here I go again.
I have never really been that interested in names…that was until I got pregnant with my son. My husband, Jack, decided when he was 11 that he wanted a son and his name would be Bugsy, he liked the movie Bugsy Malone. I was actually horrified when he gave Bugsy as a legitimate option. However, he wanted it so much I said yes to it being a middle name… so I was set on William Bugsy. The moment our baby boy was born Jack called him Bugsy…and seeing my husband with our son melted me a little… so that moment swayed me, Bugsy William he became, I am actually a fan now, our little Bug suits his name to a tee 
With our current munchkin it’s very much a team effort… trying to find a name that sits next to Bugsy, we’re enjoying it for now, but I think it will send me insane!
I’ve been given free reign on any future baby - he’s had his chance and I got bulldozed into something I don’t love with my first, and he says names are “my thing” and he knows how passionate I am about them, so he said I can choose. Which some people might really like, but it’s intimidating and I wish he would give me a [name]LITTLE[/name] direction.
I always thought my husband was more passive about it than he actually is. With our first son, I chose the name and that was that. With our next son, he said a name that I had already been thinking about and we agreed on it instantly. With our daughter, I had a name picked out for years that he agreed with. It was all very easy. That is, until our girl name got used by someone else. I thought that if I came up with another name, he would just agree to it. I found out I was wrong. We argued about what to name her the whole time I was in the hospital. She wasn’t named until the day we came home…and she ended up with his choice for her name!