Are you telling the name ahead of time?

Sunshinebins

Now that we are all finding out baby's sex (if you wanted to) and the baby name discussion is pretty active, I'm curious...are you telling your family/friends your name for your baby? Or are you waiting until after they arrive?

swflJD

We haven't decided on a name yet, but we have shared our front runners with family and close friends.  I'm sure we will share with them once we do decide.  My mom is really into monogramming, so she's dying to know the name and initials so she can start personalizing everything.

Sunshinebins

We originally planned to keep it a secret, but since we are pretty sure we decided, I'm kinda leaning towards just telling everyone. The problem is MIL will tell everyone and their brother and probably get a thousand things with their names on them, and I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that. Basically I still don't know!

Bluejay3030

We will probably tell anyone who asks, if we can ever decide on a name, that is.

We probably won't finalize our name choice until Feb or March though.

folamij

We've decided on a name, but we aren't announcing her name until birth. My parents really want to know, and are staying with us over the holidays. To make sure we don't slip up, we have just been picking a name to call baby daily, and have called her real name a few times, which at this point, because we have switched names so many times no one suspects a thing! Momma isn't asking her name anymore, and we keep our little secret. Mission accomplished!

sarawifenow

We have already told everyone the name. I am terrible at keeping secrets. Plus I love that people talk to LO and call him by name.

countrygrl5533

Telling the name. It isn't really an issue for us.

cortney626

We've told close family and friends. My mom and brother were the worst ones who kept giving me suggestions after we told them. I'm close to both of them so I was able to tell them STFU and respect my decision. They're both better now. Everyone likes the name. We haven't announced it on facebook or anything. 

caterin

We told right away! For a boy we always had one name anyway and before we even knew if we are team blue, everyone loved the name so much and hoped we wouldn't change our mind. So once we found out, everyone started to name baby right from the beginning!

wsgjmw1

We decided on a name but are still undecided as to when we will tell people ...

helleebellee

I still haven't told anyone I'm pregnant let alone picked out a name.

finnybooboo

For my daughter we kept it under wraps because we really weren't 100% decided until a month or two before she was born. It also had family significance that was really special for my husband and I to keep until she was born and we were able to tell our parents when they saw her in the hospital.

This time, I already told my 3 closets friends, and since we keep telling my daughter (2 yrs old) what his name is, it's inevitable that she's going to let the cat out of the bag at some point. I do want to keep it only to family and close friends - not really into the whole announcing on FB and calling him by name publicly like that. 

missnc77

Once upon a time when I was in high school, I finally talked my dad into getting a dog. We decided on a name but completely changed our minds once we got the puppy since she didn't look like what we wanted to name her. Based on this, we're not going to tell anyone, but mainly because we want to have a few names and decide post birth once we see our baby. Because having a baby is just like having a dog, right? Totally kidding.

Kennedy0830

Although we haven't picked a name, we won't share until birth. I'm already getting a lot of unsolicited advice and I'd probably go over the edge of someone had something negative to say about the name we chose (which there is always that one person that will ruin it). I just know wen baby is here and we say the name, no one will bat an eye because there is a new baby and she has a permanent name!

dsmith211

We've decided on a name and we are going to tell people what it is. We know we may get some backlash from a few people (mainly my step sister and her SO), but it's not their decision and we aren't changing our mind bc they think it should be something else. We've already gotten a bunch of unsolicited advice about other things so we're kind of just taking everything in stride.

To announce we're actually going to Disney to get a mouse ear hat with her name on it and then we're going to have our picture taken with it.

nerdymama15

We've told close family and friends so far.  Have not announced the name for the world on social media
 to see though.

valerie4786

We still haven't found out our baby's sex yet (hopefully if baby cooperates we'll find out Jan 11th!), but we think we've decided on names and husband is ready to lock those names in.  I, however, want to know if we're having a boy/girl first and let it sink in.  As for telling family, I'll probably tell one of my sisters and my two best friends, but other than that I think we're keeping the names to ourselves.

H0neyC0mb

We just announced her name when we announced her gender. It's a very sentimental name to my dad so I couldn't wait to see his reaction. The name discussion has been a favorite of ours for the past few years so we've got our first two boy and first two girl full names picked out.

tripledaggerWed95976

We shared the first name with our family and close friends and also told them we are still deciding on a middle name... HUGE mistake because I've now gotten middle name suggestions from everyone in the family so far lol. My advise- either tell the full name to people and make it clear you are already 100% sold on the name OR don't tell the name to anyone

yogahh

Not telling anyone. I don't want to hear anyone's opinions on the name we choose. I figure if we want until baby is born and name final, people will be less prone to give us their unsolicited opinions.

I will tell on the bump though!

TXmamatobe

We never tell our top choices but once we narrow it down to the one, we will tell. It's not open for discussion and if people aren't into it, too bad. There's plenty of people in my circle that have some very bizarre baby names but I've never said a word.

cdullon07

Our little girl is due a few days before my husband's grandfather passed away this past May so we wanted to play off his name in our baby's name. His name was Edward. We let everyone know the options for a boy and for a girl. Once we found out it was a girl we announced it to everyone by telling them we are so excited to meet Eden Elizabeth. Hubby and I are open people who are not easily upset by people opinions. We love her name and our feeling is you don't have to love her name she isn't your daughter she's ours and we love her name.

kbrands7

We have a name picked out, but won't tell until the baby is born-- except for here. We did the same thing for DS and I really liked being able to introduce the baby to the family rather than them rolling into the hospital room going right for him. It also kept the decision between DH and I, allowed us to avoid negative/positive opinions based on the name only, helped me to avoid receiving clothes with the name embroidered on them, and helped to avoid the "that's a nice name, but what about ____?" sort of conversation.

TunieBee

Yes

countrygrl5533

In reading this, I didn't know how lucky I am. We've never dealt with anyone giving their opinions on our baby name choices. They just accept and move on.

Either people respect us enough to not feel the need to discuss or I'm just that much of a B that I scare people off. Hey, if it means no one bothers us about this stuff, I'm okay with either. lol

TheThornBird

missnc77 said:

Once upon a time when I was in high school, I finally talked my dad into getting a dog. We decided on a name but completely changed our minds once we got the puppy since she didn't look like what we wanted to name her. Based on this, we're not going to tell anyone, but mainly because we want to have a few names and decide post birth once we see our baby. Because having a baby is just like having a dog, right? Totally kidding.

Same here! Although everyone thinks I'm nuts because I wouldn't mind waiting a couple weeks after it's born to name the baby so I can get to know his/her personality better and find one that fits perfectly. No one is a fan of that idea, can't figure out why

babykasper

We aren't telling names or name ideas until he's born and has a name that's official and on his birth certificate! people (our family) have huge opinions and push it on everyone! It's our decision and we don't want outside influence. So we continue to call him Baby Dinosaur until then. Plus we don't want anyone referring to him by one name and then by chance he comes out and ends up with a completely different name. Probably sounds stupid but it's something we want to avoid. Once he's named and we tell family, "this is his name" there's no argument... I'm sure other people's families might not be as intrusive as ours but this is a way to protect us and our baby! Lol

lalala2004

I'm telling anyone who asks, but not deliberately broadcasting it. A whole lot of people ask, though! I don't care about other people's opinions, so it doesn't really bother me. If it did, I probably wouldn't share.

yogahh

kbrands7 said:

We have a name picked out, but won't tell until the baby is born-- except for here. We did the same thing for DS and I really liked being able to introduce the baby to the family rather than them rolling into the hospital room going right for him. It also kept the decision between DH and I, allowed us to avoid negative/positive opinions based on the name only, helped me to avoid receiving clothes with the name embroidered on them, and helped to avoid the "that's a nice name, but what about ____?" sort of conversation.

sooooo whats the name

lisaren

We're not sharing with anyone!

onislandtime

We call the baby by her name already, so people know if they have heard us talking. But I'm not posting it on Facebook or anything like that. 

mcb2016

If we can ever decide on a name for baby boy we will share it. With our first son who was adopted we couldn't decide on a name until we actually met him for the day, even though we had seen his pictures for five months. I'm hoping we can come up with something quicker this time around.

rlworzalla

We didn't put the name on our FB sex reveal but we did tell family and some friends over Christmas.

proudparent2b

We're not telling the name until kid is born. People started giving their recommendations within minutes of finding out the gender. I'd rather ignore their suggestions than have that much effort put toward critiquing our decision. Once the kid is born, they'll just have to deal if they don't like it.

LadySamLady

I was really open about in the beginning and talked about name ideas with a lot of people but it ruined a lot of names for me so I stopped. We won't decide for certain until after we meet her but I'm not going to share our short list.

Now if only we could finalize the list...

2.red.heads

No way! We definitely like to wait until the baby is born and we can 'look' at them first before officially giving them a name. We'll probably just have several top names narrowed down by the time we go to the hospital. Plus I never like the idea of people having a chance to give a negative response when telling the name ahead of time. I feel like once it's on the birth certificate they'll keep any opinions to themselves.

gamommyx3

I didn't know the answer to this question, so I just asked my husband. Apparently we're waiting until the birth He said he doesn't want to have to listen to people's opinions and I get that.

sillyfox

We waited until our first was born, but mostly because we couldn't decide on a name. Not sure with this one what we will do since we're pretty set with one boy name and one girl name. Still haven't picked middle names though, but we have time...

codeeye

We told all the grandparents what his name was going to be when we gave them gender reveal presents at Christmas. Although everyone had the same reaction about it being a unique name (Titus Jackson) the only person to make a "suggestion" was my MIL and my SO's aunt. To be honest they said a lot of stuff at Christmas that just down right peeved me off. From "you shouldn't let the baby take his last name if he isn't marrying you" (for the record we have talked about marriage but don't want people to think we are just doing it because of the baby so we have kept that a secret) to suggesting that we add my SO's name as a middle name "to make sure people know he is the dad" yeah... Christmas was fun. But that's another story!

I think if we would have kept the name a secret until birth less people would comment on its uniqueness in a negative way. But unsolicited advice comes with having a baby. So it's seemingly unavoidable.

Sienna516

We feel pretty decided on a name, and I was telling people some of the names we liked and a few people from work asked me and irked me with their unsolicited opinion, so I decided I'm not telling anyone anymore. I didn't announce on social media at all, and I don't plan on it until birth.

concreteayngel

I can see both sides of it. We didn't share while we were still deciding, but did when we knew we wouldn't be swayed by others' opinions. We are naming our son Archer Jameson, which the ILs were pretty vocal about not caring for the name. Though they've come around since then.

The thing is, it's the people the don't speak up and then get pissed off about "name thieves." Announcing a name early is a great way of calling "Dibs!" If there are other pregnant people in your life.