Let the young ones choose?!

I love Matilda and Rosalind. I can see how tempting it would be to let the little ones choose, but I think I'd go for Sophie as a middle name.

disappointed ds3 wasn't called 'Stick' as he had insisted.

brilliant.

What would I do?

Easy. I'd say 'We're not calling her Sophie'. They'll be upset for 5 mins and the promptly forget all about it.

Ignore them, DD1 (5) tried to convince me to call baby to be Rosie, I politely thanked her but said no thanks and bought her a teddy to name Rosie instead. Worked well.

Don't call her a name you haven't chosen. When your kids have grown up, they certainly won't be wanting you to name their babies.

Ds1 was surprised and disappointed ds3 wasn't called 'Stick' as he had insisted. He got over his disappointment.

I wouldn't let such young children have the responsibility of naming an actual child. And they won't remember.

(Although Sophie is fine)

My DH's first and middle names were chosen by his brothers aged 4 and 7. No way would I do that to one of my DC (they are both horrible names).

Haha fast, my ds (3) has ideas about our new baby's name too - he wanted Camper Van for a boy and Baby for a girl!

My favourite story (and sorry if the family are on here) is the baby girl whose older sibling chose "Mr Chocolate" as her name. They didn't go with it .

Sophie would be a lovely middle name if you would like the older two involved. But don't feel bad if you don't want to use it in any way. Your choices are lovely.

Use one of the names you and your partner chose. The children might have suggested a sensible name, but doesn't mean you have to use it.

I'd go with the names you picked not your other children. They can call their own children/pets/toys names they like. I've 3 kids and although might have had a bit of a conversation with the older ones what their baby sister might be called, I didn't really take their suggestions under my notice unless I liked them myself, the same with my mum, mil etc.

My siblings and I renamed our littlest sister as we thought our parent's choice was crap. It was tbh but that's not really the point as your choices sound lovely. We were older though (9,8 and 4) so much more persistent and less likely to forget than your little ones.

It has caused a few issues over her lifetime as everyone calls her this other name that we chose (which is quite a normal name) but it isn't even her middle name so she has to explain it over and over. Bit messy!

I'd go with your own choice but be clear from the start that they should call her x not y. Maybe get a toy called Sophie now so that that name is used up?

I agree to use as middle name. It's good to have a story and special meaning behind a middle name. My DS wanted to name DD when he was 2. 6 years on he can't even remember and I've convinced him he helped chose her actual name!

My 5 yo named our son in similar circumstances. We had a couple of boys names on our shortlist (and girls, since we didn't know what we were having). All the way along, DD wanted a baby brother called Alfie or George. We preferred Hamish or Gabriel.

When he arrived he didn't look like either of our shortlisted names. We spent a couple of days trying names on him and the best one was one of DD's choices. It suits him perfectly.

Wait until the baby's here. If you can live with Sophie in principle, you never know what will happen when she arrives.

God if I had done this my second would have been either called Pirate Yellow or Bernard.

I like Sophie though it is very pretty.

Nope, choose your own name. 2 and 3 year olds won't remember all this anyway.

My brother named me, he was 2.5. I've always loved that he named me, but then we got on well and he died young.

Annabel Sophie, Annie for short.

My eldest chose the name for her sister. It was the name of her friend, Dh liked it and it went well with her name, so we went with it. I chose her middle name.

I also asked my parents "If the baby's a girl, can we call her Joanne? " I have no idea where I got the name from (I was 4) but they liked it and went with it.

It didn't give me power over her, and I haven't reminded her about it, in fact she reminds me or tells other people that I chose her name,

Sophie goes well with Matilda or Rosalind (both of which are lovely btw!) as a middle name so that would be a good compromise. At 2 and 3 are they old enough to understand if you explain that mummy and daddy get to pick the first name?

Or, you never know, something else might distract them by the time the baby is born and they might forget about it!

When my ds3 was born the other 2 were 6 and 4. All through the pregnancy they called baby a particular name and it grew on us to the point of not being able to imagine him being anything else. It felt natural to carry on calling him that. It's your call obviously, how long left?

When I was a similar age my baby brother was born, we didn't know if he was going to be a boy or a girl but no problem, my older brother and I had a name that worked for either - Ethel. When he came home and was introduced as [regular boy name, definitely not Ethel], I remember being confused for a few minutes but I got over it! And we never once called him Ethel once he was here and named.

Long story short, don't call the baby Sophie if you prefer something else!