Did you tell anyone your baby name before the arrival?

You can't please all of the people all of the time, but of course with DC names it is a more sensitive subject. I have told close friends, parents and PIL of the name we've chosen for our DD1 (due November) but wouldn't tell my sister, for example, as I'd be worried she'd be negative. However, it's the only name DH and I can agree on - so she'd better look like her name!

I'd agree - don't. hide the lettering and maybe say a friend of DSS has a new sister called bess or something - or maybe just ignore completely - and PIL might not even mention it?

A friend was pg and told a group of friends their "boys name" and the girls name and everyone thought they were winding up with boys name and said it was dog's name and were really horrid. She was v. upset and still hasn't told me the name - even though her DD (Beatrice) is almost a year!

Where did you get lettering by the way?

No. However lovely the name, someone will always hate it, and will have no qualms about telling you. But people generally have the good manners to smile politely and say "how unusual!" after the event.

I told my mum that we we're probably going to go with Isabel when I was pg with DD. She would say "Isabel? What about Lucy or Amy?" her polite way of saying that she didn't like it!

We called her Isabel anyway as we loved it despite what anyone else said. My mum says that she loves the name now, although she still teases DD with Isabel necessary on a bicycle! Grr!

Orla and Bess are both classic and beautiful, IMHO.

Isabella is my favourite ever girl's name.

We did niot tell anyone, ebcause we did not know ourselves. Baby was not named for about 5 days. We had a shortlist, and a short-short list of two, but we wanted to see what felt right when we saw him. But people never believed us when we said we had not chosen yet, and we got all sorts of hurt enquiries from respective mothers, thinking we were holding out on them.

As it was, we chose something very old fashioned, and thoroughly out of favour now as we named him after one of our fathers. Everyone grimaces when we tell them. I rather like it myself.

We didn't because it invites comment - especially from my ILs - the sort you don't get once the baby is here.

Dp told work colleagues and his mother one of our choices for ds. His mother was appalled and his boss's wife rang him from her holiday to say how awful it was ! (It was Stanley to be known as Stan). It totally put dp off the name.

We then chose another name and only told my close friend and her dh the day before I had ds when we called around to their house and they asked. I was 99% sure that my friend would like it and that even if she didn't she would be too polite to say!

Only a very, very few close friends whose taste I thought was excellent.

Wanted a bit of a sounding board, just in case I hadn't realised the initials spelt SHIT or something, but only from people who had children with names I liked!

If a mother of a Chard'nay-Shiraz had told me she didn't like the name, I wouldn't have given a toss.

We had 2 boy and 2 girls names - e told people from when ever it was we decided on them (i guess 6/7 months) .... if i had known the sex of baby i would properly kept the name/s secret just so there was a little surprise at the end.

We told no one although we referred to bump by it's chosen name in private. Didn't want anyones opinion as we had our minds made up very early on with both.

well my son is called kenzie ,and my grandson is called oakley ,love there names and it deffo suits them

my dd and i both told everyone who asked what we was calling our ds ,we like then thats all the matters if others dont like my choice of names then its tuff ,we are not gonna lose sleep over it

We didn't tell anyone either. We thought at the time that people wouldn't be rude about the name once they were introduced to the baby, but we were wrong, my Mum and sister were still rude.

Personally, I'd take the letters down if it could cause problems. Best to let everyone find out at the same time.

Bess and Elizabeth are both lovely names btw.

With DD1 we told people her name beforehand and did get some negative comments, so I would wait.

With DD2 we didn't have a name, threw about some ideas and again everyone has an opinion.

I'd keep it secret for now!

Oh and btw, DD2 is Elizabeth too! :o

We had a shortlist of 3 which we told both sets of parents. MIL liked 1, was okay about 1 and called one chav. When DD was born we both said she wasn't a Natasha or a Katya so we went with the 3rd choice, which was unfortunately for MIL the 'chav' one

We didn't put our letters up til DD was born. Told nobody except my parents but wished I hadn't as they didn't like the name we chose! (Orla)
As I knew I was having a girl I wanted to keep something secret from people.

Yes we did once we were sure, we didn't care what people thought of them. We found it so hard to agree on names so we seized on the few we both liked.

No!

Tend to have a 'shortlist' of names, but is only when the baby arrives that you see whether the name really fits them or not.

Have done this each time with our DCs: nobody knows any of our thoughts and when they are born we both just know. HTH.

with ds1 we had a couple of names but hadn't decided on just one. we also didn't know what we were having so had boys and girls names. when ds1 arrived he just suited benjamin. i choose the name. when expecting ds2 we decided on james for a boy or amy for a girl, as dh was expected to be away for birth( he's forces). we told people our choices but we didn't find out the sex before hand again so it was a nice surprise.

I know! I thought it was about as safe as they came. I think she just finds it too long, my Dad always calls her Isabel, like the extra syllable is too much effort!

Yes I told everyone both times.

We don't go for whacky names anyway, so didn't expect any negative reactions. In any case you choose a name because you love it so if anyone else doesn't like it they can sod off!

Bess/elisabeth is beautiful anyway and I think it's sweet that your dss already uses it.