GTKYS: When did you select your child's name?

Mrs.R2D2

Obviously, many of us without kids (or at least, many of my friends) have a shortlist of "baby names", at least a few of which will likely go to their children.

However, among my friends/relatives that do have kids, I've seen some different approaches:

1. "I just POAS'd and I'm pregnant.  If it's a girl, her name will be Shae Amelia, and if it's a boy, Matthew James."

2. "If it's a girl, we're thinking either Diana, Norah, Charlotte, or possibly Catherine... it depends on which one she looks like when we meet her."

3. "We have a name or names picked out, but you'll just have to wait until he's born to find out what we call him."

ETA:  We have a group picked out, from which we will choose at birth or Gotcha Day.  And they're a secret, because we don't want anyone stealing our names.

Which is your approach, and why?

[Poll]

Honeydew1894

We have more or less decided on names, and plan to share prior to when the child comes home. I am not too worried abt name stealing as I have done the "hands off" name list with my sister, who is the only one who I would not want to have same names with, and we are good! Our names are less typical, so I am not worried. Plus, they have significant meaning so anyone stealing them should feel bad bc we tell why/what the names mean when we share!

Mrs.R2D2

fredalina:

Also in DA, often PAP's work with BP's on the name, which isn't an option.

Good point.  Poll edited.  Thanks Fred!

kmkaull

We had a list of names in the back of our heads, but wanted to wait until the baby arrived to see what he/she looked like.  Then we matched with Q's birth mom, who had very strong feelings about the name.  She really wanted a family name.  After we saw how important it was, and because we already loved and respected her, we chose one (a family surname) of the 3 or 4 names she suggested.   

Not everyone in my real life knows the whole story of how he got his name.  But we love it, and think it is a nice tie to his roots.   It helps that it just fits his personality.  His middle name is my father's name.

foundmylazybum

I can't choose. I talk about names all the time  with the hubs. We'll be riding in the car and I'll say, "How bout..." and then the most random name in the world will pop out of my mouth! 

"Bartholemew! We'll call him Bathy for short!" Then I'll talk about "Bathy" for the next week. And Bathy will get added to my long list..you know. Just in case. 

My poor husband.  

come*on*baby

We actually did have a name "stealing" in our family. we have a very very spiteful person in our family (married into the family as I did). DH sent her an email about how childish she was acting, etc. And she changed her then soon-to-be son's name from Logan to Jaxon just to spite us. I told her MIL that I don't care, I'm still using the name and that I'm going to be the wife that lasts longer in this family. :P

Art Teacher

I had a crazy long list of names for a long time.  Then right before we were picked, we sat down and narrowed it down to 3 girl names and 2 boy names.  Well, that got narrowed to 2 of each.  Earlier this week, our birthmother asked us if we had thought of any names and we told her them.  She said she liked all of them, and she made a suggestion about a possible middle name, too (a family name).  We like it.  So it looks like we'll all have  a hand in naming the baby!

(Oh, and we're not sharing the names with family/friends...it's a surprise!)

jacksjerseygirl

Need a special snow flake ...

We were not yet active with our agency when we were matched with our son. We had a 48 hour whirl wind with our unexpected bundle - we picked his name during our five hour car drive to meet him. We picked his middle name after we met him.

Sally J

With Cooper we chose a girl name and a boy name we liked and when we found out the gender we named him then.  In choosing names we liked I just felt like the only name that fit him was Cooper and the girl name we chose.  His middle name is from my maiden name.

With Charlotte she already had a name but we didn't feel like it fit her.  We also didn't think the name we chose for if Cooper would have been a girl would fit her.  We came up with a whole new name and began referring to her by the name before she came home.  Charlotte is because my DH's grandpa used to call him Charlie and we chose Rai (pronounced rye) because we liked the sound and it means trust which is very fitting for our situation.  We still had to use her original birth name on all legal documents until finalization.

GLynn2009

Our DD already knows her name and at 2 we did not want to change it so she will have Lynn anded on her first name. Her middle name is my DH's birth last name which is a request from the birth family. We were going to have her middle name as her first name if we had her before 18 months. So now that everyone has had time to get use to it everyone is mostly happy.

MM Anonymous

My baby had one name on her birth certificate and her parents said it was an error, and gave her a different name.  We decided to change it after lots of thinking, but kept the bios choice as her middle name.  Hubby and I struggled with name lists for about a year.  We had finally came up with about 10 names that we narrowed it down to.  After picking up our baby at the hospital, we decided none of our names really fit her (all that hard work down the drain...hehe!!).  We selected a new name that was totally fitting.