Which name for which twin?

[sycamore54321]

Just something that came up in conversation with some other parents, none of us have twins. How do parents of boy-boy or girl-girl twins decide which baby will have which name? Do you decide in advance the first-born will be Ann and the second Mary? Or wait til both are born and see who looks most like which name? Or some other way?

Just curious. It seems so different to deciding names for two singleton babies.

I've always wondered that

My cousin has twins - they agreed the first would be X, the second world be Y. Then they turned up and realised they just looked like the other way around so swapped

I named then after they were born. I didn't decide names in advance, just had a few ideas. Then looked to see what would suit them!

We decided twin 1 would have one name and twin 2 the other. Then as soon as twin 1 was born we went off her name completely. So in respect of her sister neither were named until.we had 2 names.

We knew we were expecting two girls. I had a top favourite girls name and so did dp. We fell into calling the left side my choice and the right side ( he slept that side of me) his choice. And they stuck! X

Our twins arrived early before we’d thought much about names (knew they were identical but not the sex). Once we had decided, wenamed then alphabetically - first twin out got the name nearest the start of the alphabet.

Mine had totally different personalities in utero - one bounced about constantly the other had to be poked to move, so I felt I kind of knew them individually already and knew the names were right for them.

We chose based on how the names sounded together - e.g. Emma and Beth rather than Beth and Emma. (Not DTs actual names) - Twin 1 got the name which would naturally be said first and Twin 2 got the second one.

interestingly however a lot of people say the names the other way around anyway!

We have identical boys & we only knew they were identical before they were born and not their sex.

We had a pair of boys names we liked and had always had them that way round - so when they arrived they were named in order. It was middle names we struggled giving to each - we wanted 2 middle names each - 1 of which was a family name. Working out which went better with which was much harder than deciding who got which 1st name!

The first twin was named the name lower down the alphabet and the second twin named higher the alphabet. So in my case first twin James and second Adam. That way the younger twin gets to come first sometimes in things like school registers.

My dsis did the same as bigglasses

I am a twin. Mother picked one name and Dad the other. Mum had priority ( as usual) so I got second choice, being second born. Very happy, I love my name.

We came up with two boy names we liked, and said them in the order they sounded best, then gave twin 1 the first and twin 2 the second, before they were born. I cannot imagine them named the other way round at all, although with my other children I could see them fitting other names. They just totally filled their names!

Jedbartle - mine also get called the names the other way round to the way we thought sounded much better too - interesting!