Cannot agree on any baby names!

[grayindie]

I’m hoping for some inspiration! Or just some reassurance that we aren’t the only couple that cannot get on the same page baby name wise.

I’m almost 20 weeks and we’ve decided with this whole pandemic thing we won’t find out the gender due to having to attend my 20 week scan alone, but we cannot decide on any names, boys or girls.

I love names like Quinn and Mabel or Albie and Atticus but DH is stuck on names like Ellie and Tommy

Please help! 💓💓💓

Is it that he prefers more mainstream names or more diminutive forms of names? If the latter you could go for a quirkier longer name that shortens to something more common e.g. Isadora to Izzy. If the former then that's a bit trickier - I think there's an app you can both download and tap whether you like a name or not and it creates a shortlist of names you both like - maybe try that (not sure what it's called though sorry)?.

I think it’s that he prefers mainstream names and more common names that you hear a lot and I can understand why. We tried the app kinder and used all the names and got 3 matches 😂💓

Well, assuming you are only having one baby then 3 matches is plenty!

Definitely a valid point! I just feel like they’ll do as oppose to liking them if that makes sense. I’m sure it’ll all come together, it’s a good job we have 20 weeks 😂

Yeah, I wouldn't stress. We were in the same boat with DD1- didn't name her until she was a couple of weeks old, no harm done. You'll come up with something eventually.

Currently 16 weeks pregnant with DC2 and not thinking about names until much closer to the date. Probably from about 35 weeks tbh- we work better to a shorter deadline!

Luca
Flynn
Ted

Maisie
Thea
Cassia

Some of those names are actually fairly similar. Tommy and Albie for example, both quite popular, both cutesy nn for classic names. Ellie and Mabel also not a million miles apart.

Maybe look for a name that gives options for both, so either a traditional full name that offers a more quirky NN or the other way round.

Could you go for names that are more classic but have fallen out of popularity? Names like Robert, Lawrence and Marcus or Caitlin, Estelle and Tamara? I think all outside the top 100 but still recognisable. Otherwise, could you look for names in favourite books/films or your family trees?

With a solution to you not finding out the gender due to attending the scan on your own.
Could you not take a piece of paper and an envelope with you. Get them to write it down and seal it to take home with you?

I love all of those suggestions, Teddy (Theodore) was one we agreed on but our best friends had a little boy at the start of the year that’s a Theo. So I suppose that’s the more traditional with a NN.

We thought about asking them to write it down but the NHS won’t write it down as they’re never 100% sure until the baby arrives.

Thank you for all the advice and suggestions though hopefully we will work better under pressure too

Love Atticus but you have to be quite brave to use it.
Also love Flynn and Albie.

Girls, I like Summer, Autumn, Sky, Emma, Adeline, Daisy,

How about:

Tobias (Toby)
Robert or Robin (Bobby)
Wilfred (Freddie or Wilf)
Edward or Edwin or Edmund (Eddie or Teddy/Ted)
Jackson (Jack)
Alexander (Alex or Xander or Lex)

Beatrice or Phoebe (Bea or Beebee)
Alexandra (Sasha or Alex or Lex or Ali)
Elizabeth (Ellie or Lizzie or Libby or Betty or Eliza or Nell or Beth)
Harriet (Hattie or Harri)

Mabel is about to become the next Ellie anyway. It only seems more unusual at the moment because the babies are still being cooked. In three years it will be just as ubiquitous.
We chose a name I’d never heard of (and neither had anyone I know, save one friend who knew of an author.) Within 18 months it was literally vilified on mn as being so overwhelmingly popular it had teetered into ‘anything but x’ territory.
I know four pg women and all are keen on Mabel or Maisie if it’s a girl. The last Mabel it Maisie’s I knew were if my grandparents generation, and as I’m technically old enough to be classed as grandparent generation myself, they are due for a massive resurgence.
So, last of the Ellie’s or first of the Mabel’s - it doesn’t really matter. In twenty years you and dh would probably reverse your choices