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D.C. Area Babies
QOTD Thursday
Did you have a name(s) in mind for your LO before you were pregnant? Did you ultimately use that name? If you ultimately went with a different name, what changed your mind? And finally, did you (are you going to) share the name before the LO was (is) born?
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Re: QOTD Thursday
I had names I always liked and then I started teaching...and some of those changed!
DS and soon DD will have names that I never really thought of at all before I was pregnant. It was really hard for DH and I to agree on a boys name, so we figured when we found one we both liked for DS that was it! I just kind of fell upon DD's name to be, and DH thought about it for a few weeks and decided he liked it.
We weren't going to tell anybody DS's name, and then I just accidentally said it out loud one day when he kicked pretty hard. After that we just spilled the beans. This time we've told our close friends, but DH gets really excited about it and tends to tell a new person each week! We'll see how much longer we make it without the whole world knowing.
Yes. When my grandfather died, I knew I wanted to name my first son after him. So, I already had a name & thankfully my husband really liked it too! We didn't share it before he was born other than a select group of my friends to test it out. Honestly, the name was deeply personal & I didn't want to hear anything negative about it or get weird faces.
All that said, a small part of me wishes we would have gone with our backup name, Oliver. Sprout's name works with him, but he is SO MUCH a little Oliver.
Oh well.
We also have a name for any potential future girl that we won't share either!
DH and I came up with DD#1's name before we were even engaged
It was the day we had "the talk" about our future...a conversation that went on the better part of the day and in the course of that conversation, we talked about kids and I said I really liked my mom's name, but I wouldn't want to use it as a first name because of the way it gets shortened and then we realized that his mom's middle name as a first name for a girl went really well with my mother's first name as a middle name (are you following that?;). Of course this was putting the cart WAY before the horse...but you know how those things go sometimes... So when I got preggo, we knew we had the girl's name and though we toyed a couple of times with other names, nothing else sounded as good to us...the boy's name was harder...but fortunately we didn't need to use it. Naming DD#2 took a little longer, mainly because we were SO excited about DD#1's name, we wanted to make sure that we felt equally as excited about the second one's name (which we do, btw;)
We did not share any names before either of our girls were born and we also did not find out the gender, which drove my MIL crazy. The best part was that when I was pregnant with DD#1, she would keep asking me about it and then she told me this story about how when my SIL was born she and FIL had a whole discussion about names with her parents (yes, naming by committee...) and one of the names FIL really liked was a name that MIL's father really didn't like because of someone else he knew with that name. Her suggestion to me was that I should share the name just to make sure that there were no bad associations for anyone in the family. I just laughed, telling her she had nothing to worry about...somehow I didn't think she was going to mind having a granddaughter named after her;)
I had names in mind that I liked but DH didn't - he just knew what he didn't like. We decided on C's first name a few months before he was born but agreed on his middle name literally in the car on the way to the hospital.
We will be screwed if our next kid is a boy. C's first name is the only thing we could agree on. We do already have a name picked for a girl, though.
We agreed before we got married that if we had a boy, I would get first dibs on naming him my maiden name as a first name if I took DH's last name (and gave up my maiden name). However, we haven't had a boy so that hasn't happened.
With the girls, we didn't really decide on the name until after the 20 week ultrasound when we knew what we were having. Once we decided on the name, we told people. However, we didn't solicit opinions during the decision-making process (which I know can be an issue). We basically said, "This is the baby's name."
Off to the beach
DS 7/18/2010
Handy 2.0 Due Early August
2011/2012 Races
12/17/2011 Christmas Caper 10K
2/11/2012 Have a Heart 5K
3/17/2012 DC RNR Half Marathon
4/22/2012 10M Parkway Classic
10/28/2012 Marine Corps Marathon
We did. We had a girl's name and a boy's name (we were team green) but we didn't share them for the same reason other people mentioned--people are judgey!
We actually have second girl's and boy's names for next time, and a third boy's name just in case (we want to have three). We're finding out the sex next time, so we might share, but our girl's name is a little unique (hence judgement-worthy) so I'm not sure.
DH and I also had "the talk" about kids and names (actually the first night we ever kissed . . . which was actually before we started dating). Those names have actually gone by the wayside for the most part--some because we're close to people who've used them, others because our tastes have changed.
TTC #2: BFP 12/17/11, m/c 1/7/12 and D&C 1/12/12
baby blog/cooking blog
I had a boy and a girl name in mind for a long time---DH liked the girl name and that is our daughter's name. But he did not like the boy name. I was really surprised that he was so adamant about it. I guess I just thought that he would defer to me on names, ha ha.
We were team green for both. For our first, we finally agreed on a boy name and now I am so glad we had a girl first because I really wasn't happy with the compromise boy name! So for the second, when we were also team green, I told him we needed to come up with another boy name. We easily agreed on the girl name, but the boy name was decided in the car on the way to the hospital. And, he totally fits his name, so I'm happy.
For the first, we shared with family and close friends only. The only negative feedback I got was from my mom. For the second, we shared again with fanily and close friends--well, we shared the girl name and that we could not agree on a boy name.
We never could decide on a boy's name- DH liked one name and I did not like it at all. We knew we wanted to use the name Ellen (DH's grandmother who helped raise him since his mom was sick) but still liked some other names as first names. It was down to three names when I went in the hospital the first time. We were totally convinced she was arriving way early so we narrowed it down to two. It was until she was born that we picked the combo she has.
We did not tell anyone because I did not want any feedback.When we called my mom after she was born, she thought we had said 'Hayden' (instead of Hadley) so she told everyone the wrong name for a few hours :-)
I did not have a name planned for ds and it was bad. I just could not think of a name that had the right mix of not overdone/ fun and cool that would be fitting. So he came 2 wks early and we did not have a name after birth. Yikes. Luckily we had a name before we left the hospital.
DH and I had always joked that we would name our first born "Magnificent" and our second born "Fantastic" and then the kids would never have self-esteem issues.
Before I was pregnant we had an awesome girl name picked out, and when we found out we were team blue, we were kind of bummed because the girl name was so great (my grandmother's middle name as the first name, his grandmother's middle name as the middle name).
It took us forever to come up with C's name. I had liked a few names (Oliver, Elliot), but DH wasn't a total fan. We had another C name picked out around 7 months so we started calling it that name, but it never seemed to roll off the tounge like we felt it should. The one day, DH just walked in the room and said, "What about C___?" I loved it.
We didn't tell anyone, and we are so glad we did. We had told people we were team Blue, and we liked keeping part of it a big surprise.
I didn't really have any thoughts of baby names until pg with #1, but we did have the conversation that if it was a boy, he would not be named after DH like is common in his family. He was ok with that, but his brothers (he is one of 4 boys) thought he was being a wus by "letting me have my way". We were on team green and DH found a boy name he liked and I found a girl name and we both liked each other's names. It was really easy, and wasn't meant to be split where I picked the girl name and he picked the boy name, we just gravitated towards picking a name each and it happened to work that way. So DD#1 was named our girl name. We only shared with our mothers, but that was just because DH told his mom randomly and I didn't want my mom to be left out. I mostly didn't tell because I didn't want to put the cart before the horse before the baby was born and wanted first introductions to be after she arrived. We were team green again for baby #2 and still liked our boy name. Girl name was harder, but we found 2 we liked and used one of them for DD#2, again not sharing our names (or so I thought until a little after the baby was born and MIL said she was glad we used the name we did, rather than the other contender, which she said by name, so she somehow knew). Since we found out the gender this time, we knew we had to come up with a 3rd girl name. We still like our boy name, but it looks like it won't get used since we're done at 3. We still like the other name was had picked for DD#2, but I've also been thinking about a few others. So this is the most thinking I've had to do about names. And it is stressing me out.
Besides naming my Cabbage Patch Kids I really had never thought about naming my own children. With #1 I think I bought a name book so we could each come up with a list. We both got to veto those names we associate with awful people. We both liked a certain sound to the name though since with Maggie out tops were her name, Maddie (Madeliene) and Molly. My mom passed away when I was 21 and her name was Magdelon nn Madge, both of which I knew I did NOT want to use, nor did I want Margaret and then just Maggie as a nn. While we did go with Maggie and partially it was for my mom, it really was the name we liked best and of course now we think it fits her to a tee.
With Molly, we came up with a bunch more names to branch out like Catherine, Sarah, Elizabeth, Claire (another one I really liked the first time around but DH wasn't in love with). We ended up loving Molly the most though and her middle name is the same as my mom's so she has a little of my mom's name too.
We both talked about them with family. Maggie's middle name is Jean, same as her Aunt Amy. We did struggle with the middle name for Maggie and when Jean came along it just sounded right - that was a family suggestion. Then with Molly I remember having dinner at my dad's and we shared out list with my side of the family and everyone loved Molly Ann.
I did kind of hesitate because I know people think we were going for the 2 M thing but really those are just the names we loved.
Like kastle, I always knew my 1st-born son would be named after my Grandpa and DH knew this too. He has no say in it
DS's middle name is DH's 1st name but that was not either of our 1st choices. DH wanted his Dad's 1st name to be DS' MN but I said no (b/c DD's middle name is the female version of DH's middle name, which is also FIL's MN). I wanted MIL's Dad's MN to be DS's MN and we compromised. (did you follow all that? LOL.)
Both of our kids have 2 middle names, their 2nd MN is my maiden name (which I made my MN ala Hillary Rodham Clinton - I go by all 3).
We did not name DD after anyone, as is tradition b/c we are lucky in that all our female older relatives are alive (Jewish tradition is to name after deseased relatives, never anyone alive). We just made it up, it's a real name but we had a hard time coming up with it. One day, in the car, well in the 3rd trimester, DH just said it, and I tried it out and we agreed on it. We had discussed a very similar (and very popular name) that has 1 different letter but are glad we went with what we did. DD is very feminine and it fits her well.
ETA: we did not share the names with a single person!! DD's name was a complete surprise to everyone. Everyone on my side pretty much assumed DS would be named what he was b/c everyone knows how much my grandpa meant to me.
DH picked Guinevere before we were even married. I hated it, and he said it was not negotiable if he had a daughter, ha. Please note us reading "The Once and Future King" in my siggy - his favorite book
Boys names were tough for us. We ultimately settled on Gunner Monroe, but neither of us really loved it, so it worked out that we didn't have a boy.
And, the day we found out she was a girl, hearing DH tell the tech her name was Guinevere and how excited and proud he was...that is when I fell in love with the name. I usually call her Guinevere, but DH always says Gwennie, and her name fits her perfectly! We told everyone before we knew she was a girl, that that was the top contender.
From the way begining I had told DH if we had a boy I wanted his middle name to be a family name and since there were no more males in my family to carry on that name it was important to me. So that wasn't really negotiable. :-)
I had always had a boy name in mind that I thought went well with the middle name, but DH did not like it at all and thought people would call him by a nn and he was not ok with that, lol. Then we liked a very popular name where we just knew too many people who were using that name, but it started us down a presidential train of thought when it came to names. We narrowed it down to two names and made the final decision (Lincoln) the week before he was born. We only told our parents & our best friends once we decided and everyone else after. I LOVE his name, it is just different enough but not crazy. Our girl name is a little different too, but I love it and hope we get to use it someday.
DH is the VII so we decided before we were married that if we ever had a son he would be the VIII. We had DD first and we thought we were going to name her Alexis. It was a name that we both said we liked before I was pregnant but around 32 weeks we changed our minds because it is a mouthful with our last name. We didn't even decide on her name until she was 2 days old so we didn't tell anyone what we were considering because we didn't want other people's comments to affect our decision.
With this baby we've decided on a first name but haven't decided on a middle name yet. We aren't telling anyone and if anyone asks we say that we haven't decided because I don't want anyone's opinions. I have one friend in particular who keeps asking me and asking if I have a top 3 and it's making me nuts!
DD1 9.24.06
DS 7.1.08
twins due 9.7.11 lost twin A at
DD2 4.7.12
I had my girl name picked out - Beatrice Elizabeth (not going to have any more babies so I am going to share it!) before I ever got pregnant.
As for boy names - I had no idea prior to getting pregnant. Once I was pregnant I really wanted my 2nd son to be name Oliver - but hubby nixed that idea.
I was strongly against sharing the name before they were born. You have to share everything else (including the size of your cervix) that I wanted that to be something we held on to until he was here.
Oh, this reminded me . . . as a joke, DH told people that we were going to name our LO Rendezvous (if a girl) and Merman (if a boy).
We picked J's name for a bunch of reasons. My great uncle's name was called Jack, and we really liked it. We wanted it to be more of a a "real" name, but not John (which Jack is a nn for), so we did Jackson. Zaeger is DH's great uncle's name (we tweaked the spelling slightly). So it's kind of a family name but not really? And also a bit of a nod to DH's Dutch heritage (our girl's name is Irish, for mine).
When J was born, the first thing my dad said when he saw him was "He is such a Jack!"
TTC #2: BFP 12/17/11, m/c 1/7/12 and D&C 1/12/12
baby blog/cooking blog
