how do you choose a name?

[amandasegal]

where do you start?? i can't think of any name i want.. tell me how you chose your names, maybe i'll get inspired.. thanks

[MoonlightandRoses]

Congratulations!

We considered meanings first, and then did some research into the names associated with them until we found ones we liked the sound of.

Others go for popularity (or lack thereof) and others again look for something that sounds nice (irrespective of meaning/popularity).

[jollydiane]

As soon as you mention you a pregnant everyone seems to have an opinion on their favourite name. Pick a few names from the top 100 names, are their any that you like?

[Ruprekt]

Think of the sound of the name or if you have relatives with good names and if you could imagine calling a child that name forever!

I like short strong names for boys

Zac
Max
Josh
Finn
Theo
Sam
Tom

But longer frillier names for girls

Romilly
Clemency
Oriele
Annabel
Isabella
Madeleine

Any of these grab you?

[Doilooklikeatourist]

DS - just a name that we both liked , incidentally that was my grandmothers brothers name , I never knew him .
My married name is my Grandmas maiden name , so DS has the same Christian name , and surname !

DD , has my Mums name , I had 2 nephews with my Dads name as a middle name , so we wanted Mums name in there somewhere , if we had a girl .

We did ! and we liked the name .

Mum was Jennifer , always known as Jenny ,

DD is Jennifer Grace , after Mum and Grandma , always known as Jen

[Lilka]

Is there anyone among your family or close friends you would like to honour by naming your child after them? Usually a middle name. Can be a very meaningful thing to do. My grandaughter is named for me (her MN), and I really did feel honoured when I was told, it was a lovely thing to do

Or anything other special and important thing you want to commemorate...places, events etc?

Think how many syllables might sound nice with your surname. Any initials you want to avoid because it spells out something rude?

Any theme you want a name to have? Some people want their children to have biblical names, or 'nature' names or old fashioned names etc

Get a long list of names, a baby name book, read this forum and just look for names you really like the sound of for your baby

[breatheslowly]

We did this:

I went through a baby name book from A-Z to select names I liked. That resulted in about 30 girls names and fewer boys names. I then gave the list to DH who highlighted the ones of those he liked enough to be a first name and in a different colour the ones that he liked enough to be a middle name. He only liked 3 boys' names and two of those were related names so we really had the boy's name sorted. We then lived with the list of girls names for a while until one became a clear favourite and we had two to choose from for the middle name. When DD arrived I just looked at DH and said the full name I wanted and he had no desire to argue with me having seen me give birth.

[AllSWornOut]

All of the above are great suggestions - we're currently going through it in preparation for DC 2 and I'm grateful for the suggestions.

As a slightly tongue in cheek suggestion just mention you're expecting and everyone and his dog will weigh in with name suggestions, which will give you some additional ideas

[NumberOneNumpty]

I thought about characters in books and films who I admired. I also had a notebook that I'd been writing names I liked in whenever I came across them since about the age of 15, so I dug that out and had a read of it. And I had the obligatory flick through a baby names book. In the end DS was named after a character in one of my favourite books that represents hope (I also like how the name sounds).

[sailinggirlie]

We are still deciding... But we looked at family names and both wrote down any names we liked with the reasons. Then we knocked off any we both really disliked - as long as we had a good reason. Added names we liked generally and why. We left it, came back to it, continued to add and ditch. When we had a manageable number (6 girls, 4 boys) we checked out popularity and ditched any in the top 30. That gave us 4 girls, 3 boys. Finally, I checked if there were any 'horrid' characters I knew of for the ones hubby had chosen (mine were mostly from novels with one exception - family name). Now we've a shortlist and we will see when the baby arrives.

For us, the hardest thing was the surname!

[TremoloGreen]

We both have olde English surnames, so we decided to pick a classic English name to go with them. We didn't want anything too popular, so we looked at the baby names list for England & Wales the year before and made a shortlist of names outside the top 50.

look here for the lists

After discounting any that sounded weird with our surnames or gave unfortunate initial combinations, we said them out loud again and again, imagined shouting them in Sainsburys and were left with two boys and two girls names. We also looked up the meanings of them and eventually settled on the names we've chosen.

[catgirl1976]

I had lots of lists


Whilst drugged out of my head in the recovery suite after giving birth, DH convinced me to allow him to give DS the name of his beloved and deceased family dog

We then compounded things by giving him the middle name 'Boris' which had been the nickname for the bump during my pregnancy

I have a savings account for the therpay

[dreamingofsun]

not commonly used, but pronouncable, spellable and commonly known. no close friends using it; or relatives it was likely to cause policitical issues with. husband's nationality. we both liked it (this was the hardest)

[DoingItForMyself]

Catgirl, bless him!

[aufaniae]

For DS, DP came up with a list, comprising off the wall names from films & books he likes, the manager of his football team and some Scottish names (he's Scottish). He left it to me to work out which was which though!

I meant to come up with my own list, but I read and rejected all the names in 8 baby names books. On reflection I decided I liked one of them, which I'd picked out (but then rejected for a silly reason in retrospect!) which was also on DP's list. I love the name now and couldn't imagine DS being anything else.

Now DD is due in 3 days (eek!). DP has come up with a (silly) made up name he likes and lots of tbh sensible suggestions. None are "the one" for me though. DS's name is Celtic so I'd like DD to have a Celtic name too ideally. Have read and rejected names in only 4 baby names books so far though so maybe there's hope yet! ...

In answer to your OP, I'd say you should:

• think about whether you're happy with a popular or more unusual names (or you may not mind either way!)
  

• consider whether you want to honour any family members, either with first or middle names and also look up derivatives of their names
  

• consider whether you want to reflect any particular heritage - yours or DP's - in the names
  

• perhaps have a go at starting at the meanings of names. When's your baby due? I had a think about Spring names for a while. (e.g. Persephone, Olwen, Freya, Maia, Pascale) Also as it's been snowing here recently I had a think about snow names (e.g. Eira is a Welsh name meaning snow).
  

• who are your favourite authors / musicians? I've considered Etta as I think it'a lovely name, but also would be great to play DD Etta Fitzgerald's music.
  

• start a mumsnet thread, which you have :)

[aufaniae]

What kinds of names do you / don't you like? Perhaps we can help by coming up with some suggestions? I find it much easier to suggest names for other people's babies than my own

[AmberSocks]

i have a Max,a George,a Tabitha and an Ivor.

i like Posie or Matilda for a girl,not sure abut boys,i like Sebastian.

[PrunellaDeVille]

trawling through baby name blogs
i particularly liked this one
lists of names are categorised to easily find ones that may match your requirements.
for instance i was after something old fashioned but mildly quirky and wasn't concerned with meanings so i loved the 'funky clunky' list

[shufflehopstep]

I was looking for family names so looked to grandparents and great grandparents for inspiration. However, when DD was born, the name we chose was of a singer that DH saw on telly when I was pregnant. It's quite an unusual name but very traditional. I wasn't keen at first but DH was really taken with it and it grew on me When she was born, she was in NICU for 24 hours so the meaning ended up being quite apt as it means battle and she battled her way into the world.

[Ponders]

nurses were responsible for our first two!

For DD1 we could not agree - I liked frilly names & he liked staid sensible 1960s sort of names

I was having ante-natal tests done at 41 weeks & the nurse suggested Jessica; when it was decided the same day to do a CS that's what she got.

For DD2 we had sort-of decided on Frances for a girl & Samuel for a boy. It ended up being another CS, but under GA, & when I was being wheeled down the paed nurse asked what we'd decided on because she didn't like putting "Baby Surname" on the wrist band, so I told her.

DH saw DD2 before I woke up, & there was the name on the wristband, so he went off & rang everybody thinking I'd taken an executive decision She likes it & it suits her so that's ok.

[jellybeans]

I wanted unusual so nothing top 20

I wanted short sharp strong names for boys

I wanted names that sounded good together

[MERLYPUSS]

I didn't care if the name was 'dead common' (popular) acc to my sis. I wanted something that, if shortened, wasn't offensive to me. Also had no undiesirable connections to next door's dog or the nitty kid at school. I prefer old timeless names. It was only once we had registered the boys I found out one of their names means twin and the other he who laughs.

[anibell]

OOOOOO We had soooo many names for girls for both our children, boys however where somewhat or a danger zone. Hubby had names picked out like Mercutio and Sergio!! (big nope) ... my mother finally picked our daughters name, Madelyn lily (after her deceased mother and my grandma) - though spelt differently. My sons was picked because my hubby was in iraq at the time i found out the sex. He was made up to be having a boy and said he had discussed with the lads a strong boys name. They picked Lucas ... and I loved it :) There are just too many beautiful names about xx

[thehogopogo]

im in exactly the same pickle, took two weeks after 'baby surname' was born for us to decide on a name for her. So im starting early this time 32 weeks early. For us, we have to consider our families accent- some really beautiful dainty names can sound very dull and clanky with the wrong accent.

Try nameberry.com- beware! its vast...

[KittenOfDoom]

"I've considered Etta as I think it'a lovely name, but also would be great to play DD Etta Fitzgerald's music"

Ella.
It's Ella Fitgerald.

Did you mean Etta James?

[KittenOfDoom]

Fitzgerald. (didn't hit the z hard enough)