Did you have a back up name?

[Lemondrop99]

We sort of settled on a name quote early in pregnancy. Didn't mean to but kept getting drawn back to one name. Had planned to have a short list of favourites and see how we felt after birth. Problem is we don't have a short list! Zero backup names. Nothing else seems to appeal the same way as the name we've chosen. I'm a bit worried that we might chance our minds for some reason after birth and then we'll be really stuck.

Should we keep searching and make sure we have some back up names? How many of you decided before birth and stuck with it/changed your minds?

I didn't. What's the point? If you love one name then use it!

I've never believed the whole "but what if the baby doesn't look like [chosen name] when they're born?" Newborn babies don't look like anything. If anything, they look too tiny to inhabit any name. When both of my children were newborn I tended to call them "baby" or a cutesy nickname because their real name almost felt too big for them.

But I digress Back up names are unnecessary if you've settled on one and are both happy with it.

We had a name for DD. and then when she was born she didn't look anything like that name. So she's had no name for 3 and a half weeks!

Her name is one that we had discussed earlier in the pregnancy so wasn't completely new.

Now she's older I actually think she could have been called the original name, though!

No. We picked a name for a boy really early on and stuck to it. Didn't like any others!
We'd have been stuck if he had been a girl though as we didn't like many at all!

My SIL had decided on a name, even had things embroidered with the name. Then when her DS was born, changed her mind! They then struggled to choose a name. Has made me a bit twitchy

No, we decided on the names in pregnancy then stuck to them. I agree that newborns don't really suit their names immediately. Both of mine sort of grew into theirs over the course of a few months. They change so much that it seems counterintuitive to pick a name for life based on what they look like at birth.

No, but then we didn't find out the sex so we didn't have months of referring to baby with a specific name. I don't know if that makes a difference

Like with DS. We had decided on a boys name but as the pregnancy progressed it didn't feel right. We found a name we liked more and picked that instead- the other name didn't become a back up but we chose it for his middle name. With both DD's we had girls names picked out early and we didn't have backups. If you love it you love it

We had a favorite name for first born up until weeks before but had a rethink as the name we had chos n always seemed to be the villain, weird one or psychopath in lots of tv programs and films.
We had a short list of names which I took in my bag to hospital along with my mini meaning of names book. We ran through the list of names and none seemed right then we ran through the list of meanings as I was holding the body in my arms to keep him warm and one name clicked. Strangely enough it was the last name we had added to the list and it was added on a whim a couple of weeks before.

Out of my four children, only one of them had a name prior to their birth, and that was because he was always going to be named after my dad who passed away. There was no room for "back ups" in my mind.

With the others, I took in my 20ft long list of names and just crossed them off over the next 12-24 hours while deciding what the baby did/didn't look like. I disagree with the person who said babies don't look like anything. DD4 didn't look like an Anna, but she did look like a Lily. We all have preconceptions about names and the people we know with them.

DC4*

We had 3 'top' names of each of ours. DC1 one of those names was our favourite. We both looked at him when he was born and said 'well he doesn't look like an X' we went with one of the other 'top' names.
DC2 we hadn't really settled on a name before we met them from our 'top' list but one of them suited him really well.

I'm definitely a believer in babies 'looking' like their name!

No need for a back up name! Everyone who's had a baby already will tell you that newborns rarely look like the children they will become anyway. Out first born son was a tiny, dark, very serious, pokey looking little thing at birth and we nearly changed his father masculine sunny sounding name. So glad we didn't - at three he is a big blonde tan boy with a big personality. Just stick with the name you love, your baby will grow into that name!

I was given a back up name. Throughout the duration of my mother's pregnancy I was called Daisy. She took one look at me and decided I'm definitely not a Daisy. She was right, my actual name (also two syllables and ends with a y sound) suits me much better.