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My husband and I have a month and a half until our new baby will be born. Everything is coming together, but the name. We chose not to find out what we are having so coming up with two names is a bit more work than I expected. I am definitely a bit apprehensive about not having a name ready by the time this baby is born! Any tips? I should have expected this process to be tasking, since choosing paint colors took several months but this isn't easy!
Any experiences with this? Maybe how to compromise tips?
If it's really a problem for you two then go with the tried and true methond of each of you offering up your favorite boy/girl names and waiting until the birth to see if one seems to fit better than the other. Then flip a coin if you can't agree.
I knew I was having a girl the first time and we narrowed it down to two names, my husband picked one and I liked it well enough that I was happy to agree, knowing it made him feel more involved in the whole process. I knew I was having a boy my second time and again we had two names in mind. When he was born my 3 year old daughter came in to visit and I let her pick. I figured it would help her bond and I really didn't care as I liked them both. I always figured I could use the other names with future children, but we stopped at 2.
First daughter has a traditional name shared by my husband's great-grandmother and my great-great-aunt. Her middle name is the feminine version of my husband's name.
We weren't sure whether our second child was a girl or a boy, so we chose a unisex nickname tied to traditional names (e.g., Charlie for Charles and Charlotte) so we could call the baby something before he or she was born. She turned out to be a girl, so she has the feminine name and my sister's name as her middle name.
Our third child is a boy, and we had a difficult time deciding. My husband wanted to name our son after himself, but I did not want to do that. Then we considered their having the same initials, but we only liked two names beginning with the same letter. One was already "taken" by an older boy cousin, and the other is the male form of my sister's name (and already used as our middle child's middle name). We finally chose a completely different name not tied to anybody (still traditional, though), and his middle name is my husband's godfather's first name.
As you can see, we chose names to honor family members, but that can be tricky. For instance, I like my father's name very much, and it's a popular name (e.g., James). My husband's father's name is rarely seen anymore and not at all common for newer generations (e.g., Eustace). We hesitated to use my father's name and snub his father in doing so.
I'd start with deciding what kind of names you like (traditional, short, musical, Biblical, exotic) and what kind of names sound good with your last name, particularly if you have an unusual last name or one that seems tied to a particular country and style of name. For instance, if your last name is very German, e.g., Birnbaum, it might not so well with a very Italian first name, e.g. Francesca.
Consider:
How the first name "flows" with your last name (e.g., Taylor Tanner)
How it sounds by itself, with the middle name only (for "Get down here right this minute" purposes), and all the names together
Whether other people will know how to spell it and whether that's an issue for you ("No, it's Annee with two Es")
Whether your child will be able to spell it
Nicknames, good and bad (Julie Droolie, Julie Foolie, Julie Ghoulie, Julie Stoolie ... I've heard them all), and how the good ones sound with your last name
Initials (David Ulysses Montgomery will hate you)
A good place to look is the Social Security website, which lists the top 100 (500?) names given on birth certificates in a given time period. Look through them and decide whether you want a name up at the top, in the middle somewhere, or not on the list at all.
My husband was adamant that the first boy be named after him and his granddad, and so it was. Thus I got to name the first daughter. We went with a first name that I really liked. It was actually my second choice for a name but my first was an Irish name (where I am from) and people here would have had difficulty spelling it, so went with second choice. Middle name was my husband's mother's name. Third child, also a daughter, we went with a biblical first name- starting with the same letter as first daughter's- and my grandmother's name as the middle name.
Each of us made a list of names we liked (sometimes with with a little help from baby name websites, because you can't think of every name, can you), then exchanged lists to see if there were names on both lists or nice names we hadn't thought of... made a short list... and the final choice came kind of naturally, a few days before the baby was born!
Communication is key... and don't get stubborn about what you really like! Compromise is important, but only as long as the two of you like the name!
I wanted my daughters name to have my bf's initials but still have meaning. Trinity means the combining love of 3 (the father the son and the holy ghost) and June her middle name is my grandmas name.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. So helpful but we are still in the decision process. Hopefully we will decide the day he/she is born. I am not leaving the hospital with a nameless baby!
Well for the first I really really liked the name Aryana and the wife and my mother picked out Grace...bad move it doesn't suit our daughter very well she is like me trips over her own feet. Lol...with the 2nd Ian Lorenzo. Ian was from a favorite singer of mine and Lorenzo was from my grandfather who died 4 months to the day before he was born. The newest one. If its a boy I wanted a strong name so its Odin Wallace and for a girl its Addison Estelle.Estelle is a family name on my wife's side so that's where that came from the others really didn't have any meaning they just hit us.
For the first one, we only came up with 2 options. One was a traditional family name. The other was from a name book and we both just liked it. He was early, so we didn't really decide until after he was born.
For the second one, we came up with lists, and each vetoed a few until we narrowed it down to one we could agree on. It wasn't the first choice for either of us, but one we both liked.
I had a boy's name picked out because I was certain I was going to have a boy. My MIL, however, died of cancer about a month before my daughter was born, and all of a sudden we felt as if the baby would be a girl after all and decided that if it was a girl, we would name her after my MIL. She was and we did. It is a nice, old-fashioned name and no one else in the entire school had the name, which was important to me. I didn't want her to be lost in a sea of the trendy-name girls (which at the time were the Jessicas, Ashleys, and Caitlyns). Only now is her name gaining some renewed popularity, because of a celebrity.
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Any tips? I should have expected this process to be tasking, since choosing paint colors took several months but this isn't easy!
