Changing baby name upon seeing baby...

Apparently I spent the first two weeks of my life being called 'Charlotte' before my mother had a change of heart and picked the most popular girls name of the era (which does not work with my surname at all - I wish she's stuck with her first option).

This happened with my brother... He was going to be Simon throughout pregnancy and when he was born my parents decided he didn't look like a Simon. They made the right choice, at 32, I don't think he looks like a Simon either.

I can see myself doing this! To safeguard, the bump will be called one thing (Peanut, Button, Muffin etc), and I will not mention any names we have picked, so I don't ruin them, or feel silly if I suddenly decide that no, the baby is definitely a Peter not a James.

Babies definitely look like a name I think, I'm just going to have to try and decide that they look like the names I want them too!

We have always had a name chosen before the baby was born. I really cannot understand a child not looking like a name, that would sort of mean that everyone of a particular name looks the same iykwim?
DD looked totally different to what I expected she would look like, but, she is still the name we had picked for her, and now 3 weeks later, she could not be any other name.

Both DS2+3 had different names before they were born, decided they did not suit those names when they were born though.

My brother was going to be Sam all the way up to birth, then my Mum decided that he didn't look like a Sam. So now he is Jack!

We named our son before he was born and it suits him perfectly

I did with my ds decided quite early on william James for a boy, when ds arrived very dramatically at 27 weeks this just wasn't him so I called him Jem after a character in Jamaica inn which I read to him while in scbu

My mum did this with my bro. He was Michael till the day he was born. She then changed it!

We didn't properly decide until they were born, but that was more to do with DP not having a proper conversation about it! Then pretty immediately when they were born we gave them a first name, my top name choice :), so we could announce the birth with a name. Middle names took a bit longer, DS2's was decided on the journey to register him.
Incidently my boys looked really different at birth, and DS1 was nothing like I'd imagined a baby of mine to look, so I'd definitely disagree that all babies look the same!

Yep, we hadn't fully decided on a name for our DS, we had a short list of 3 but one was definitely at the top of the list. Both myself and DH looked at him and said no he doesnt look like X and used one of the other names for him instead and it fits him perfectly.

I find it strange to name a baby that is not born yet. Superstitious ? maybe a little bit. We have a nickname for the baby although we have already agreed and decided, but will be using the nickname until baby is born.

Yes, with Ds2 - he spent three weeks without a name because we couldn't agree! He had been Christopher David, to be known as Kit, since about 7 months, my husband loved this and I liked it so we decided on it. Then I took one look at him as he was born and thought 'bugger that, you're not a Christopher in a million years!' I knew immediately that he was a Callum, and it took three weeks of some very difficult soul searching conversations between us to decide together that we would have that name. And it was a joint decision - ultimately dh knew that I loved Callum more than he loved Christopher or disliked Callum, and that for me it was a deal breaker. So because he loves us both we went with Callum.

*knew she was having a girl

We'd narrowed it down to three boy's names (and about ten girl's names, so good job he was a boy, really!), with the definite middle name of Frederick. When we saw him, all we could agree on was that he definitely wasn't any of the names on our shortlist. After talking about it for a day, we agreed that what he looked most like was a Freddie, so Frederick got bumped up to first name slot, and we chose a new middle name.

Apparently I was Kate all the way through my mum's pregnancy, then just before the end she changed her mind to something else. She 'confessed' last year that, 25 years later, she still thinks she made a mistake and should have stuck with Kate :)

You could always do what my mad auntie did, though, and choose one name all the way through the pregnancy (she new she was having a girl), tell it to everyone, then after baby is born change it to something else and absolutely insist that that was the name you'd planned on calling her all along, you'd never even mentioned the first name that you told everyone she was going to be called!

There is that old joke about waiting to see what they look ike - in which all babies would be called Winston or Yoda

Didn't change his name, and actually, it is still my favourite boys' name, but after DS1 was born I did have a bit of a wobble about the name but then thought I couldn't change it because I was so attached to it ...

I think there is an argument for remaining slightly ope-minded and giving yourself some time to confirm to yourself that it is the right name.

I think the wobble, for me, was linked with the birth not having gone at all to plan, and then him not looking at all like what I had imagined.

With all four of the boys they were going to be something else until they were born. With DD, DH picked her name (well a girl's name, we didn't know which she was until she arrived) early on and we stuck with it.

After my dd was born, we decided that she didn't look like any of the three names we had narrowed it down to. it took us a week to chose something that we liked.

I had my heart set on calling our little girl Honey, but as soon as i saw her she became Esme x

But ALL babies look pretty similar (and not particularly pretty when they're new born ), don't they? Does one really LOOK like a John or a Mike??!

Yes, with each of my three! DC2 & DC3 didn't look like their likely names when they arrived, so new names were made. DC2's name came to me in the middle of the first night - texted DH at home and said, "what about X for her instead?" and he replied and DC3's name took three days to be decided upon. Had thought DC1 was going to be a boy - she wasn't. So she definitely didn't look like the name we had planned for her :o

Yes

We had names picked for our twins. When we went in to hospital, DH suggested that we not tell anyone the names, just try them out for the few days we stayed in then make a final decision. Out chosen name suited one twin perfectly. The other name just didn't feel right despite two days of using it. So we changed it.

The new name is exactly right