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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

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Original poster

Did you name your child AFTER they were born?

94 replies

iloveyoubutilovememore · 09/03/2021 13:19

Like a few others on here, I am really struggling to settle on a name for our second son. There are a few we like, but none that really stand out. A friend told me to chill and that the name will come once he's here. So looking for some reassurance I guess, has this happened for anyone else?

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bloodywhitecat · 09/03/2021 14:11

Mine were named after their births because we had no idea whether we were having a son or a daughter.

Normandy144 · 09/03/2021 14:17

It is totally normal not to name the baby until they arrive. It's just that there is such a preference these days to find out the sex first and then babies are often named. Our nephew was also named at his 20 week scan which I found really strange. Just feels a bit like jumping the gun to me. We didn't find out the sex with either of our children and we had short lists for both sexes. As it turns out they were easy to name and we had decided on their names within 24 hours. You have up to 6 weeks to register them so don't feel any pressure.

UnsolicitedDickPic · 09/03/2021 14:33

Yes, I did! We had a list but nothing we agreed on. DP picked a name and we went with it - I insisted on a formal version of it because it was a wee bit short for me, and now I couldn't imagine DD being called anything else.

IToldYouIWasFreaky · 09/03/2021 14:36

We had two options & as soon as he was born, I said straight away one of the options to DH.

Same! DS was going to be Name1 Name2, or Name2 Name1. As soon as he was born, I turned to exP and said "Name1!"

Absolutely no idea what we would have done if he'd turned out to be a girl (we didn't know the sex before birth) as could not agree on a girl's name,

skeggycaggy · 09/03/2021 14:39

@SnowyBranches

Yes, because I didn't know if it would be a boy or a girl both times. But we did have some names lined up. DS2 was "Baby Branches" on his wristband because we hadn't named him yet.

For some reason the midwife wrote Baby Caggy on DC2 and DC3 red books, so I had to cross it out when we decided on a name. Why not just leave it blank?

averythinline · 09/03/2021 14:41

We had a shortlist but ended up in scbu so didn't decide straight away but the nurses asked after a few days as it was fathers day and they wanted to do a card :)

EssentialHummus · 09/03/2021 14:46

I ended up posting on MN with a pic asking for ideas . I think we were five weeks on when we finally named her. When I was pregnant again DD took matters into her own hands and chose a name for her sibling.

Lenny86 · 09/03/2021 15:47

Yes! I think we would have taken the whole 6 weeks to name our son if I hadn’t put my foot down (very indecisive partner). I just booked the appointment 1 weeks after birth and gave my partner a list of names we had discussed and partially agreed on during pregnancy and told him to pick one. Luckily he picked my favourite.

SwimmingInToys · 09/03/2021 15:57

We had a shortlist for each sex that we took to hospital to choose from, but I didn't want it to drag on so wanted to decide from the shortlist within 24h or so. That worked well for us.

Part of our reason for not finding out the sex was to stop us choosing a name beforehand. There's nothing wrong with choosing a name beforehand but it just didn't feel right for me. I wanted a shortlist and to meet them first and then try each one on for size. Probably sounds a bit daft

Standrewsschool · 09/03/2021 15:59

DS 1 we had the name from about six months.
DS 2 didn’t know if boy or girl. We did have a name but it didn’t suit him so we changed it.

JohnMiddleNameRedactedSwanson · 09/03/2021 16:00

Yes, with both. We had discussed ideas and knew the sex each time but I find it weird to name a child until they are here. DC2 in particular had a very tough time at the birth and this influenced our choice of name for him while he was in SCBU.

EiffelPower · 09/03/2021 16:07

2nd dd took weeks to pick a name for! I think she was about 5. 5 weeks when we registered her!

EiffelPower · 09/03/2021 16:09

The sex was always a surprise in those days though!

ChnandlerBong · 09/03/2021 16:10

yes we took about a week with dd as we felt we'd rushed it by naming ds when he was a few hours old.

pleased we did. Like ds's name but I love dd's!

it did mean dd has 'Baby Bong' written on her hospital bracelets and red book, but really no big deal.

ineedaholidaynow · 09/03/2021 16:12

Yes. In the delivery room we came up with a name that we had not even considered before!

Synchrony · 09/03/2021 16:20

We knew DC's name before they were even conceived! But we didn't tell anyone until after the birth. However, we had a shortlist of middle names and didn't decide on that until we were outside the registry office.

EvilOnion · 09/03/2021 16:20

Kind of. We can't find out the sex here without going private but we did have a bit and girl name lined up after birth.

Thankfully we never had the whole name angst though and only ever really mentioned about 8 names if that and chose our favourites pretty early on!

SwimmingInToys · 09/03/2021 16:23

Thankfully we never had the whole name angst though and only ever really mentioned about 8 names if that and chose our favourites pretty early on

I'm so jealous of this approach. We spent many, many months (and I shed a lot of hormone-driven tears) trying to formulate a shortlist. My DH is SO fussy, I was totally losing the plot

EvilOnion · 09/03/2021 16:46

I was definitely lucky on that front - we are admittedly pretty laid back though and I have 2 friends who changed their names easily as adults so considered that might happen anyway so didn't bother too much about finding the "perfect" name.

With that said I'm very glad that DS wasn't a girl because I'd be mortified shouting out some of the names we picked back then 🤣

happymummy12345 · 09/03/2021 17:15

We didn't want to find out the sex until the birth. For is choosing a boys name was easy, that was decided from when I was around 7 months pregnant. We were 10% that the name we'd chose was definitely the name. But we could not decide on a girls name. I had one I was 95% on but my husband wasn't as keen as me. So we hadn't made a final decision on a girls name when I gave birth.

I know other people who decided on names after they'd had the baby though. I think it's whatever works for you

CautiousBlonde · 09/03/2021 18:19

Yep with all 3 of mine. Chill

autumncountryleaves · 09/03/2021 18:23

We don't know the sex of our baby (coming by CS Thursday!) and we didn't with our first either.

We have a shortlist of boys and girls names, will decide once they're here

35andThriving · 09/03/2021 21:56

My parents names my brother and sister after they were born.

Neolara · 09/03/2021 21:59

With 2 of our 3 we took almost the full 6 weeks to decide.

Weaverspin · 09/03/2021 22:12

Yes. Our DD wasn’t named until she was about 4 days old! Then her name just came to us and it was perfect.

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