When did you decide on your baby name?

[usernamo]

Just looking to see what the average is...

Did you decide before you even got pregnant?
When you found out the gender?
A few weeks/months before giving birth?
Did you have a shortlist when you went to the hospital or a choice of 2?
Or did it take a few weeks after they were born?

DC1 was named in hospital, the day after he was born. I was so sure for some reason that I was having a girl I'd given no thought at all to what we might call a boy.

DC2 got the name we considered using for DC1's middle name, but decided we liked it too much to use as a middle name & we'd save it for another boy. So I suppose we knew before he was conceived what we'd call him.

DC3 was named after we found out his sex at the 20 week scan.

We have twins and one of the names was decided very early in the pregnancy. Actually before the gender scan we agreed on the name, where one of the babies a boy. The other twin's name was decided just a few days before their birth. We actually had another name picked out but it never felt quite right.

Dc1 was named before she was born.
Dc2 was named before he was born.
Dc3 I had a couple of names but when she was born I named her something completely different and not on the list.
Dc4 had a list containing 3 names,6 weeks before she was born her dads nan was taken to hospital, she asked what names we had and we told her and she said "I like that one that's what you should name her" she died that night so we decided that was her name and her middle names were after our nans.
Dc5 was named the day after she was born a name that wasn't even thought about or on her list, although to this day I wish I'd of named her what I originally wanted to call her before everyone stuck their nose in

Knew the gender of both before birth.
DC1 at 3 or 4 days old. There's no rush! We hadn't agreed on any one name but went back to one we'd considered before. But the middle name was decided before the birth.
DC2 is due soon and we have a name but still considering middle names. I wanted to be more prepared this time.

Both DS's names chosen before they were born.

DS1 followed tradition in DH's family and named after his grandfather which I was fine with.

DS2 has a unisex name, saw a TV presenter who was the first adult male with the name and realised how much I liked it. Wasn't even pregnant, let alone had an idea of sex. Mentioned it to DH who also really liked it and we had no alternatives.

DS1 has always suited his name but with DS2, it took me a while to get used to it. He's only 5 weeks now and I'm still adjusting to it.

Our DCs were all named after the gender scan, well before they were born.

We knew we were having a girl and had a shortlist of names. We trialed each name for a week and shortened the list. When dd was born we decided 2 names suited her, DH preferred one and I preferred the other but we couldn't decide so tossed a coin!

About a week after each was born.

We'd sort of worked out a shortlist, but found we could only really be decisive once the baby was actually born.

Middle names were easier, as they were ones from the family.

About midway through pregnancy.

DS's first name was chosen when I was a teenager, after my grandad. We decided on his middle name together before he was born, although we didn't know the sex until he came out. His middle name was meant to be after DH's grandad, but the daft bugger got the wrong name and he's named after DH's great uncle instead

We had a terrible time, we had a boy's name agreed at 4 months pregnant after much wrangling but my sister used it as she was a few months ahead, so that was out. We couldn't agree a girl's name at all. Once he was born, his dad agreed the name I had wanted from the start, but it didn't suit the baby at all. I thought we had agreed a name, but after I took him into work at 5 days old and introduced him with that name, the arse came home and announced everyone thought it was a shit name (bet they didn't) so we ended up with another name, and the shit name as a middle, because it had been his name for 5 days!

I don't really think his name works brilliantly, it's a nice first name but it doesn't sit great with the surname. But at least he got named.

Pretty much straight away. We didn't know what we were having until he arrived and we had only agreed on one boys name so that was it

Both DC approx 2 weeks after they were born. A lot of pressure to decide sooner from family though!
Dc1 picked from a few names we had short listed.
Dc2 felt none of the names we short listed suited them and picked a completely different name.
Good luck!

Always within a few weeks of getting pregnant. It wasn’t difficult. We both disliked each other’s favourite names so happily settled on a compromise without much trouble.

First child--Three months before birth we settled on a unisex name

Second child--The day of their birth

Last child--Chose a name two months before but completely changed our minds two days after birth

DS1 was named when he was born, and DS2 was named during labour.

We had a shortlist of three of each and decided which one about a week after delivery.

12 years before DD was conceived .
Came across a fabulous and then very uncommon name and stored it away for future use... it's now in the top 20 but is still of course fabulous.
No idea what would have happened if she'd been a boy instead!

With our son we had narrowed it down to 3 and picked one when he was born. For our daughter, we had decided on her name by the time I was 6 months pregnant. They're still both my favourite names. Their middle names took a couple of weeks to decide.

We had a shortlist, with one favourite but I wouldn’t commit to a name until I saw him. We used the favourite name and I knew as soon as he was placed on my chest.

First child:didn't find out the sex, had a few names floating around, but once the boy was born, and everyone had left me to sleep, ds name just came to me. D.J. was fairly shocked to be introduced to his son by name when he came back to see us the first day but that was the child's name and I couldn't change it! Second time we decided to find out the sex, it was a girl so we decided to name after Dh father-luckily the name is beautiful, then we hyphenated it with sil name.so dd has had that name since halfway through the pregnancy. Dd goes by a very short nickname instead of her very long actual name lol.

When they handed her to me, looked over at DH and said the name , he nodded and that was her.
We’d discussed a few names but this was the one that seemed to fit.

Daughter 1 - I had her name since I was young 😂 it’s a name from my favourite film when I was a kid! The other half thought it was too much of a nickname so we compromised on a ‘full’ version of her name we both liked .. she mostly gets her nickname though, so I still get to use the name I love!

Daughter 2 is due in March. I suggested a name when we found out it was a girl at 16 weeks, other half loves it. Sorted.

I think had we been having a boy, this would be a whole different story as we could never agree when discussing!

At about 2 months pregnant.

(I didn’t know the sex or go to hospital).

We thought we knew our DD's name before pregnacy...! But my husband didn't want to commit completely or think of other names! 🤦‍♀️ But I suggested a twist on the name 2 days before I went into labour. We didn't get to discus it, but at the hospital when my husband was holding our DD I asked what he thought her name was and he said my newer version! It was perfect 😁.
The only thing was that I also asked about the spelling and in hindsight the name was new to both of us and we were beyond exhausted so we should have held off on announcing the spelling. We've decided next time we will hold off announcing the name altogether until we have road tested it a bit at home.