Anyone keeping the baby's name a secret?

jjang27 · January 2016

DH and I have a boy name and a girl name picked out. I think I will keep these choices a secret the best I can (still need to get DH on board), since I've heard some horror stories (name stealing, criticism for your favorite names, etc.). Probably not even my parents or sister. Especially my mom - I know she can't keep her mouth shut and everyone would end up finding out.

Anyone doing the same? I know there are down sides to this, but I really don't want everyone's opinion... If someone keeps badgering me, I'll probably give them some obviously fake choices like Olaf or Bambi!

Hummingbird125 · January 2016

Yup, that's my plan too. Not even planning on telling my mom whatever we decide on - and I am SUPER close with her. Same reasons as you!

texasmama2014 · January 2016

We didn't even share our top 5 last time until after she was born. However, she wasn't named until she was born so that helped!

alyssajrob22 · January 2016

We both agreed that we want to keep it a secret between us and we warned our parents ahead of time so they know we won't be telling them. I'm trying to get it narrowed down to our top 3 for each gender and then pick in the hospital.

mumblefrog86 · January 2016

We kept our DDs name a secret everyone knew it was a girl but ad to wait for the name.

DoxieLove05 · January 2016

We are waiting now as well, we told one or two close family members some ideas we had and the reactions surprised us, they felt the need to give their opinion! Now it will just be a surprise

bananers · January 2016

We did this with DS and will do it again. Not even our parents knew. We didn't want to hear other people's opinions and it was kind of fun to have the name be a big part of the announcement after he was born.

Ceventa · January 2016

We kept DS's name a secret because when we would just say names we we simply liked everyone had an opinion about it. So we decided to announce the name when he was born. We are most likely going to do the same thing again with LO

texasmama2014 · January 2016

I think the biggest annoyance was that people confused not telling them for not knowing so we got so many suggestions. Constantly.

michelle_shelle · January 2016

Same, keeping it a secret do we don't hear even more unwanted opinions.

cait5413 · January 2016

Keeping our girl's name quiet; everyone knows the boy name b/c DH is the fourth and wants to pass on the family name.

DSMLove · January 2016

Same here. DH and I are the only people who will know his or her name until we announce it after the birth.

First of all, I don't want anybody to say, "Ugh, don't use that, I know some horrible person with that name." (Or whatever criticism they may have.) Frankly, I don't care about their opinions, and once it is written on the birth certificate, most people have the common sense to keep negative opinions to themselves.

And secondly, I think it's fun to have something be a surprise when you announce the birth. It's like introducing your baby to the world.

abern8 · January 2016

We did this with our DD and will most likely do it again this time. Every instance I've heard of people announcing the name early, there has been a problem. Each parent wants the baby named after someone on THEIR side of the family, someone has a random bad association with the name, the sibling with no SO claims they wanted to use that name for their future child, etc. Better to keep it a secret until the baby arrives - that way everyone is distracted by the excitement of the baby, and you can claim it's already on the birth certificate, so too late to change.

DressageDarling · January 2016

We initially were going to keep all name ideas a secret. My mom ended up needing to start chemo and it really cheers her up to talk about the baby, so I have shared names with her. I have expressed that we do not want her sharing with anyone else though.

HuntingLillies · January 2016

We shared with our first and it was a really positive experience. Everytime I went to the doctor after finding out she addressed the baby by name, which I really liked and found comforting. At the baby shower gifts and notes were addressed to her by name and someone even made a special banner with her name on it which is in her room.

bananers · January 2016

HuntingLillies said:
We shared with our first and it was a really positive experience. Everytime I went to the doctor after finding out she addressed the baby by name, which I really liked and found comforting. At the baby shower gifts and notes were addressed to her by name and someone even made a special banner with her name on it which is in her room.

The flip side is that I've heard of parents having second thoughts about the name just before birth - or they see the baby for the first time and decide the name just doesn't fit - but it's already monogrammed on everything.

haboobjob · January 2016

We shared with our first when people asked. We didn't have any issues during the pregnancy but some people were very opinionated after she was born. I don't care though. I literally see those people maybe once a year and we like the name. DH's grandma (who lives several states away) didnt/doesn't like her name and calls her something else. You aren't going to please everyone.

We will probably share with this one too once we find out the sex and can actually agree on something. If people don't like it, it's not their child.

Knottie1427415498 · January 2016

I like the idea of keeping it a secret , not to mention we might even keep the gender a secret (but find out ourselves) . We come from a traditional background where it could be bad luck to do too much baby planning before the baby arrives ....
Plus , I've always felt the baby doesn't begin their life til birth.
My friend who had a baby in Sept kept the gender secret as well.

Wolfie646 · January 2016

I didn't know people shares the name prior to the baby being born until a friend just did it in August. Guess I'm in the old camp of waiting until she's born to tell! Leaves some element of surprise, prevents negative discussions about the name (I personally would hate to hear criticism), and it's our little secret (since there's not much more you can keep re. Baby!).

telicious2 · January 2016

We kept DS's name a secret from everyone! Like others, we didn't want unsolicited comments or opinions since his name is uncommon. And it was fun for DH to go out to the waiting room to announce "DS" is here!

@texasmama2014 As I was scrolling I think I may have hit your "Report" flag by total accident. It doesn't seem to be red so maybe I didn't or hopefully I un-reported you. I apologize in advance!!

texasmama2014 · January 2016

@telicious2 not sure, but I think you can unflag by hitting "love it"?

tinkerbell11210 · January 2016

We kind of kept it a secret with DD. We had a few names and didn't decide until an hour after she was born. So people knew about the different names. The only problem is that my SIL keep saying she new the name while everyone was waiting to see DD and my mom got upset because she thought we just didn't tell her. Obviously she didn't know DD name as we didn't even know.

charmedlifex3 · January 2016

We've told everyone our girl name. Following up with "Oh, it's my grandmother who passed away's name, so it's in her honor" pretty much shuts down any comments other than "Oh that's sweet!"

We can't seem to agree on a boy name. We're doing the genetic test, so if it's a girl we won't NEED to decide on a boy name.

mmclark10 · January 2016

Not sharing. My MIL was relentless in guessing last time and I'm sure she will this time as well, but we are making it even more difficult to guess by not even finding out the sex this time.

Plus, her "guess" last time was a combination of my name and hubby's name...which I'm sure is very special for some but definitely not our style.

SkiChic626 · January 2016

Yup! Didn't tell with DD and won't tell with this one. I don't need people giving me opinions, good or bad, to taint my choice. I also find it very awkward when people who are pregnant refer to their babies by the name they chose for them. I'm not sure why, but it just feels and sounds awkward to me, and I never refer to their baby by the name, I just say "s/he" or "the baby" until it's born.

WinnieLou82 · January 2016

I'm not keeping it a huge secret - close people know our top choices for a boy or girl - but I don't plan to tell everyone or refer to the baby by name until he or she is here.

MamaKSquared · January 2016

Before I got pregnant, I didn't have a strong opinion about this and I just assumed we would tell people, or at least people closest to us. We already have some favorites that some friends and family know about because of that. Now that we're actually pregnant, I feel so protective over the name (even though we haven't picked names yet, we just have a few first names we like). DH doesn't want to share with anyone either, so I'm thinking we won't be sharing. Since the sex is going to be a secret anyway, hopefully we won't get badgered for name options much.

lalalorelai · January 2016

bananers said:

We shared with our first and it was a really positive experience. Everytime I went to the doctor after finding out she addressed the baby by name, which I really liked and found comforting. At the baby shower gifts and notes were addressed to her by name and someone even made a special banner with her name on it which is in her room.
The flip side is that I've heard of parents having second thoughts about the name just before birth - or they see the baby for the first time and decide the name just doesn't fit - but it's already monogrammed on everything.

This happened to a good friend of mine. She had serious second thoughts about her son's name just before going into labor, like she was having panic attacks about it. But she had so much stuff with his name on it that she had to go with it. She says she's okay with it now, but wishes she hadn't told so many people because she probably would have chosen a different name.

We are not sharing. MIL has a history of, um, naming her grandchildren while they're still in utero. It stuck with at least one of her grandkids. That is so not happening, so H and I are coming up with absolutely ridiculous names to tell people when they start asking. Right now the front runner is Jack Daniels (Jacqueline Danielle). If anyone asks, we can say it's what we were drinking the night we conceived. Guaranteed to stop the questioning.

greendogs1993 · January 2016

My step-mom and father-in-law are very opinionated and controlling people. We didn't tell anyone with DS and don't plan to tell again. They can't really complain about a name once it's attached to an adorable baby. And if they do, then they don't have to spend time with this horribly named child ha ha.

BlessUrHeart29 · January 2016

I doubt we'll keep it a secret. We didn't have any trouble last time. But we didn't tell anyone our name options or anything like that, to avoid the unwanted opinions. We just were like "this is the baby's name." So, idk. I currently don't feel like I have the energy to keep a secret haha.

melissalafit · January 2016

We will keep the name a secret too. I made the mistake and told my mother in law two of the names we were thinking of when I was pregnant with my first. She told every single person she saw. Even strangers at the mall. She even went as far as to say she helped decide on the names. Damn weirdo .

cbpalagi · January 2016

We have had names picked out for years, but we are keeping them a secret. I've witnessed people give harsh opinions on names and taint them for people...I don't want that. Also, we are finding out the sex, but keeping it a secret between DH and myself, so that should make not sharing names easier.

CatfishAnn · January 2016

We have a slightly different strategy-- we just don't name babies until they arrive. With my first daughter, we named her either later that day or the next day (details are a bit fuzzy for me because of a 36-hour labor). With my second daughter, we named her on the way to the hospital, but didn't confirm it until after we met her. We're just really bad at making decisions, even though we had a short list for each. If this LO is another girl, I don't know what we'll do; she might end up with a boy's name!

Anyone keeping the baby's name a secret?

Re: Anyone keeping the baby's name a secret?

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