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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

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Original poster

If you waited to meet your DC before naming them...

19 replies

flipflopsonfifthavenue · 02/10/2014 08:47

did you end up chosing a name from your long/short list? Or did you use a brand new name you'd not thought of? Or got new inspiration once you'd met them and started thinking and chosing names you'd not considered before?

DC is due in 5 weeks and we have no name. We have a vague list of boys and girls but no clear favourite. We're clearly going to have to wait til baby is born to name him or her. Thing is, none of the names we're got fill me with great joy - are we going to end up 'just picking one' or will we suddenly feel differently about the names once we meet the little person who's going to have it..?

Just curious about other people's experiences....

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ThatBloodyWoman · 02/10/2014 08:50

Dd2 was going to be a particular name till she was born.
Then she became a name we'd never even considered.

marmaladegranny · 02/10/2014 09:19

It's a big decision to make and not one to be rushed into! My DC2 was not named until the last possible day for registration, and only then as I refused to register her as 'Female Infant'! My DH had not thought that she could be a girl (we already had DD1) and had not given girl's names a thought - and then vetoed my choice. Finally named her a beautiful classic name that we had not even thought of originally - 30+ year on it still suits her very well and she loves it although not keen on her mn which is my original choice!

ThinkIveBeenHacked · 02/10/2014 09:23

We had three girls names for DC1 and two boys names (didnt know what we were having). As she was a She, we picked two of our shortlisted names for her first and middle name. The third name we kept for this pregnancy, however we found out this time and are having a boy si cant use it.

We have the boys shortlist from last time but cant use one of the names as it sounds daft next to DDs name (think like Gem and Jim - not these actual names!). Therefore we sort of know what DS will be called.

It still remains to be seen whether we change our mind once he is here but neither of us can agree on any other names.

ChunkyPickle · 02/10/2014 09:31

Both mine named at the last minute (in each case appointment booked for the last week, way before we'd decided on a name)

DS1 - we'd thought of the name but discounted it, then revisited and decided it suited him.

DS2 - I'd never even heard the name, had one I did like but didn't want to use as a first (bad nickname), and decided finally over a few pints and dinner (with DS2 asleep on the bench next to me)

MrsCosmopilite · 02/10/2014 09:50

DD was going to be a name I'd liked for years, until she was born. Then the name was just not right for her. I had a shortlist, and for about 5 hours she was going to be the sixth name on it, but when I tried it out, that didn't suit her either. The name we opted for was in the top five, and now I can't imagine she was ever going to be anything else.
Interestingly, we realised afterwards that the name had connections to both sides of the family.

Kantha · 02/10/2014 09:52

DS2 was given a name that wasn't on the short list. I had even rejected it when DH suggested it two days before he was born on the grounds that it is too popular. However once he arrived it just felt like that was his name. Weird.

poppydaisy · 02/10/2014 10:38

I would say take your time - it is an important decision to get right!

On the other hand, all babies look pretty much alike and I doubt any baby will 'look' like a specific name. People become their names, not the other way around.

LadyintheRadiator · 02/10/2014 10:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Guitargirl · 02/10/2014 10:50

With both the DCs we ended up choosing names which we hadn't thought of before they were born.

alteredimages · 02/10/2014 10:59

Both my DCs ended up with names I absolutely hated right through my pregnancies. When they arrived, those names just suited them though!

DD has a name I thought was too girly, but it was just right for her.

DS has a name which is now more common as a girl's name, so I wasn't keen but DH loved it. We agreed on my choice but looking at 2 day old DS sleeping beside me, it just didn't fit so i called DH from the hospital to tell him I had changed my mind.

Frikadellen · 02/10/2014 19:15

DD1 was going to be Elizabeth we had another 4 names we liked but Elizabeth was " the one". First words out of both dh and my mouth on meeting her was " well thats not Elizabeth" then we both went " oh thank God" looking at each other.. (and all laughed)

She became the name that was 4th of the other 4 names aka the one we had felt least likely to use.

for dd2 we had 3 names we liked she became the one we liked the most

For ds we were not sure however had a short list. Dh originally wanted another name but I didnt feel it suited him so we went with the other that dh liked too (now dh says he cant imagine him as the other name)

for dd3 we had a short list of 4. on her arrival this got cut down to2 very quickly. We struggled to decide until midwife said the 2 names outloud with the surname and we both went " ohhh that doesnt go well" to name no 2 she is name no 1

APipkinOfPepper · 02/10/2014 19:33

For DS we had a short list of 4 names. I wanted to agree a name beforehand, but DH wanted to wait and see what he looked like. So we did - and DH turned to me and said "he doesn't really look like anything"! We ended up naming him my favourite name from our short list. With DD we pretty much decided beforehand, although we did discuss it a bit before finally agreeing. Tbh after both labours, I didn't really feel up to having a long discussion about names, and it is nice to announce the birth with a name too! So I would favour choosing beforehand.

beccajoh · 02/10/2014 19:36

DD had a name from the short list. We had pretty much decided on DS's name but once he was born it was all kinds of wrong and we called him something else altogether.

jimblejambles · 02/10/2014 19:42

We named both ds before they were born but we really struggled to settle on a name for dd. it was narrowed down to 2 until we saw her and then we changed our minds completely and went for a name that wasn't on any of our lists.

Rubberstamp · 02/10/2014 19:47

Both mine names after I'd finally booked a registrar apt a good few weeks after birth. Son we decided on the way in to apt and with daughter we were still debating sitting in front of the registrar and came up with the name (that we hadn't considered before) under pressure from her waiting to type something into the screen... Without the appointments we would never have decided and they would have remained unnamed forever.

SauvignonBlanche · 02/10/2014 19:50

DS was chosen from a very short list, I took longer with DD we didn't really have a short list until she was born.

TaurielTest · 02/10/2014 19:54

With DC1 we'd got a list of three or four names we agreed we both liked, for each sex, and we did not intend to choose until s/he was born.
Within hours of his arrival, we were talking to him and a name we'd barely considered somehow floated back up and seemed like "his" - so we ditched the shortlist and went with that. DP was immediately sure about this name, I slept on it to make sure I wasn't just hormonally euphoric and had no judgement. It's a perfect name for him.

Much trickier with DC2; he suited all the names on the new shortlist quite well but none of them seemed more him than others, and no new name emerged mystically from the ether (I am not remotely woo, but after the experience with DS1 I rather expected it to). We did not choose his name for a couple of weeks after his birth and although I like it and it's "him" now, I still feel he could just as easily be a Y or Z as the X that we went for.

PartPixie · 02/10/2014 19:58

We knew we were having a girl and had a clear favorite out of the 3 names we agreed on. We named her the favorite because it felt right and I still love it. Another of the short list became her middle name which I regret and that took a few days to decide on. The third name I had a very strong reaction to and certainly didn't suit her. The thought of someone using a short form of that name, which wouldn't have bothered me before she was born, really upset me. I did have a name come to me which wasn't on the short list which I should have used for her middle name.

Rivercam · 02/10/2014 20:05

ds 1 had the name we thought of. Ds2 had his names switched around as when he was born, we both decided he didn't suit that name. We panicked for a while, trying to think of a new first name, then simply switched his middle name and 'old' first name around. Sometimes I wished we'd stuck to his slightly more unusual middle name, but he does suit his first name.

Flip