How much / little did you ponder/ agonise over names?

[portabello]

Did you find it easy to choose a name for your DC or did you struggle until the registar started wondering where you'd got to?

Did you take a relaxed approach - happy for your other half to make the decision for e.g. - or did you trawl through every baby name book on the market until you found your perfect names?

Just wondering how everyone reached their decisions!

I just knew what names I wanted and always have ever since I was a little girl. I even cried when my sister was born because I wanted a brother called Daniel and she ended up with Danielle as a middle name. My other half did try to sway me but had no chance!

I had no idea what name to choose and if we had a boy instead of a girl he may well have still been nameless (I really struggled with finding boys names I liked).
I read loads of name books and compliled a shortlist which I'd look at every so often and keep changing my mind.
In the end we went with the name from the shortlist DH liked best because I was dithering so much.
BTW we settled on Matilda in the end but we call her Tilly.

p.s. middle name was Ann after her 2 grandmas

Throughout my pregnancy and still am feeling unsure. My DD is 6 weeks now!!!
Read loads of books and referred to loads of websites. DD had 3 different names up to being registered - how bad and dithering am I?

Boys, no. Had one name from before even ttc, and would still call a boy that now.

Girls was more of a problem, until she was born, and then we knew her name was right. We had a few on the waiting list, but none really grabbed us. We decided to wait and see what we got on the day and take it from there. Luckily our favourite name suited her.

ayjayjay, Matilda was on our list for a while. Lovely name. DH is Matthew, so he vetoed it as being too similar. I still say she could have been a Tilly.

I really struggled and dithered, particularly with girls' names. Did have names I loved when I was younger, but I'm not 16 anymore and had long gone off calling my children Waterfall or Serenade! Thank goodness.... We had girl and boy first and middle names decided at the end, but only after lots of indecision. I ended up calling DS a name I'd loved for a long time but blacklisted till a the last minute because it's so popular now.

Loads of books, websites. It was really important to me. My name v important to me.

DD was 12 days early, by then we had a shortlist of about 30-40 names, when she was 3 days old we managed to sit down and got it down to five including a totally new one inspired by a midwife.

Next day, hid the list as dp's parents visiting, and didn't want to know what they though! Day after; dp came to hospital in morning and we very shyly told each other that we'd fallen in love with one of the names. Luckily we'd both gone for the same name!

I would probably have won the day I think, esp. as dp was getting the surname! but I'm glad it was mutual.

DH and I looked at books, made lists but didn't spend very long. He said what about X? I said okay and that was that.

So far...10 years...but suppose I need to get pregnant first haha

We called my DS2 'baby bear' for weeks.. Then i, my DS1, my mum, best friend ,XP and his 2 daughters had a tea party, drew up a shortlist and voted.. it was fun!

About 5 minutes.

Sorry, just reread the OP. It took us about 5 minutes each time. We more or less decided on the 1st name we both liked.It's not rocket science after all.
They also all have middle names, chosen after family members, chosen from both sides so no one felt left out.

DD we had a shortlist of 3 names we had agreed on through a process of elimination. She got one of those instantly. Within minutes of her brth we turned to each other and both said the same name.

DS1 got the only boys name we could both agree on. Not a favourite of either but at least we agreed. Of course I now love it because I love him.

DS2 didn't have a name for 5 days. We had agreed on just one boys name, but when he appeared it just didn't suit him. So that was us stumped! In the end the mw (we were in hopsital awhile as baby was ill) suggested a name. I thought um yes that's nice. I told DH when he came in to visit he said yes that's good and so that was it! The mw named him! LOL

I had one name (a boy's name) in mind (first name and 2 middle names). Had wanted the fist name all my life. DH didn't know. We found out sex at 20 week scan, and fortunately baby was a DS. On way home I said "So that'll be XXX YYY ZZZ" and DH agreed (v traditional names, inc PIL's). A few weeks later we tried to agree on girl's names just in case, and git nowhere. DS has the name XXX YYY ZZZ.

DH and I are horribly indecisive usually. But with baby names we decided on a girl and boy's name for our first at 5 weeks over a pub lunch in 5 mins and stuck to the boy's name. And probably less time for DS2 as it was a name we liked during our first 5min discussion over boys names! Kinda weird to be so quick and decisive - but its like finding the house you like - it was just what instinctively felt right and we both knew immediately.

I agonized. DH did not. For DD1, I went over and over baby name books, internet, etc & did a whole list of names. DH refused to look until we knew if it was a girl or boy. Then he vetoed everything I suggested. Finally I tried an old favourite of mine that I thought he'd never go for--and he went for it!! Really suits DD1.

Same with DD2, only he just wouldn't agree to anything. In the end I told him that if he couldn't come up with something we both liked, I would name her Margaret (I loved, he hated) and about 2 seconds later he suggested her name and that was that. Why he couldn't have done it weeks ago!!

Boy's name was easy and decided before we even conceived. Girl's name has been agonizing and we haven't even reached a decision yet. We have quite different tastes so it's hard finding a name we both like and even then I am not sure which is my favourite. We have managed to get to a shortlist now though but I still keep looking, just in case! I'm 37 weeks.

DH and I mulled over a shortlist for a few months before DD was born. The instant she was born we both knew which name was hers.

DC2 now cooking and we're nowhere near a shortlist. This one may be 'baby' for a few weeks after arrival! Particularly if a boy, I just don't like any boys names at all...

Before I was pg with DD DH and I were talking about names and I said a girls name that I particularly liked. When I fell pregnant and we found out we were having a girl DH decided that the name I had suggested was the name he wanted to use. I couldn't drag him away from it - not that I wanted to - I love the name! DD has that name.

Ages before this pregnancy, before ttc even, I did the same and mentioned another girls name I liked "should we ever have another." Since getting pregnant again DH has, again, decided that that is the name he wants to use. I couldn't change my mind even if I wanted to.

Boys names are more difficult for us. Until the 20 week scan we argued and argued about boys names. Fortunately we're having another little girl so by March we will have 2 DDs whose names were chosen before each of them were even conceived!

Girl's name was easy as we have both loved it for years. Luckily we had a DD. Eventually there was a name for a DS but it took tonnes of discussion.

Very little! My wife had already had a good think about names before each of our three, and we kinda discussed them over various meals, she just listed them and I said whether I liked them or not.

It was a bit like:

"Jack?"
"Na"
"William?"
"Yeah that's OK"
"Harvey?"
"Na"

"Tyler?"
"Yeah"
"Yeah I really like that one too."
"Tyler it is then."

Pretty simple really, I envisaged spending months writing out lists but it just kind of came to us. Actually with DS3 we asked DS1 and DS2 what names they liked, and they came up with Oscar, so we called him that :)

We looked at a few books and lists and spent the whole time finding names we'd never dream of calling a child. We were certain we were having a boy, because my husband's side of the family is all boys and really couldn't find any boys names we liked.

DD then arrived 13 weeks early. When we found she was a girl we looked at each other in shock (like we weren't shocked enough, having a baby at 27 weeks) and said 'How did we manage that?!'

However, we had a holiday booked for my maternity leave which we couldn't go on due to the premature birth, and luckily it wasn't to Bognor or similar, and so we called DD Skye (Which was a name we'd discussed and quite liked)! Middle name is my middle name and my late MIL's name.

Quite a bit - Looked through baby name books and thought about name meanings, had a look at both family trees for inspiration,checked the Office for National statistics site to make sure it was the right balance of well known but not too popular, searched MN for previous threads about the name, googled the chosen name with our surname and discussed it between ourselves at least once a day in the time between BFP to birth.

My friend told me recently that she didn't even know what her DD's name meant. I called her a wierdo

As we were surprised by DD's conception, we hadn't discussed names prior to me becoming pregnant. My only stipulation was that we didn't have a family name (DH called after his uncle, I am after my dad, grandad, great grandad........) or a religious name. DD was duly born and we had her name in place, when I went to register her the woman in the hospital kept asking me for more names. After four I said that was enough. DH was moderately surprised that I hadn't consulted him but agreed with what I had chosen.
MIL wanted to know why DD wasn't either called after her or had the name Mary somewhere in her line up.

We have 3 dc, none of whom had a name at 5 weeks. They all got names in the end but we realy struggled.