Keep it simple or leave to fate! name newborn a family name or after the midwife!

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If I had done this rather than trawling through name books etc. we would have a Margaret or a Rebecca (midwife) and a John or Harry now. All very acceptable. How did people name in the past? I suspect mainly family names. My mum used name books in seventies and eighties...

Family names - well, loads to choose from but none that we particularly liked (although if we have a DS2 we're very tempted by my late grandfather's name, although with DS1 DH wasn't so keen for some reason).

Midwifes name - I have no idea !

Seriously. I gave birth abroad and was followed by my gyne until 6 months (Catherine - nice name), then had a monthly midwife appointment with different midwives (again, can't remember their names) and was delivered by a random student midwife who happened to come into the room with her supervisor to ask if they could "just have a look" (then it was battlestations, a baby's arriving!)

Wouldn't ever leave it to fate though.

Oh, and I don't think DS would have appreciated being called Catherine

My MW was called Bernadette. Sadly I didnt like the name enough but she was amazing and would have liked to have had a tribute to her.

DD has a diminutive of DMs name but just by coincidence as the name we love just happened to be a potential NN of DMs name.

My aunt was sort of named aftr the MW who delivered her: Gran asked the MW what her favourite girls name was and used that.

Given both of them are boys, Barbara or Nicola wouldn't really have gone down well.

And the family name (first born down both maternal and paternal first born boy) was the name of DH's late big brother, so a no no.

We used the name the midwife suggested in passing - we had thrown out our shortlist as none suited and she happened to mention 'I think he looks like a [DS1's name]', and he did, still does. She was quite surprised (in a nice way) when she came back on shift the next day.

Our MW had the same name as me! But we had a son :)

Dd would have been a lynda and ds andreas if we went midwife

Dd has my middle name as hers and ds has my favourite cousin/grandads name as a middle plus dps dads name as his first sort of - dps dad is john, known as jake, dp wanted jake after his dad i wanted a 'real' name on bc so ds is jacob known as jake

DD2s first name isn't family related but ee haven't chose a mn yet, it may be lyn as an abbreviation of my mum linda.

Ds2 has same name as midwife who delivered him, liked it anyway tho so was just coincidence and ds4 has variants of his dad - who delivered him and the paramedic who arrived just as he emerged! Which was intentional.

I have 4 children, 2 boys, 2 girls - the girls would have been Ann and Deborah if we'd gone the midwife route, the boys (there were no male midwives) would have been Claire and Leah.

Suffice to say, none of my children have any of the above names.

I have a massive extended family, and until fairly recently everyone was given a "family" name. It lead to the following conversation with my DH at a family party:

Me, after introducing him to a large amount of assorted aunts, uncles and cousins: "don't worry, I don't expect you to remember everyone's name."

DH, looking genuinely puzzled: "what's to remember? If it's a woman then it's Mary, Anne or Winnie, if it's a man it's John, Chris or Frank. Simple."

Me: "er...actually yes, you're absolutely right."

3 ds and a dd who didn't have a mw as she was so prem so that would t work.
They do all have at least one family name though. Ds1 has 2

My dd would have been called Casey or Grace after her mw but already had a lovely name chosen

Midwife called Beryl ...

My aunt is a midwife and has had at least five babies name after her (it's a very unusual name so I won't share), and is also godmother to numerous more. My midwife was Jane so we wouldn't have used that as not to our taste.

Family name is Elizabeth on my side (features lots in both maternal and paternal sides) but we went with Edith as an alternative.

I had two midwives called Kylie, strangely enough. i have a very poor memory for faces and insisted I'd seen the second one before, but no, they were different people. Next birth my mw was called something very Nigerian which is fine if you are Nigerian, but a bit if you're not.

So, no, we didn't go the mw route - they have family names.

My dad's middle name is that of the grocer who took his labouring mother to the hospital in his grocery van.

The grocer's name was Mervyn!

The first baby I ever saw born as a student midwife was given my name as a middle name which made me cry nearly as much as witnessing ber birth. My name is very 1970's so wouldn't have wishedit on her for her first name