Are you telling people baby names?

[Blenheim]

Date: 7/20/2009 12:12:01 PM
Author: packrat
My aunt named her 3 girls after 3 soap opera stars'' characters names.

We told family the names we picked out. After the kids were born, we got a lot of strange looks and ''ohh that''s...interesting''. People are pretty opinionated about baby names, and it''s funny that they seem to think when you tell them the names you''re thinking of, you''re asking for permission or something. You say ''We''re thinking of Amy or Ellen'' they hear ''We want to know if you think we should pick Amy or Ellen, and if you don''t like either of those, please tell us what you feel we should name our child''

Oh boy, this exactly. And some of the suggestions were just interesting.

We told select family members and pretty much all friends/coworkers once we got a short short list down. We held off on telling my grandmother until he was here as our planned boys middle name is her late husband''s name, and we didn''t want her to be offended if we changed our mind at the last minute - she gets offended pretty easily.

 

[Logan Sapphire]

I don''t think necessarily waiting to tell people the baby''s name until after it''s born will stop them from making rude or inappropriate comments. We told people our daughter''s name while we were waiting to bring her home from Korea- my husband''s co-worker told him she didn''t like the name (Casey) and why didn''t we name her something different. Casey already was born, albeit far away. Sheesh! While I understand people''s sentiments for not telling beforehand, I don''t think it''ll always stop people from commenting. If they''re rude enough to say something beforehand, they''re rude enough to say something after.

 

[gailrmv]

We decided not to tell, but I accidentally let it slip to a few people. It's funny, I didn't mind if random people knew, but I didn't want my own family to know - in case they didn;t like the name, I didn't want to know. I actually cared about their opinion vs an acquaintence's opinion!

 

[snlee]

We didn''t share the name with anyone until after the birth. We wouldn''t even tell my nurse when I was in labor, which seemed kind of silly, but we stuck to it.

 

[qtiekiki]

We told everyone who asked the name we chose for M before she was born. We didn''t care if others like the name or not.

 

[Haven]

I have a colleague who is due this fall and has already chosen her baby''s name. When people ask she says very directly "We are naming her Grace Elizabeth." She makes it pretty clear that she isn''t looking for an opinion. (Not that that would stop everybody.)

I like unique names, so I know that our family (read: DH''s father) is going to have a field day with whatever we name our future children. I don''t want to hear it, though--my husband is named Howie. As far as I''m concerned, you can''t criticize *anyone* after naming your own son Howie.

My favorite name for a girl is Famke. (Fahm-kuh) I also love M''lain/Malain. Can''t wait to hear unsolicited opinions on those names.

Our last name begins with "O" (let''s pretend it''s O''Malley) so my sister desperately wants us to name a son "Sonnovan" as in "Son-of-an-O''Malley." The sick part of me thinks it''s almost funny enough to do it.

 

[Pandora II]

DH and I told everyone our choice of names straightaway - we''d decided them before I got pregnant even.

My main reason for telling was in case anyone else used them - I don''t care if other people call their children Daisy or Edward, but I would care if they were upset if we did. By telling the names early, no-one could accuse us of ''copying'' or get p''d off later.

My SIL had wanted to use Daisy, and my brother told me this before we knew if we were having a boy or a girl. I told him that I didn''t mind at all if they used it (they weren''t married or even pg at this point) but that if we had a boy this time, but a girl in the future we would still use the name even if they had used it in the meantime.

My youngest sister has called dibs on ''Violet'' for years, so DH and I didn''t use that (his granny is called Violet so we might have considered it).

I knew loads of my family would hate whatever I chose - and they are all very opinionated and voice it too, so I was quite prepared for negative comments...especially as we had chosen Xanthe and Pandora as middle names, both of which are fairly unusual.

My paternal grandmother''s comment was ''Why do all my grandchildren name their daughters after kitchen-maids?''

There is a Polly, a Tilly and now a Daisy so I can see where she''s coming from, in the 1920''s and 30''s, they were quite working-class but currently they are all very upper-middle-class names.

My maternal grandmother just said she felt very sorry for our daughter...

 

[Sabine]

We weren''t planning on it, but I just got sooooo tired of people asking all the time. First, I tried to say we were still thinking about it, and then they wanted to know what we were considering, so at my shower I just told people.

I haven''t had any "I hate that name" reactions, but you can totally tell when someone doesn''t like the name or is just saying "it''s nice" to be nice, and it is disheartening. I think when we have number 2 we might try harder to keep it to ourselves.

 

[PinkTower]

Sabine:

Is Sabine really your name?
If it is, you should look no further. I love that name.

 

[NakedFinger]

Date: 7/21/2009 3:08:15 AM
Author: Haven
I have a colleague who is due this fall and has already chosen her baby's name. When people ask she says very directly 'We are naming her Grace Elizabeth.' She makes it pretty clear that she isn't looking for an opinion. (Not that that would stop everybody.)

I like unique names, so I know that our family (read: DH's father) is going to have a field day with whatever we name our future children. I don't want to hear it, though--my husband is named Howie. As far as I'm concerned, you can't criticize *anyone* after naming your own son Howie.

My favorite name for a girl is Famke. (Fahm-kuh) I also love M'lain/Malain. Can't wait to hear unsolicited opinions on those names.

Our last name begins with 'O' (let's pretend it's O'Malley) so my sister desperately wants us to name a son 'Sonnovan' as in 'Son-of-an-O'Malley.' The sick part of me thinks it's almost funny enough to do it.

Huge ditto on that! I have a super italian last name, which I will loose when we get married. So to keep something italian, I would like an italian first name for my kids. And im not talking something like Angela or Anthony, I mean super italian like Lucianna or Giovanni. LOL. So I know my FIL (who named his son, my SO, Tom! Like could you get more boring? ) will have a field day with any name I come up with!

 

[tlh]

Yeah, my bro and his wife had the names picked out, and we torn between Eliza or Elizabeth if it were a girl. They wanted to call her Ellie. Some people didn''t like it, but they weren''t himming and hawing. It was either going to be Eliza or Elizabeth. It was unbelieveable how many people tried to make their oppinions count, as if they did.
I believe, don''t give them the room to criticize.

When DH and I were talking about having kids, we started thinking about baby names... we''re not even TRYING YET! This was before we even got married. It was one of those.. fun, daydreamy convos. We decided we loved the name Olivia for a girl. I jokingly told my mother. She flipped out, because some friend of theirs has a daughter named Olivia, and omg we COULDN"T NAME OUR BABY AFTER HER BABY!

After that convo, I decided I will NEVER TELL ANYONE and neither will my DH the names for our children until we are writing it on the Birth Certificate... or until we KNOW the sex. I don''t want approval. i don''t care if some friend of yours that you see 1x a year, and I NEVER SEE has a kid with the same name. Newsflash, I''m not naming my kid Apple... so I don''t expect it to be unique... bleh.

Also, I''m weird, and in a strange way, possessive of my possible baby names... but I guess I''m just very very anal! haha!

 

[princesss]

Date: 7/20/2009 8:21:31 PM
Author: 4ever

Date: 7/20/2009 12:59:53 PM
Author: princesss

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My favourite names are all characters from my favourite books. Henry, Clare/Claire, James (Jamie), Roger....

Is the book ''The time travelers wife''? It''s one of my favourates and as a result I think those two names are so romantic and beautiful.

Yup.

I love that book, and I''m really drawn towards traditional English names for boys, so Henry moved its way to the top of my list. Funny how that happens...

 

[rockpaperscissors67]

I''ve always shared the chosen names ahead of time because I really don''t care much what people think.

With my oldest, his dad and I were having an issue of which name to use first. We had a poll where I worked and let people vote.

With this baby, the older kids have had their chance to throw names in. We''ve already picked middle names (for my parents) so it''s just a matter of choosing first names. Actually, we have the girl name picked and the kids approved it, so if this is a girl, she''ll be Sarah Rae.

The boy name is creating a lot more confusion. The middle name will be Dennis, which is really hard to work with. I liked Nathanial, but SO nixed that. The current three up for consideration are Jacob, Levi and Gabriel. Last name is one syllable beginning and ending in S.

My favorite is Levi. I told my mom our choices so far and she asked when I converted to Judaism.

I told her that no matter what we pick, I''m sure that she will love it when it''s attached to a grandchild! Luckily, she agreed.

 

[anchor31]

We told our immediate families only. Personally, I don't really care whether people like it or not. My sister forgot herself and said one of the names (Jacob if we have a boy) sounds to her like a name you'd give a dog, but she later apologized and said it wasn't her place. Since I don't really care about other people's opinions on the matter, it didn't bother me at all.

 

[princesss]

Date: 7/21/2009 1:49:14 PM
Author: anchor31
We told our immediate families only. Personally, I don''t really care whether people like it or not. My sister forgot herself and said one of the names (Jacob is we have a boy) sounds to her like a name you''d give a dog, but she later apologized and said it wasn''t her place. Since I don''t really care about other people''s opinions on the matter, it didn''t bother me at all.

I know you don''t care what anybody thinks, but I''ve gotta tell you, Anchor...I adore that name!

 

[Haven]

Date: 7/21/2009 1:39:39 PM
Author: rockpaperscissors67
I''ve always shared the chosen names ahead of time because I really don''t care much what people think.

With my oldest, his dad and I were having an issue of which name to use first. We had a poll where I worked and let people vote.

With this baby, the older kids have had their chance to throw names in. We''ve already picked middle names (for my parents) so it''s just a matter of choosing first names. Actually, we have the girl name picked and the kids approved it, so if this is a girl, she''ll be Sarah Rae.

The boy name is creating a lot more confusion. The middle name will be Dennis, which is really hard to work with. I liked Nathanial, but SO nixed that. The current three up for consideration are Jacob, Levi and Gabriel. Last name is one syllable beginning and ending in S.

My favorite is Levi. I told my mom our choices so far and she asked when I converted to Judaism.

I told her that no matter what we pick, I''m sure that she will love it when it''s attached to a grandchild! Luckily, she agreed.

That''s funny, because when I read the names you like I thought "I bet they''re Jewish!" If you really want to convince her that you have converted, tell her you love Ezra, Zev, Elan, and Lior, too!

I had a professor who named his son Elias, it sounds like a name you guys might like, too. I really loved it.

 

[anchor31]

Date: 7/21/2009 1:51:31 PM
Author: princesss

Date: 7/21/2009 1:49:14 PM
Author: anchor31
We told our immediate families only. Personally, I don''t really care whether people like it or not. My sister forgot herself and said one of the names (Jacob is we have a boy) sounds to her like a name you''d give a dog, but she later apologized and said it wasn''t her place. Since I don''t really care about other people''s opinions on the matter, it didn''t bother me at all.

I know you don''t care what anybody thinks, but I''ve gotta tell you, Anchor...I adore that name!

Haha... Thanks.

 

[rockpaperscissors67]

Date: 7/21/2009 1:53:02 PM
Author: Haven

Date: 7/21/2009 1:39:39 PM
Author: rockpaperscissors67
I''ve always shared the chosen names ahead of time because I really don''t care much what people think.

With my oldest, his dad and I were having an issue of which name to use first. We had a poll where I worked and let people vote.

With this baby, the older kids have had their chance to throw names in. We''ve already picked middle names (for my parents) so it''s just a matter of choosing first names. Actually, we have the girl name picked and the kids approved it, so if this is a girl, she''ll be Sarah Rae.

The boy name is creating a lot more confusion. The middle name will be Dennis, which is really hard to work with. I liked Nathanial, but SO nixed that. The current three up for consideration are Jacob, Levi and Gabriel. Last name is one syllable beginning and ending in S.

My favorite is Levi. I told my mom our choices so far and she asked when I converted to Judaism.

I told her that no matter what we pick, I''m sure that she will love it when it''s attached to a grandchild! Luckily, she agreed.

That''s funny, because when I read the names you like I thought ''I bet they''re Jewish!'' If you really want to convince her that you have converted, tell her you love Ezra, Zev, Elan, and Lior, too!

I had a professor who named his son Elias, it sounds like a name you guys might like, too. I really loved it.

LOL! I do like those names! I love old fashioned names, so it figures that Hebrew names would figure prominently. The funniest part of it all is that I''m NOT Christian, but I tend to prefer Biblical names. I can''t figure that one out.

I have: Phillip, Hannah, Austin, Kathryn and William. Yeah...totally old fashioned names.

The kids want Jacob, but it''s the #1 boy name and I am afraid it will be too closely associated with Twilight.

Then again, Levi is associated with Sarah Palin. Bleh.

 

[AmberWaves]

I loved Jack, and we were going to name our boy Jack (due in November)- until my cousin decided to name one of her twins JACOB, with the nickname JACK. Not only could we not use Jack since she decided the usual "Jake" wasn't going to cut it, but we couldn't even use Oliver (our second choice) because she named her DOG that. It is THIS reason alone we called "dibs" on our names (once we came up with more). That cousin will have four babies born this year, as well as her SIL (my other cousin) having one as well. So with our six babies being born this year, we really felt that we needed to be SURE that we could have the names we wanted. We're a very close family who lives within blocks of each other, so having children born the same year and named the same thing is not a good thing. I should mention the cousin with the four pack of babies born this year also previously "stole" the other pregnant cousin's boy name with another of their synced pregnancies- so we're both kind of wary of her.

Luckily our baby is a girl, and that name has been picked for years so it was widely known amongst family!

 

[tlh]

anchor that reminds me!!!
My brother''s name for a boy , when and if they have one, is TOBY.

Beautiful name.... but it was the name of our first dog. Not mine and my DH''s...
like my bros and my childhood pet.... that passed when he was 21.

I couldn''t help myself... I did say, that was OUR DOG''s NAME! and he was like so.... he was a good dog. I just wonder If it will be like Indiana Jones.

 

[Pandora II]

My cousin named his daughter Matilda - Tilly for short - and when my uncle rang to say that the baby had been born and what they''d called her, the first words out of my mouth were:

Oh lovely, we used to have a goat called Matilda!

Ooops, and I actually LOVE the name Matilda - if DH''s surname hadn''t started with an M, it would have been on my short shortlist for sure.

 

[Blenheim]

The funny thing is that I ended up being one of those people with an opinion today. My supervisor was complaining that someone else at work just "stole" one of his baby names (and his wife is not pregnant, by the way). The name? Aidan. And their girl''s name is Bella. With Aidan at #16 and Isabella at #2 (and I''m sure some of the Isabellas will be nicknamed Bella), I tried to point out as gently as possible that they may want to check name popularity if they''d be bothered by encountering a lot of other Aidans and Bellas. They are nice names otherwise though! It turned out that he had no idea they were popular.

 

[natalina]

A couple funny things have happened to us so far with the names we are considering:

1- I asked my parents what they thought of one of the names, and my dad said he HATED it. Said it sounds like "a crotchety old school marm that would rap your knuckles with a ruler.

" I was like, "Gee dad- tell me how you really feel!" Anyhoo, so a few days ago I told my mom to let my dad know he better start warming up to it, because it is slowly creeping up to our favorite (we think). Well she called back and told me that she told him that, and he said, "Why would I need to warm up to it? I think it''s a nice name." He didn''t even remember ever saying the other comment! Glad we hadn''t decided to let his feedback influence us!

2- One of the girls I work with asked what our top choices are, and when I told her one of them, she said "That''s OUR name!" really defensively. I was like, "Ummm, OUR name? What are you talking about?" And then she says that she and her husband have already chosen that name for IF they ever decide to have another baby and IF it is a girl! Yeah okay, you''re not even TTC, let alone pregnant with a girl, and I don''t ever even see you outside of work maybe one day a week. Meanwhile our little girl is due in about 2 1/2 months. Whatever- wouldn''t bother me in the least if we both had a little girl with the same name...

I have learned to be a little more vague when answering questions IRL re: the baby''s name. Not because I care what people think, but because I want to avoid these awkward situations. Now as for you PS girls- I welcome ALL feedback and suggestions!!!!

 

[packrat]

Ohh so what are your name picks then??

 

[natalina]

I thought someone might ask that! I won''t say which names earned the comments, but here are our top 4, in no specific order:

Emerson Lake B___ (someone told us about the old band with similar name, but we had never heard of them so not really too concerned)
Tessa Lake B____
Ellison Lake B____
Avery Lake B____

We are pretty settled on Lake as the middle name. We have had SUCH mixed reviews on it that we don''t even share it with people IRL anymore. It''s special to DH and I for some different reasons, and we love the way it sounds. Last name is 2 syllables and pretty much rhymes with Connor.

And I really meant what i said about welcoming PS feedback!

 

[sweet pea]

This is kinda tough... I like to share my ideas, and kinda like Tacori I feel the need to "claim" names so other preggos in my life don''t think I''m copying them just in case they came up with the same name.
However,
peoople have no filters when it comes to baby names!!! I even told a client the other day how I couldn''t believe how people actually will tell you they don''t like your baby names, and then after I told her the ones we were considering she said she didn''t like them!!!!! I just had to laugh


rockpaperscissors I don''t know if this is any better in your book, but I associate Levi with Matthew McConaughey

(I like it)

 

[packrat]

Hm..ok..here''s what *I* think you should name her..

hahaha just kidden-had to do it!

I love Emerson and Ellison. Would you call her Emmy or Ellie or go by her actual name? Would it bother you for someone to give her a nickname? I like the other 2 names as well..they''re all pretty and feminine. Lake as a middle name, I find very unique and pretty, and it has special meaning for you guys, so that''s important!

 

[natalina]

Packrat- We will definitely call her Emmie/Ellie if we choose one of those names. We actually really want a name that has a nickname. That''s one of the things that holds us back from Avery and Tessa.

 

[doodle]

If it were a name that were really special to me, and I feared the person asking may be the type to steal, I wouldn''t share it, but otherwise, I don''t think I''d mind. I''m pretty stubborn, so anyone who has known me longer than five minutes knows not to bother trying to sway my opinion, haha! As for commenting on names others have chosen, I''ve been guilty of that ONCE, but in my defense, the child''s initials would''ve been "ASS" had I not said something, and since the parents hadn''t even thought about initials, they were extremely grateful that I pointed that out, switched the order of the first and middle name, and went about their merry lives, haha.

Haven, if you like Sonnovan, GO FOR IT!

I have a friend whose last name is Hall--since they never could agree on a middle name, they decided to actually stick with what started off as a recurring joke between her and her husband. The baby''s middle name is Arcade!

 

[waxing lyrical]

Sabine was on my short list this time. It''s such a pretty name. Everyone knew the names we had chosen months before birth. Never received any negative comments or feedback. I love my kids'' names.