The "What To Name Our Baby" War

Anybody else experiencing this? 

My hubby and I have only agreed on 2 names so far and decided we would name our baby that...then changed our minds.  Now we're back to liking the first name but uncertain about it.  We can only agree on about 5 or 6 names all together and none of them sound particularly nice together.  One of our problems is that we both have huge families so a lot of the names we like (and agree on) are already taken by another family member.  Then we have a few names that are already "owned" by close friend's kids.

We have a few months left (hopefully!) but we're both starting to get frustrated with the whole process.  We haven't actually had an argument over this...but it really looks like it's heading there.  We usually end up getting frustrated with each other because one of us will suggest a million names and the other will not like any of them...so we'll just stop talking about it. 

We agree 100% on the girl name we picked out...of course!

My best friend and her husband were the same way about their little girl (born last week).  One day her husband came home and suggested a name and they both went, "yup, that's it."  It'll all work out.  Don't worry too much.

My best friend and her husband went through that with their first son.  It was back and forth for the better part of nine months.  For every perfectly nice, normal name she suggested, he'd come up with something completely out of left field.  They still hadn't decided when the kid was born.  Then they just looked at him and thought that a particular name just fit.  

So this time they're not even bothering arguing, and they won't tell anyone what the contenders are.

On the other hand, my nephew was named by his father while my sister was still all drugged up from the C-section.  She could hear him telling the nurse a name she absolutely hated, but she was too stoned to say anything!  And by the time she woke up, it was too late.  

So, I think some consensus is important.  But in the end, you could stress about a name for months, and then the kid might just not seem like a Nigel, or whatever.

My parents couldn't agree on names for either me or my brother. In the end, my brother ended up being a junior as a compromise because the hospital wouldn't allow my parents to take him home until they chose a name.

I personally don't see a problem with choosing a name that other family members'/close friends' children have. It just reinforces the idea that the name is special and significant. But my family is old-school Italian-American, so I guess I'm just used to it. I am the only child who doesn't share a first or middle name with someone else in the family. Not sure how that happened!

My ex and I disagreed on names for our daughter.  She got named when she was 3 days old, because we were told she couldn't leave the hospital without a name.  She got a first name we could both live with, and her middle name belonged to a late relative. 

My best friend and her husband were the same way about their little girl (born last week).  One day her husband came home and suggested a name and they both went, "yup, that's it."  It'll all work out.  Don't worry too much.

This is what happened with us as well...we had a boys name picked out, but a month before she was due we finally found out that we were having a girl! so there went the name and we had to start over...couldn't agree on anything until my husband came home from work one day and I said what about xxx and he said 'yeah, I like it'.

Someone I know & her husband came up with a list of several names as options, but they waited until the babies were born to see what names the babies looked like. 

Please don't stress over it too much.  All kids end up with names eventually.  The UK doesn't put any stress on you to name your child in the hospital.  I can't believe anyone would have the audacity to tell a parent that they 'had' to have a name before they took their child home!

My dh and I only agreed on a girl name for number 1, luckily for us, she was a girl and the stress was over.  Baby 2 we kind of agreed on a girls name, but had a boy and we were at loggerheads trying to find names we both liked.  He was 8 days old before he had a name. Baby 3 we didn't agree on any names before hand but when our two older kids came to meet her in the hospital my son said 'Is this baby ---?' and that was kind of it. 

dh wasn't thrilled about ds's name, but now can't see him being any other name.  I loved all three from the beginning. 

Someone I know & her husband came up with a list of several names as options, but they waited until the babies were born to see what names the babies looked like. 

This has been the experience of most of the people I know! Sometimes they looked like one of the names from the list and other times, new names have emerged! 

I wouldn't fret too much -  I think it'll work itself out. 

Possibly not good advice, but I told my dh that if we had kids, since I would have to do all the heavy lifting for 9 months and the pushing the child out of me, I should get to name it.  He said, that's fine.

We looked at a list of the top 100 boys names in the US and UK (we're having a boy) because we figured, we're not going to name him anything too left field so it will probably be on there. Then we just started crossing off. First off we cut it down to 30, left it a week or two, looked at the list again, cut it back to 20.. and so on and so forth. We think we finally have a name picked but have a few different names on standby incase it doesn't fit when he's born. We're not telling anyone though, because this naming business is difficult enough, we don't want everyone weighing in with their opinions. Best of luck hun. 

For anyone looking for a little humor through the whole baby naming process: http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/

 

With my daughter, I had about 5 names picked out that I absolutely loved.  The problem with her was that I couldn't decide what name I liked the best.  And all 5 names sounded really good together.  I waited until after she was born and the perfect name popped up.  I wasn't too worried about it because I loved all the names so much that I knew I would love her name regardless of what it ended up being.

The problem this time around is that all the names we "like" are only names that we think are ok.  Maybe I have unrealistic expectations or something but I just feel like the mom and dad should think their kid has the most awesome name in the world (the way I felt with my daughter, regardless of which of the 5 names she ended up with).  We're just struggling to find a first name that we can both live with. 

I'm not really stressing about it too much...I know it will come together eventually...it's just frustrating sometimes.  My husband and his brothers never had middle names (because his parents couldn't agree on 2 names they both liked) so if we can just agree on 1 name, we might skip giving him a middle name (although I'd prefer not to and this will be a last resort) and he will be like his daddy.

We had two names for this baby...Imogen or Willow, my first choice was Willow, but my husband was afraid that if this baby didn't turn out to be "willowy" that it wasn't a great name, so Imogen it was! With my son I wanted a biblical name and after watching an episode of ER, Noah was chosen. With our middles names we went with the Jewish tradition of using the first letter of the name of a dearly departed, and again, I wanted hebrew names for our kids, so we have a Noah Gabriel and Imogen Liora.

My real philosophy is that I carried the kids for 9 months, I get final say on the names!!!

Noah Gabriel is such a lovely name!  Noah from ER is good, too