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Original poster

When did you start referring to baby by their name?

92 replies

Kelsey28 · 06/01/2017 18:01

Just because I'm being really nosy! When did you start calling your baby their chosen name? Did you wait till they were born? When did you tell other people what you were going to call them? I've see lots of name announcements at around 16 weeks on instagram though these all seem to be American families!

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Pixilicious · 08/01/2017 21:42

Both after DD was born even though we known she was a girl and had settled on her name.

Is the gender reveal and name reveal thing American? Because really who apart from immediate family really give two hoots? All seems very self-centred to me.

BernardsarenotalwaysSaints · 08/01/2017 21:46

When they arrive. I don't find out whether it's a boy/girl. We've gone in to labour with 2 or 3 names for both boy & girl each time then decided what fits them during first cuddles.

AbernathysFringe · 08/01/2017 21:49

Around nine months I swore I would lay off her ridiculous nicknames are try to call her by her actual name...Manage it about 50/50.

piginboots · 08/01/2017 21:57

AvaBird are you serious?

NoraDora · 08/01/2017 22:00

I was thinking the same about Avabird.

Not until the baby is born. Feels wierd to me otherwise.

AerodactylsAssemble · 08/01/2017 22:01

Earlier this year I was pregnant with boy girl twins when my boy died at 29 weeks. I remained pregnant as had another baby to keep cooking. For a few days after it happened when I talked about my pregnancy I called my boy "the baby that died" and got sick of that pretty fucking quickly, so about 30 weeks we decided on names, told our family and friends and they were known by their names from then on.

If the above had not happened then I believe we would have kept any name ideas a secret until after babies were born.

purplefizz26 · 08/01/2017 22:13

We picked a name, but didn't use it till after birth. I wouldn't want to tell everyone, make it Facebook official, have personalised stuff made, only to decide the baby didn't look like an X or a Y or just have a change of heart and then have to do the rounds telling everyone the new name.

People just cant wait these days to tell the world stuff about their lives that nobody needs to know.

On another point mentioned in this thread. Gender reveal parties are so self indulgent and silly. Apart from the parents and maybe some immediate family, nobody really gives that much of a crap, it's one or the other, no need for such a fuss. Avabird, if you are serious, I have no words!

Hulababy · 08/01/2017 22:15

We didn't know if we were having a girl or boy so there was no definite name decision. We had a shortlist for a while and then did narrow it down to our top choices for a girl or boy. Immediate family kind of knew - told them 1 or 2 options. But we never used the names before she was born.

AntiQuitty · 08/01/2017 22:18

We didn't know what ds1 would be but it was definite with ds2 and we used his name from the time of the scan as we only had one favourite. As a top 20 name it was hardly not going to suit him.

GinIsIn · 08/01/2017 22:19

Avabird - you're joking, right?!

GinIsIn · 08/01/2017 22:23

We've made the mistake of consistently referring to the baby by a joke name, which was the worst one we could think of with our surname. (Along the lines of Collin Collins) The trouble is after nearly 9 months of this, it's going to be very hard to switch to calling him a real name!

BackforGood · 08/01/2017 22:24

When they were born.

I have been trying to think of a polite way of responding to avabird s post, but struggling........ who exactly are you distributing this treasure chests too ??

Mermaid36 · 08/01/2017 22:28

We referred to our twins as Big Twin and Littlest Twin (there was a size difference in utero)

We'd picked names out, but didn't tell anyone beforehand and didn't decide which twin was which name until they were born

Eastpoint · 08/01/2017 22:28

By the time we had our first child several people we know had had still births. I didn't want to tempt fate by naming an unborn child (just my opinion, don't care what anyone else does).

Mamatallica · 08/01/2017 22:32

Fenella, yes we gave our bump a joke name too and it did become normal. After almost 5 months of having an actual baby with a real name I still get mixed up sometimes. I miss my bump!

MrsRhettButler · 08/01/2017 22:33

I genuinely can't decide whether Ava's post was a pisstake or not Confused
Both mine were 'the baby' dd2, now 5 is still 'the baby'

Cel982 · 08/01/2017 22:40

Sometime around her first birthday, I think Blush She was baba most of the time before that and still is at times.

preciouspig · 08/01/2017 22:40

Ive got a 7 month old who is still referred to as 'the baby' Grin

AragornsManlyStubble · 09/01/2017 06:42

I'm 19 weeks and DP and I regularly use the name we have picked out. So do the children as they helped pick it. And my mum. It seems quite normal to us as he has a name so we use it. With strangers though, I say 'the baby'. Thoughout of my 4 this is the first name I've ever been solid on enough to use before birth. All my others have had their names announced straight after birth and have been used then.

insancerre · 09/01/2017 06:51

Gosh, Avabird, are people really that involved in your pregnancy?
Hope you don't choose a really long double barrelled name as that could get expensive in cupcakes

I didn't find out the sex of my babies until they were delivered so I had 2 names chosen. I like surprises

SquedgieBeckenheim · 09/01/2017 07:27

With DD1 we didn't find out the sex until birth, so no one knew names until she arrived including us!
This time around we have found out the sex, so we and everyone else know we're having DD2. We have 99% agreed on a name, but no one else knows! We won't announce until birth, partly in case we change our mind, but also as people are less judgey that way. We also don't refer to her as her name even in private. I'm scared of tempting fate! A lot of time she's just "the baby" or "the next one"! That's bad, isn't it?

raviolidreaming · 09/01/2017 09:39

I genuinely can't decide whether Ava's post was a pisstake or not

Me neither. I'm assuming so... who could be bothered going on a treasure hunt to find out the sex of someone's baby?!

passingthrough1 · 09/01/2017 09:41

We did from 20 weeks but I would never ever have announced name on Facebook or anything (not that I announced pregnancy or birth of baby on social media at all). Some people knew name before but only if they'd ask and to them even if they knew the name I'd still refer to "the baby" as in the baby is due or the baby is kicking, but between me and DP we said his name.
I'd also decided that if the worst happened, he would still have that name.

stripeyorangesocks71 · 09/01/2017 10:08

Our baby was known as Peanut right from a very early scan in the pregnancy. Until we had chosen a name then only me and my DP called the bump by his name when it was just us around. We only told others of his name once he was born Smile

MyBootsAreMuddy · 09/01/2017 10:10

Mine were referred to by jokey nn as we chose not to find out until birth whether they were boy or girl.
We had:
Peanut
Pikachu
Beany
Roger the lodger
Bubble and squeak..... our twins are now 5 and are still referred to by their bump names (they do have proper names tooGrin)

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