Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Baby names

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

What do you do when you can't find any names?

110 replies

Camia · 26/02/2025 07:35

I don't know if this quite belongs here so apologies if not. I'm not sure of a better place for it. I don't know what to do going forward. My partner and I are expecting our third baby and third boy soon and picking a name has been an absolute nightmare. Girl names we can agree on (so of course we have all boys lol), but neither of us have an easy time settling on boy names and really loving them and we have total opposite naming styles, and it's gotten worse with each baby. Our first was a little difficult but we got there by about 25 weeks. Our second involved a miserable amount of back and forth and frustration and finally got a first name at 39 weeks, and we picked his middle name while I was in labor. Now on #3 I feel like there's no way this poor child will ever get a name.

We literally can't even remotely agree on ANYTHING. Every single name one of us even sort of likes the other completely hates. I'm out of ideas. I've spent at least an hour or 2 every day, sometimes longer, searching for names just trying to find new name ideas we haven't seen before and ruled out, and I'm not exaggerating when I say it's been months since I've found anything new. I'm to the point of actively seeking out the rarest, wildest names I can possibly find just to find something new and they're still all ones we've already seen and said no to. I've tried finding a compromise between our naming styles and looking for names that fall somewhere in between, I've tried tweaking names one of us likes to make them more appealing to the other, I've tried catering to my partner's style and looking for names I can stand, I've lowered my own standards and gone from looking for names I love to just any name I think I could live with. He's tried to do the same with my naming style. We've tried just flat out making up a name. It's gotten us nowhere. We both agree that it's not fair to give just one of us more control over the first name, we both know we'd both end up unhappy over it knowing one of us never wanted that name. I'm beyond stressed and frustrated and the pregnancy hormones are not helping. I adore my older 2 boys' names even though they were hard to settle on, they're perfect for both of them, and I feel like the only option at this point is to give up and just pick any random name no matter how I feel about it and it breaks my heart to think of sticking my baby with a decision like that.

I might be being ridiculous from hormones and stress and sleep deprivation (the pregnancy insomnia has been terrible this time around) but I just don't know what to do. Do I just go with something my partner likes and hope it grows on me over the years? Do I try to convince him to do that and then live the rest of my life feeling horribly guilty about it? Do we just pick a name out of a hat and deal with whatever it ends up being?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
trainboundfornowhere · 26/02/2025 18:05

Aldous
Aldric
Edric
Kenelm
Leofric
Wystan
Yorath
Jago
Jowan
Margh
Myghal
Piran
Peredur
Iestyn
Ianto
Eoin
Aelfric
Alphaeus
Amyas
Menzies
Meurig
Oswin

All real boys names

behindthename.com has a random renamer facility too which allows you to pick where you would like the name to come from so English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Latin, Greek and Hebrew amongst many others. Which may help with ideas as well as the site having a huge database of names and a forum for name discussion.

Carouselfish · 26/02/2025 19:30

How old are the siblings? Let them pick the names. Even if you don't love their choices at first you'll get used to it as the name becomes all about the person you love and loses any prior association anyway.

janie2 · 27/02/2025 22:13

I've been thinking about this thread all day! Names I thought about.

Oisin
Oran
Tadgh
Tearlach
Torin
Colwyn
Calean
Kalian
Suilven

Hunter
Fox
Rex
Jago
Jonah
Artemis

Good Luck! I'm sure a name will pop up and you'll know it when you hear it!

GoldenLegend · 28/02/2025 06:24

HamSpray · 26/02/2025 08:02

I’d calm it all down and not think about it for a few weeks. We didn’t finally decide on a name till we were actually on our way to register DS.

I used to know someone who was a registrar and she said it wasn’t unknown for parents to be rowing about the name in her office.

Emanwenym · 28/02/2025 06:56

@janie2 , why are some of those names misspellings of Irish names?

Umbrellah · 28/02/2025 08:59

Camia · 26/02/2025 07:35

I don't know if this quite belongs here so apologies if not. I'm not sure of a better place for it. I don't know what to do going forward. My partner and I are expecting our third baby and third boy soon and picking a name has been an absolute nightmare. Girl names we can agree on (so of course we have all boys lol), but neither of us have an easy time settling on boy names and really loving them and we have total opposite naming styles, and it's gotten worse with each baby. Our first was a little difficult but we got there by about 25 weeks. Our second involved a miserable amount of back and forth and frustration and finally got a first name at 39 weeks, and we picked his middle name while I was in labor. Now on #3 I feel like there's no way this poor child will ever get a name.

We literally can't even remotely agree on ANYTHING. Every single name one of us even sort of likes the other completely hates. I'm out of ideas. I've spent at least an hour or 2 every day, sometimes longer, searching for names just trying to find new name ideas we haven't seen before and ruled out, and I'm not exaggerating when I say it's been months since I've found anything new. I'm to the point of actively seeking out the rarest, wildest names I can possibly find just to find something new and they're still all ones we've already seen and said no to. I've tried finding a compromise between our naming styles and looking for names that fall somewhere in between, I've tried tweaking names one of us likes to make them more appealing to the other, I've tried catering to my partner's style and looking for names I can stand, I've lowered my own standards and gone from looking for names I love to just any name I think I could live with. He's tried to do the same with my naming style. We've tried just flat out making up a name. It's gotten us nowhere. We both agree that it's not fair to give just one of us more control over the first name, we both know we'd both end up unhappy over it knowing one of us never wanted that name. I'm beyond stressed and frustrated and the pregnancy hormones are not helping. I adore my older 2 boys' names even though they were hard to settle on, they're perfect for both of them, and I feel like the only option at this point is to give up and just pick any random name no matter how I feel about it and it breaks my heart to think of sticking my baby with a decision like that.

I might be being ridiculous from hormones and stress and sleep deprivation (the pregnancy insomnia has been terrible this time around) but I just don't know what to do. Do I just go with something my partner likes and hope it grows on me over the years? Do I try to convince him to do that and then live the rest of my life feeling horribly guilty about it? Do we just pick a name out of a hat and deal with whatever it ends up being?

Could you find the boys “equivalent” of the girls name perhaps?

OVienna · 28/02/2025 12:41

Husband's names are mental.

janie2 · 28/02/2025 17:21

@Emanwenym
One is a typo that I just didn't notice. Caelan .

I haven't used inflections because my phone was playing silly buggers but the rest are possibly Scottish spelling not Irish or are names of people I know. I checked a site for spellings 🤷‍♀️

Feel free to add your own spelling. 😀

Emanwenym · 28/02/2025 17:59

@janie2 , Tadhg

GiddyCrab · 28/02/2025 21:00

Put 6 names each in a box
Toss a coin. Best of 3 foes first.
Pull out 1 name.
Partner then pulls out middle name.
Sorted.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page