Indiana Babies

Those who waited until your baby was born to announce the name...

Did you tell your parents or siblings before hand and just keep it a secret from everyone else? Or was it a surprise to everyone? 

I'm absolutely terrible with surprises/secrets. Don't ever tell me any because most likely I won't be able to keep my mouth shut. with that said...I really want to keep the name a secret next time (fat chance it will happen) but I'd like to try. :)

We actually already have our 2 names picked out when/if we have another child. Sure we might change our mind before then, but I have a feeling either way my parents will not really like the name choice (they didn't like the name Rowan at first). I'm wondering if when, down the line, when I get pregnant, if I should tell them before or just wait? I'm just curious what others have done.

(and I know I know, I'm so ahead of the game. I'm just sitting here making a photo calendar for my grandma and I'm bored and I always think of things like this :) 

Re: Those who waited until your baby was born to announce the name...

  • lol

    Well, with Andrew we didn't tell the boy name because we didn't have any names picked.  We had ideas for our girl name that we shared.

    With #2 we'll probably narrow it down to a couple that we'll share.  I'm SO over surprises.

  • Call me cheesy but I think it's even more exciting when I see someone announce that their baby was born and say their name for the first time. I feel like the "surprise" is lost if I already knew the name, KWIM? We totally told everyone R's name before he was born though and while I enjoyed getting personalized gifts :) I feel like it'd be more fun/exciting to wait and tell people. 
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  • Oh, it would be fun.  But we also didn't know the sex, so that was already a huge surprise. 

    This time, no surprises. 

    I would personally rather withhold the sex than the name, but, I'm not sure why. I guess I think people are more anxious to hear the sex, but, I don't feel like most people are on edge waiting to hear just a name.  I might be wrong or maybe that's just how I am!

  • DH wants the sex to be a surprise for the next one. I don't think I can be on team green.

  • It's funny. With Andrew, I wasn't tempted at all to find out because we'd decided we wanted a surprise.

    This time, knowing we're going to find out, I am so anxious and can't imagine not finding out ;) 

  • Finding out we were expecting twins at our first u/s was a HUGE surprise, so we did not want any more! We did not think twice when she asked if we wanted to know the sex. :-) DH believes he only has male spermies so he wants to make it a surprise in the delivery room.
  • imageBride7-14-07:
    Finding out we were expecting twins at our first u/s was a HUGE surprise, so we did not want any more! We did not think twice when she asked if we wanted to know the sex. :-) DH believes he only has male spermies so he wants to make it a surprise in the delivery room.

    LOL 

    that's how I feel with this pregnancy!   no more surprises we're over that!

  • I shared some name ideas early on with BFF, then thought about it and decided I wanted to keep it a surprise.

    We didn't even totally decide on our girl name till a couple weeks before she was born (first name was one we tossed around the whole pgcy, middle name was in the air till the end), and the boy name was down to two choices.

    Anyway, other than my early discussion with BFF, our names were secret from everyone.

    I can see arguments from all sides. I thought it added to the excitement to be able to announce that we had had a daughter, and what her name was. Plus, everyone has opinions on names, and they will gladly share them, but it's a lot harder to express a negative opinion when there is a cute little person attached to it already. So there's one argument for keeping the name a surprise.

    But SIL recently had a baby, and they found out gender and announced the name soon after the big u/s, and it was neat to be able to talk to DD about her baby cousin by name.

    We'll probably keep it a secret though, for the next one. Don't know yet if we'll stay team green or find out. Cross that bridge when we get there, I guess!

  • We had shared names with family and friends, but Samuel wasn't one of them.  We didn't come up with Sam until he was born, we looked at him, and he just wasn't a (insert already chosen name here).  So we took a while to decide what he was.

    Personally, I hate knowing people's names ahead of the time.  Too much time for people to tell you their opinion, and I think it takes away from the excitement of having a baby.  I know too many babies that were "pre-named" and when they came out, they look nothing like their name.  Or there's the off chance that your ultrasound is wrong, and you have a lot of personalized stuff! Smile

    With our next child, we will again be on Team green until it's arrival.  It's so fun not to know!!

  • We didn't know the sex but we had narrowed it down to a couple names of each sex.  We told a few people those names but we made it clear that we hadn't made any decisions.  

    We won't find out the sex next time either and I don't know if we'll tell anyone any of our name choices because I hate hearing everyones opinions.  lol  If we like it, that's what matters. 

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  • Jonah was named two days after he showed us the goods at his 15 week U/S.  I talked to him, I told everyone, and I really felt like I knew him all that much more, once he arrived.

    With Elliott, DH and I could NOT agree (read: we fought over it), and so when he showed up at 38 weeks, we didn't have a decision on a name, and we took most of the first day coming to a compromise.  

    It felt really weird to me, not knowing this little guy sooner.  For the first month, I had to work really hard to say his name out loud.  I found myself falling back to, "Little guy", "buddy", etc.  Actually, most of the time I called him Jonah, poor thing!  There were times when it really upset me that I wasn't as close to Elliott as I was with J from the start.

    If we have another, we will find out the sex and by all that's in me, we WILL have a name early on in the pregnancy.  I do agree that I got WAY too much opinion and pushback on the name Jonah, but honestly, I didn't care what others thought, he was Jonah.  

    Just my rambling opinion, but that's how I plan to roll (if we ever dance that dance again, lol).  

  • We're not telling the name because we're waiting until he's born to name him. We did that with aidan as well
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  • I didn't want my family's opinion to skew the name we chose. That's why we waited.  Oh, and we didn't have a name picked out until the day she was born.  That really helped keep that secret.

  • we decided to tell our families the name with both kids because a) we knew and b) they (esp MIL) are very opinionated about names.

    Up until we told them, EVERY SINGLE TIME I talked to her she would suggest names.  It was annoying, so once we knew the name, we told her "this is the name.  Including the middle name.  It's not changing.  We don't care if you like it or not."  It shut her up both times w/ the name suggestions.  Thankfully because she has really sh*tty taste in names.

    Also, we knew with Scarlett in particular that her name (both first and middle) would not be liked by either of our families.  We figured this way it gave them some time to get used to it.  I told my mom we were naming her Scarlett and she was like, "are you sure?"  LOL.  I still tease her about that.  MIL said, "well, I don't like that at all."  And I said, "well, good thing it doesn't matter if you do!"

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  • imageeclaires:

    Also, we knew with Scarlett in particular that her name (both first and middle) would not be liked by either of our families.  We figured this way it gave them some time to get used to it.

    That is my thought. Maybe we'll just tell our parents and no one else. Honestly I think it helped they knew Rowan's ahead of time and could get used to it. I can just see them finding out at the hospital and being like "you named him/her what!?"  

  • With Luke, we knew since the ultrasound that he would be a Luke or Mason, so our family gave their opinions but by 28-30 weeks we had told everyone our decision.  With this one (Miles Andrew) we knew it wasnt as common so just told them that is what we picked.  We had suggestions up until we chose but after we said that was his name, if we got a suggestion we just said that our name was chosen. 
  • We didn't know Josie's name until the day after she was born--we were debating between 3 which we told people if they asked but said we could come up with something totally different.  I wanted to see her to know for sure.  Thankfully everyone loves her name!
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  • We didn't tell a soul. Well, except you guys I think. :)

    We announced her name to everyone when we told them we were in labor. We had already told them we'd text everyone when we were admitted to the hospital, so our text read, "Our Ella Grace is on her way - Lauren's in labor at the hospital!"

    Everyone loved it - they commented on how fun it was to get both announcements at the same time.

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  • We're giving the baby my middle name, which is a family name.  I knew I was going to do this before I ever met DH. 

    We have our list narrowed down to three names and we've basically stopped talking about names for now.  We probably won't decide until the baby is born what he's going to be named.  

    We've decided not to share our short list of names.  And even if we decide on a name prior to birth, we won't be sharing it until he's born. 

  • We didn't tell a single person (yet 3 people guessed it) and we'll do the same with future children. I really loved telling everyone when she was born. It did get really annoying when people would try to pry the name out of us, but it was all in good fun.
  • We were pretty settled on a girl's name by the I was sent to the hospital. Not even close to settled on a boy's name. While we were waiting for a room to open up for the c/s, we were trying to at least narrow it down. I had suggested Grady months before and Abe had dismissed it. Apparently it had grown on him over time because he brought it back up while we were waiting. I just knew in my bones that we were having a boy and when Abe said he liked Grady, I knew that was it! Fortunately, his name totally suits him. I'd have been sad if he had come out looking like a Fred Wink

    I'm 99% positive we won't find out the sex again for future pregnancies. We still love our girl's name, Adele, but God help us in the boy's name department. It will likely be another last minute decision.
  • imagejac*n*abe:


    I'm 99% positive we won't find out the sex again for future pregnancies. We still love our girl's name, Adele, but God help us in the boy's name department. It will likely be another last minute decision.

    I LOVE Adele, too. That was my favorite girl name growing up. I hope you use it as DH is not a fan so I will never be able to :(.

  • We didn't even have a name until the day before Tyson was born.  I think I've told you all this, but I had my maternity photos done on Monday and knew I was being induced on Wednesday.  We have a photo with the other name we were considering (as well as Tyson), because we still hadn't made a decision at that point.

    We didn't share any of the options we were considering.  My mother is very opinionated in a passive aggressive way and I just didn't want her comments.  I'd wait until the next baby is born to share the name unless you're okay with the commentary.

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  • Funny story about sharing the names...

    One of my sorority sisters had a baby last week.  She posted on her wall that she was in labor and at the hospital.  Everyone kept posting "we can't meet Henry".  Well, they changed their minds after he was born and named him Benjamin.  :)

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  • Last time we didn't tell anyone but you guys and this time we aren't telling anyone period.  I can't wait to tell you all and everyone else his name once he arrives.

    I actually think it is quite funny when people push back about us not sharing the name...like they deserve to know or something. Um, you are lucky that I told you the sex, so STFU.

  • We're keeping our names a secret until the day he arrives, since we found out what we were having we wanted to at least keep one element of it a surprise.  I know the entire family is dying to know his name. 

    The hardest part is all the unsolicited opinions on names, I always hold my breath when they say names they don't like, out of fear they'll say a name on our list!  So far so good though! :)

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  • imageshauna060708:

    Last time we didn't tell anyone but you guys and this time we aren't telling anyone period.  I can't wait to tell you all and everyone else his name once he arrives.

    I actually think it is quite funny when people push back about us not sharing the name...like they deserve to know or something. Um, you are lucky that I told you the sex, so STFU.

    OMG, this! We had a few comments from otherwise normal family that we were being selfish. WTF?!

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  • We were about 90% certain that Paige's name was going to be Paige, but we didn't tell anyone until after she was born. We wanted to make sure that she was a Paige when she came out. Some names just don't fit some babies, you know? We had a back-up list just in case, but luckily, she was Paige.

    With this one, we both really like Molly and Alice for first names, and we've told people that, but we're still keeping our options open. Plus, I'm not sure that we'll be able to choose one until we see her. 

    My mom is nice with her criticism (she "likes Molly, and not a fan of Alice, but [she'll] love her new grandbaby and thinks whatever name we choose will be perfect"). My IL's are ridiculously rude with their criticism (MIL thinks we should name a girl after her). So, yeah, we keep them out of the decision-making process.

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  • We didn't tell anyone the name with our first DD.  My MIL is a first grade teacher and she used to always make comments about how we could never name our children certain names b/c of students she had.  So we decided to just keep it a secret so we didn't get any feedback about the name we chose.  It worked out well keeping it a secret but this time we just didn't really care and we've been telling the name if people ask.  I don't call my belly "Joslyn" or anything though.  It just seems weird to me personally to call the baby by her name before she's born.  I don't know why, just seems weird!  And I don't really offer up the name, just tell people if they ask about it.
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