When you picked your name, did it just feel right?

Owen's nice, classic and not overly popular.

Have named three children. With the first two I dithered and we were about to give them names we liked well enough but that didn't feel 'right'. Then in each case 'the' name came to us and still perfect 15 and 12 years on. Our third was named from 8 weeks of pregnancy and has always been 'the' name. Still perfect. Interestingly, neither dc2's nor dc3's name were contenders for the previous child.

I have an Owen. I still love it after nearly 7 years. It suits my kid perfectly.

A few points in favour:

No nasty stereotypes associated with it - you won't get crowds of MNetters throwing their hands up and shrieking "the horror, the horror!!'

Works for a little boy and a grown man

Easy to spell, read and pronounce.

Timeless enough to be known/accepted by everyone, but not overused and everywhere. DS is the only one in his class.

You have great taste, OP

We agreed on girls names both times and they were always going to be that name (although we had a few backups for one and a second choice for my second daughter that I sometimes feel sad we won't get to use and also it's more unusual like #1 name) but we didn't know sex of baby and we didn't share the names before birth.
First time round hubby told me at 32 weeks he didn't like Fergus anymore and wanted Felix I said no way. Second time we had Otis for a boy but baby was a girl.

It sounds like you have found your name! Owen is lovely.
Our first DS we took ages to decide on his name but it instantly felt right when he was born and I never once questioned it. 4 years on and I couldn't imagine him being anything else.
DS2 is only 7 weeks old and I think about name every day. It has never felt right. We couldn't agree on a name and in the end decided on one 3 days before he was born but its not my naming style really.
I suggested changing it but my DH looked so disappointed and there isn't another name we can agree on anyway. It does really bother me though and I'm hoping that feeling fades.
I'm weirdly name obsessed though so it was always going to be tricky. If we are lucky enough to have a DC3 I will approach things very differently!

@LittleBoyJuly2020 :) I’ve often said that it doesn’t feel so much like we pick a name for a baby, it’s more like they already have one, you just have to chance upon it. More like ‘remembering’ something that’s been on the tip of your tongue for a long time just out of reach than you ‘deciding’ it, if that makes sense. It’s the most accurate way to describe how I felt for each one at any rate. Good luck with everything 🥰

My first (a boy) I was going through reams and reams of names and OH vetoed every single one. About a month before due date I suggested a name, he said yes and that was it, it felt right and we were done.

Second (another boy) I loved the name Sebastien right from the start, and literally no one else liked it. I refused to budge and eventually everyone came around. As soon as he was born everyone was talking to him calling him Sebastien and I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I thought I’d get used to it since I’d been the one to push so hard but after a week I just blurted out (in tears for some reason) it wasn’t his name and we had to think of something else! My MIL said the same thing had happened with her son, she’d had a name in mind the whole time she was pregnant but changed her mind when he was born. The name she’d wanted but didn’t use was it for me. The second she said it I knew it was my boys name and that was that.

My third (a girl but didn’t know when expecting) we couldn’t settle on a name for a boy or a girl for love nor money. One evening I went to bed at around 7 months pregnant and as I closed my eyes a name popped into my head, it was a girls name, it was beautiful and I knew that was exactly WHO was in my tummy. I was right :)

My fourth, I fell in love with name after name and then went off them all again really quickly. A name kept cropping up, almost like signs and I thought if I said it out loud it would take away how I felt about it. Odd because I’m not superstitious or anything at all. I didn’t tell anyone, not even my OH. When she was born I knew it was the right name and OH loved it as soon as I said it, and it’s absolutely her name :)

We’re now expecting our fifth and final. I’ve got two girls names I like, but nothing for a boy yet. Nothing feels quite ‘right’ yet but I’ve learned over time that it will come when it comes x

I think Owen is lovely 😊

Owen's on my list as a Welsh name which my English DH might just agree to, so yes, I like it

I think you just get a strong feeling. Eira is my favourite name for a girl. I suspect DH won't agree to it, but whenever I see it written down, or see someone say they have one I remember why I love it so much and it's a strong feeling of "that's the name I want to use".

Do you have a middle name for Owen OP?

Love the name Owen.

Didn't know what we were having. We had chosen a girl's name quite early in pregnancy, but could not agree on a boy's. Fortunately we had a girl.

DH was the one who suggested the girl's name, so was 100%. I was about 80% on it, especially when DM told me directly that she didn't like the name. Initially we weren't going to share our name choices, but I couldn't keep it a secret. Fortunately it grew on her within the week, and she loved it too.

The second I was told baby was a girl. That was that. There was no other name for her.

Oops I meant midwives!

Meh kinda... I was 95% sure about the name we picked. When I was in labour the nurses asked what name we had picked so I told them and from then on they kept referring to DD by that name but it felt weird because I hadn’t been doing that myself. Anyway when she was born she 100% suited her name so I was finally settled on it.

Owen is a lovely name ❤️

We thought my first was a boy and had his name from the start, had a girls name just in case but it was only a week before that we considered we might have to use it and did we like it!

Second we found out he was he and he had the original boys name that we loved.
Just had no 3, he’s 4 months and still call him the baby, his proper name is still slow to come to me!

Tillygetsit so sorry for your loss

My first 2 dcs were with exh. I chose ds name fairly early on and he wasnt sure but agreed on way to hospital. Dd1's name was a compromise but it gorgeous and it really suits her. DD2, second husband, we went backwards and forwards and I probably drove MN mad but we got there in the end and it suits the chubby little love! Had DD2 last month but sadly he didnt live very long.
His name was beautiful and so was he.

We really struggled. We didn’t know the sex either so had to have boys and girls names. We had 2 girls names and when she was born one of them suited her. We still dithered but people were asking what she was called so we just went with the one that felt most right.
Couple of years later now and I love her name and suits her so well.
Dread naming this one though.

DH and I agreed on a girl name almost immediately. It was too good to be true, as we found out soon after that we were having a boy.

Boy names are hard. We looked at the top 1000 names and found next to nothing that we both liked, so looked at the top 2000. We're 99% sure it's the one now, but it's still not as strong a contender as the girl name was!

Owen is very sweet. We both liked it, but it sounds horrendous with our surname.

I like Owen.

We had talked about lots of names for a boy or girl but hadn’t found anything we liked. We went to the 20 week scan and found out he was a boy. As we left the hospital I said ‘how about ?’ Don’t know where it came from. And he said ‘yes’. We agreed not to tell anyone, and wait and see how we felt once he was born. So we carried on calling him the ‘bump’ name we’d been using. Then when he was born and the midwife was filling in the red book she asked if he had a name, we both just answered . She wrote it in and we both looked at each other and shrugged and that was that.

Fab name, love it!!

Yes.

And yes

I really like Owen, good choice.

We didn't really struggle with names for any of our boys, but we knew their names were right when we thought of them.

Ah we where the same !

Didn’t like any names, we even had a competition going to see whoever won could name the baby!

2 days before induce day, partner sat down (again for the 100th time) and looked at names we narrowed it down to two names then flipped a coin.

There’s an app called Kinder we used .. if you ain’t heard of it have a look! (Again didn’t help us haha) but others have used it and found ‘the one’

Good luck ! Xx