Baby names - how did you know when the name was right?

[UnicornRocket]

Hi!

Did you all find a baby name that both you and your partner were 110% sure on?

I feel like we haven't come across a name that we both absolutely love yet. Our surname is Turner.

Boy names we both somewhat like:

Jenson
Theo
Finn

I love the name Rowan for a boy. My husband loves it for a girl. We are struggling to agree on that. This is the only name we love but for different genders!

Girl names we both are ok with but we're definitely much more unsure on girl names:

Rory
Mila
Keira

Any other name ideas along these lines would be appreciated and any stories on how you got to a stage of being really certain of your choices :)

I have a weird story for this. We were down to a couple of names (knew we were having a boy) and then 2 days before my due date a piece of junk mail arrived addressed to one of our name choices! First name and surname at our address. That sealed the deal, although to be fair we were pretty set anyway
Never had anything in his name at that address afterwards. I have still have the letter (he's now 19).

Very very similar taste to me! Jenson we loved but didn’t go for in the end. There were so many comments on here when I asked about it that said it was a chavvy name or was used by (someone literally said this) children who didn’t behave in their kid’s class. So I felt like I couldn’t go for it. I’m glad we didn’t in the end as I don’t love it anymore and have heard of a couple of others who wouldn’t completely go against what they were saying 😂

Finn is my favourite name of all time. The only downside is it’s popularity but I really don’t think it matters when you love it! From your girl’s names I’d go Mila. I think one way to tell is pick two and post them on here and wait for the comments. I found i was really defensive of a name if I seriously wanted to use it and it was annoying me every time someone criticised it.

Don’t put pressure to decide the name before baby arrives. It is sensible to gather a few names you both like but with my second I had no idea what we would decide. The few hours after he was born I thought I had decided but it just didn’t feel right. My partner said ‘what about X’ and it was like a lightbulb went on! That’s now our second’s name 😊

ps the ‘lightbulb’ name was… Finn!

Following with interest as my husband and I find ourselves in a similar position. We have a shortlist of names for boys and girls but I don’t think any of them are really standing out to me/us. Not sure whether that means we just haven’t found the right name yet or whether we should focus on narrowing down our favourites from our current list.

I had a similar experience to pp in that I could tell how much I liked a name by how ‘upset’ I was by my husband veto-ing them. In most cases I didn’t really care but for two names I’m still disappointed he doesn’t like them (might try and get them back on the list). Also ironically the one girls name that we have both really liked sounds awful with baby’s surname!

To be honest I feel like it took me weeks to settle into the names for my kids post birth. You end up introducing them to a variety of people and when I did, I would question the name in my head (with DS we were between two names for my entire pregnancy and I wondered for weeks if we made the right choice). Now he's older I feel more confident

Turner ..
Rowena Jane Turner
Rose Millicent Turner
Camilla (Milly) Rowan Turner
Rochelle Kaye Turner
Vincent Boyd Turner - Vin
Flynn Rory Turner
Rupert Finn Turner
Rowan Miles Turner

It’s so difficult I know, took us ages to agree on a name for DS1, names I liked DH didn’t, the name he loved I didn’t like, even though he tried again when DS2 arrived. We just kept going through the name book until we agreed. Eventually with DS1 I said a name, he said I like that, MIL also liked it, so that what he called. I found it easier to name my second son, a name we had not considered before. Still very happy with our choices, their names really suit them. Good luck OP, it’s a very exciting time

For us we had our top 5 names out of that with dd1 we figured Elizabeth would likely be the main one. She was born and instead of hello like most of us says dh and I in unison said. "Well this is not Elizabeth"
We looked at each other and then said Phoebe. Of the 5 I would have said the least likely before she was born.

We learned our lesson picked out names we liked for each child and then waited to see what they felt like. They all had their name when they arrived.. I don't regret any of them still think they have beautiful names (though it bugs me how popular Phoebe became -mine is from the year friends came to thenUK so it was not popular)

There was no name we both absolutely loved. We were also extremely limited because we needed to find a name that worked in the UK, in another European country and in an Asian country (my DH has dual nationality)! It was HARD.
In the end we found names we both quite liked. Not loved - it was simply good enough. We have a daughter and a son and it was the same in both cases.
Once we'd given our children these names the names became THEM. I now can't think of the names without thinking of my children so of course I absolutely love the names!

A name just came to me… and then stayed in my mind. I suggested it to DH who liked it but we didn’t really talk about it much more, and then I suggested it again with a middle name further down the line, and that became his name.

We had a second option, but it was far more popular; and someone else in our close friends circle due at around the same time called their baby it so we’d never have used it, I don’t think.

I can’t imagine him being anything else now. Or what he’d have been if he’d have been a girl! We didn’t know he was a boy, I just had a feeling.

I sometimes feel when I read these baby name threads that maybe DH and I come from another planet. For our boy and girl we just mulled over some names until one or two sprang out at us. We both felt that a rose by any other name (etc) so were quite happy with George and Claire and so are they.

We were pretty set on our name choice from about 6 months into the pregnancy, but when he arrived it took a little while for the name to 'settle' on him, for me at least!!
That's the best way I can describe it; it felt like we were floating the name over him to see if it dropped down and settled on him.
The other factor was that the wonderful, beautiful midwives took to calling him 'One-Eyed Jack' as a nickname (he has two eyes, he just kept one closed for the first few hours and eyed the world suspiciously!!) and then I really liked Jack! We went with the original name we chose but Jack is now on the list for our second son, due next month!

I'd say stay open to everything as inspiration can really come from anywhere and it'll just feel like 'yep, that's them!'

It grew on me 😂 I couldn't find any, partner liked one, I thought it was ok. She suits it haha and over time I love it.

Rowan is by far the nicest name on your lists for boy or girl and the one that goes best with the surname. Just use a masculine or feminine middle name.

Finn Turner is venturing into Paige Turner territory.
Rory is a popular boy's name, so I wouldn't recommend using it for a girl unless short for Aurora or something.

Our first daughter we had one picked out as soon as we knew she was a girl (20 week scan) and she was never anything else. This time I’ve got a 2 week old and she has had soooo many names, and we’re still not sure. I much preferred the first scenario, this not-knowing is stressful! People kept saying we’d know when we saw her but that absolutely has not happened!

Rowan is gorgeous, personally I love it for a girl but we haven’t used it because it is so completely unisex, when I’ve met little Rowans I’ve often had to guess/ask and I’d rather something with a bit more of a clue.. having said that our first daughter is Indi (Indigo) which is also pretty unisex, it just felt quite feminine to us.

Finn I love, Mila is lovely. I also love Kendra, among other things it means wise, doesn’t go with our surname but might work for you since Keira is on your list.. good luck finding the right one :-)

Yes we both really love Rowan... But I really think boy when I hear it. Husband thinks girl. Maybe one of us will budge...
Rory we both see as a girl name weirdly, mainly because we've both watched Gilmore Girls, but my worries about her constantly getting a reaction of 'isn't that a boys name?' in the UK, so that puts me off it. I have the same concerns for that reaction if we called a girl 'Rowan' too.
Despite its popularity, I've always liked Finn, but for some reason don't think we'd call our first son that.
Girls names in general we're having trouble with as we both always wanted to call our little girl Lily and can't think of a better name, but my sister in law called her daughter/our niece that!

PS

We both always wanted to call our little girl Lily, but then my sister in law called her daughter that, so now we're really struggling with girls names as we just can't think of a name we like as much as that.

Don't have anything of use to add other than what others have already said but...

I think the name Rowan Turner is absolutely gorgeous! It flows so well whether for a boy or a girl. It's lovely.

Rowan Blanchard, Rowan Atkinson

Lily is pretty but it is so overused.

I know a girl Rowan and a boy Rowan. They both suit it!
Girl Rowan is a pretty little blonde super girly, popular, pink loving, gymnast 6 yr old.
Boy Rowan is a cool, funny, popular, gamer teenager.

And girl Rowan does get called Rory and nobody questions it.

We had 2 names picked and on the morning of my section I just knew which name was right. So I told my dh and the Dr what babies name was and that was it. Dh couldn't pick between the two and said he liked either. He couldn't imagine ds being called the alternative name now though 😂

I have twins but we didn’t find out what we were having so we had to pick 2 girls, 2 boys and a boy & a girl combo.

it was a nightmare I could really only decide on girls names and that was only a couple of weeks before they arrived.

I must have subconsciously known as I had 2 girls, the names together just worked 🥰

they arrived at 33 weeks and I only glimpsed them for seconds before they were taken to NICU. One of my girls was quite a bit bigger than the other so that’s how we decided - big one was F and the smaller one was B.

Both times they just felt right. I kept coming back to the same name both times over and over again despite looking at and liking lots.

I can’t describe it, it was just a feeling that “yep, this is her name. This is what she’s called”.

One of our top 3 names came on the radio when we were going in to be induced as a song title. Sealed the deal!