Would what you expect your baby to look like affect what name you chose?

[FlorenceInTheLatrine]

e.g. If it was almost definitely going to have black hair, or be pale and freckly, or have dark skin?

Yes.We were down to Fenella or Felicity for DD2. I had envisioned Fenella for my daughter if she had dark hair like me.She has blonde hair like DH. Felicity Faith it was!

My DD has red hair so when we realised her initials spelt R.E.D. it felt like the right name! She's now 9 & likes having those initials

Yes. When dd2 was born DP did a total u turn on Juliet because dd was so v dark. Said it didn't suit her and picked a name he'd previously vetoed!

DD was always going to be very fair and blonde/red headed so we chose a middle name which reflected that. Not the only reason for the name, but it fitted nicely.

Yes, DH was keen on Lucy but could only picture a blonde Lucy and dd was dark so we called her Rosa instead

DS2 ... now 13, we changed our mind in the delivery suite as soon as we looked at him, nothing as concrete as hair or skin colour just who he was. I've never regretted it

No. My dh is Mediterranean and had olive skin and dark hair/eyes. My family is Scandinavian and ALL blonde/blue eyed. Ds is named after my deceased brother and dd's name is from dh's home country because we liked the name (although we didn't like the spelling so changed that). We would have chosen those names regardless. As it happens the dcs have their dads colouring.

When pg i adored Ebony but OH insisted she HAD to have dark hair and olive skin like him and she is very pale, blonde and blue eyed...although i had a lady on my team at work who's daughter is ebony, although pale, red haired and freckly...

Funny someone above thought Fenella or Felicity for a dark haired girl i would choose that for paler skin, blond hair .....

DD1 had two possible names chosen, DH picked the one she looked like. DD2 was always going to be an Eden, and she really looked like one!

DS would have been Lara Faith, no other options, or Jacob Alexander. He's Joel Dylan. Didn't look like a Jacob at all!

We had two nanes picked out for dd, Cara and Rebecca. Cara was number 2. When she was born she looked nothing like a Cara though, so it was on to number 2! :)

I felt I could only pick names that suited a dark-haired girl. Both DP and I are dark-haired. DD (12mo) is strawberry blonde, though she had black hair at birth!

Nappies-To clarify, Fennella =dark haired and Felicity = Light hair. She was light haired so she was called Felicity.[mmm]

Me and my husband have never really understood this idea. We find out the sex early 16 weeks usually and from then on refer to the bump by its name. By the time our children a born the mannerisms they had in utero just become who they are and apart of the name. We never look at them and ask if they look like the name as we feel like it already fits their character.

I love that the moment we hold them we say hello .... Straight away.

This obvious.y doesn't work for everyone and wouldn't work if you didn't know the sex but my DH finds it really bonding and so do our children. Currently my DD and DS keep asking me does .... Like ice cream, biscuit, etc!!!

Yes, because it's not just a matter of whether a name suits a baby in your individual opinion. Some names have meanings that specify a particular type of physical appearance. To take one obvious example, the Irish name Fionn, often anglicised as 'Finn', means fair- or light-haired, so it would seem a bit odd to me to call a dark-haired baby by that name. Or Ruaidhrí and its variants mean 'red-haired'.

I have a friend who had an unplanned pregnancy when young with very little support, who felt pressured by her nasty parents into naming the baby immediately after the birth when she was in meltdown, and she plumped for the first name that seemed acceptable - Fionn. Lovely name, but she now often says she feels idiotic for giving that name to a dark-haired, dark-skinned baby, in Ireland, where everyone knows the meaning of the name.