when do toddlers say their own name?

[strangerthanfiction]

I was just reading the other thread about when babies first say mama and dada and throckenholt's comment about 'mummy blindness' struck me in relation to my dd who has 'self blindness'! I mean she has no name for herself at all. If we show her a photo of herself she points at it and just says 'baby' or maybe 'girl' (neither of which I call her as fond names) and in the mirror if we point at her and say 'who's that?' she just looks away as if there's no-one there! So what sort of time did yours start to find some kind of name for themselves?

DD was saying it last summer and when people ask fer name she always replies, very very quickly "X X" - always first name straight away follwed by surname. I think it comes from nursery where they have to say and sue names so much more.

So last summer - ermmm??? About 15/16 months maybe?

dd probably between 14 and 18 months, although she would respond a little sooner. I think it comes roughly coinciding with the time they become self aware (18 to 24 months on average) so that they can point at themselves in a mirror when asked "where is "x" ?" or "where is "x"'s nose ? "rather than looking for someone else iyswim. Interestingly dd has never said "me do it" she has always used her name or I.

Afraid I can't recall with ds

sorry I really dont compare but thank you for your compassion ladies! Its just my eldest, my daughter has special needs and is four and is globally delayed and her speech is very slow coming. I just dont mix much with NT (normal) kids so I dont know whether my son is up to date or not. In our house he waaaaaaaaaaay forward

Well, all the evidence points to it being any time between 12 months and 2.5 years!! So I shan't worry. I'll just wait and see. I think dd's name is perhaps a bit hard to pronounce too. It's got a 'v' in it and she doesn't do v's so far.

My first did at about 12 months. My second is two and a half and calls herself me - will never say her name and just laughs. She calls her sister "sister" - will say her name sister's name sometimes but usually says sister, they're all so different as everyone has said. However, it's now vaguely annoying me - think it's a wind up but her speech is fairly poor anyway, which worried me as well. Now I just think, she's fine - she'll do it when she wants to.

Dd's quite good with other people's names curiously. She has names for ALL her toys which she never forgets and remembers my friends names but not their kids!! She calls their kids 'baby' (even if they're almost 10) in the same way she calls herself baby.

toddlers ha! my youngest son, a mighty 5 years old this august, still won't say his full name. Will just about spit out his surname if you are lucky. Rarely says his middle names, but is very keen to spell out his christian name.

Ds twins are really good at looking at photos and knowing who is who. Their names were one of their first words (and their speech isn't great as they have that own language thing going on.) I believe this is so they could answer "who did this?" with the others name!

At the moment they are going through a phase of both using ds twin1's name although they can say both and know who is who and ds twin1 has the harder to say name. I am sure it is to confuse me!

One of my friends, her dd (aged 5) goes apoplectic (sp?) if you just call her Emma. "My name is Emma-Kate!" she will hiss at whoever dared miss the Kate part! It is quite funny to see.

This is very interesting thread. DS1's first name he said was his baby sister's when she was born (aah) - he was just 2. His own name came a lot later - maybe 2.5? DD's first word more or less was her big brother's name (double aah) at 11mo. Her name not sure but soon after I think. He was a slowish speaker and not so clear, she was very quick and clear. Does this mean anything??

They're all so damned different aren't they? I think dd has 'baby-blindness', i.e. she thinks everyone under 4 foot tall is called 'baby' and all look alike.

my kids do that aswell STF!

They are all different. Ds2 has just recently started using his own name, hes 21 mths. He was on the phone to his Grandma saying 'lalex' my mum thought it was his brother talking. He was able to say his brothers name ages ago though not fully but definitely his brother's name.

Ds1 couldn't say his name until about 2 but it is quite a long name. I think if the name is difficult to say it could take them longer to say it too. Some kids have really short names and others are more tricky - don't know if this applies to your dd?

DD's name is very short actually but I think the 'v' in the middle does make it a bit hard to pronounce, it's 'Eva.' Stripey, when I first read your post I thought you said your ds' name was Latex and I was thinking, hmmm ... unusual ...

Fio2, but do they also refer to themselves as 'baby'?!?

DS has been able to identify himself and announce who he is since he was about 18 montyhs - but still finds it all very confusing. At 2.5 he was watching a video of me holding him as a newborn, and although he 'knew' it was him, he also became agitatedly jealous at the video and turned it off - he couldn't bear to watch me bf 'the baby'.

Awww ... jealous of himself ... hmmm, sure there's something Freudian going on there.

blu, that's sweet. I think you'll have to do some explaining, soon

strangerthanfiction that is funny, I don't suppose there are many named Latex out there? I just meant that although his name is Alex he will call himself Lalex or Lali sometimes but he is refering to himself so I suppose it counts.

today!! dd2 (21months) pointed to her reflection in the bedroom mirrow and said 'lolly' which is what everyone calls her.

I think dd may have called herself 'puss' which is my nickname for her. But generally she's still caught up in an identity crisis.

my goodness this thread is from 2004 wow I had my first child in 2003 wow the nostalgia I'm feeling right now!