How hard was it to choose your baby's name?

[vulturine]

I often struggle to decide what my top names are, and although I'm only 16 and children are a long, long way off, I still wonder how difficult or easy it will be to choose a name for a real baby opposed to one that is purely hypothetical. So to those of you who have named a real baby {or babies}, how hard/easy was it?

[supermomwannabe]

My first, Maximos Alexander, was hard for me but easy for his father. He had mentioned to me at some point when we were dating that if he ever had a son he wanted to name him Maximos. I had a really hard time coming up with boys names that I liked, and still do to this day (he's almost 10!), so I just picked Alexander as a middle name and started calling him "Baby Max" until he was born and I eventually came to love it. My second, Iris Leia Ann, was super-easy. The day I found out I was pregnant my husband was looking over a list of Latin names online and called me and said "How about Iris" and that was it. We paired it with Leia because he is obsessed with Star Wars and I got guilted into later adding my family mn of Ann. My third, Cora Noel, was not quite so easy. I LOVED Pepper for a girl and my husband was dead-set on it but once I got pregnant I just couldn't see myself naming our little girl Pepper. We couldn't agree on anything until one day we were watching Tron and I said "What about Cora" and that was it. We paired it with Noel because Christmas is my favorite time of the year and DH thinks it sounds good with Cora. DH is still set on Pepper if we ever have another girl but I don't know if I can do it.

[klh1980]

The names I loved when I was 16 drastically changed by the time I was 30 and had my first baby. Our daughter was very easy to name. We loved the name Louisa instantly and it met all our criteria -- classic, unusual but recognizable, similar pronunciation in German and English (we're a bilingual family). We picked out her name very early on and never had any doubts about it.

Our son (due in a couple months) has been an entirely different story. We've been going back and forth for months now, although I think we finally have decided on Frederik. I don't think I'll be ordering anything with monograms or personalization yet though because we're still not 100% sure. Maybe 99%. I think it won't be a final decision until it's on his birth certificate.

It's interesting for me how different it is this time around compared to the first time.

[everwaiteing]

Since age 7, I always had names picked out for my future son and future daughter. Over the years, the names changed a few times, but I always felt confident in my choices. So, for me, the only hard part in naming actual children was struggling with my husband to find boy names we could agree on. In each case (for our boys), we ended up using names my husband initially suggested. That was so unexpected and ironic to me after I had spent so much time from an early age thinking about and planning 'ideal' names for my future children. However, it all went much more smoothly in naming my daughter. I had fallen in love with her name before I got married and, luckily, my husband was in full agreement with it.

[sophieredb]

Jordan Casper- Easy! I've always loved Jordan for a boy & OH loved Casper , win win situation
Lucie Jess- Me and OH liked Lucy but weren't keen on the spelling, Jessica is my mn so is a variation.
Emilia Florence- Difficult :-/ We had decided Florence as a mn quite early on in the pregnancy and just simply loved it then... We were stumped for names eventually we had our top 3:
Lila Florence
Ameli Florence
Carmen Florence , we decided on Carmen Florence but when DD2 was born we just knew she had to be an Emilia Her full birth-certificate name is Emilia Florence-Carmen Lois

Expecting DD3 19-03-12 and are torn between Carys Isobel & Carys Imogen

[andiep]

It can be tricky as there are so many choices available! The first thing I would advise is to narrow down your options and form a list of say 7-10 names.

Try to limit you options to first initials, ending sounds, or any names that connect you and your other half to memorable experiences, personal history or traditions. For more contemporary names, think about a location you like or one which has some significance to you and your partner e.g. Brooklyn (Beckham), Paris (Hilton) etc

Here are a few other things to consider

1) Think about all the possible nicknames.
2) Does the name age well?
3) Are there many different ways to spell the name?

I used a few of these suggestions and it helped me and my hubby come up with a name for our second child!

One final thing, try not to get your relatives involved in the baby naming process unless you have to. Your situation might be different, but for my first child we fell into this trap and it caused a few arguments!

Hope these tips help you out some day!

[emmibluebell]

Naming our daughter was easy as we were both in love with the name Emmi, her middle name is my mothers name, Jayne
Although naming our son, who is due in a few months is proving difficult. He's possibly going to be an Oliver (Ollie)

[cressida]

Short answer: hard!

My husband and I are currently in mid-naming process, and it's gone anything but smoothly so far. Both of us are super picky (him moreso than me, at least from my perspective!), and our taste doesn't seem to coincide all that well.

I've been interested in names for years and years now, so it was hard to let go a multitude of old favourites that my husband vetoed.

Something that I think a lot of teen name nerds don't take into consideration (at least I know I didn't) is that there will be a lot of real-life limitations on their name choices by the time that they actually have children. Not only will you presumably have to compromise with the child's father, but you'll have an ever-increasing pool of off-limits names as close friends and relatives start producing their own little ones.

Another interesting note: I've discovered that my own taste has become much more conservative/traditional when there are real babies to be named rather than hypothetical ones!

[wahpro]

Both of my daughters (Gretchen Sofia and Cordelia Violet) were named almost two days after they were born. I went to the hospital with 12 names with my first and six or seven with the second.

But.. I am extremely indecisive by nature. I'm pregnant again and already stressed out because I took so much grief for how long it took the last two times.

[jemama]

There are a lot of names I really loved in theory but once I was actually pregnant many went out the window! I was naming a *real human being* so what I liked had to also mesh with what I felt would be acceptable for an adult to introduce him/herself one day at a job interview. DH has always liked more "usual" names...some of his favorites which I have vetoed for not being my style are Patrick, Allison, Megan and Jonathon. All nice names, just not for my kid. He also cannot get behind Astrid no matter how hard I try, he just really dislikes this name and will not bend so I've had to give that up. Choosing a name with somebody made it harder but also easier to some degree...knowing what was off limits and also getting excited when we found common ground. He lived in Spain for 6 months through an exchange program with his college and imagine my excitement when I bring up the name "Sebastian" and that he had read an email I wrote in the town of San Sebastian and that is when he realized he had fallen in love with me. I liked it for the nod to Shakepeare and that it was heard of yet unusual (I know its been in the top 100 for a while, but, local to me it is still very unusual especially for a non-Hispanic child) and for him in brought back fond memories of his time living overseas and the sentiment of that moment for our relationship. All this to say that us having common ground with his name (and similar stories with the other kids) and the fact that before I was pregnant the name Sebastian was not even a thought in my head, made it "the right name" and so far, no regrets in naming any of our kids, all of them names I know I did not like as a teen or even much in my early adulthood, but names that just worked and continue to work on real people. Sebastian and Linus are the only ones we named before they were born, Bronwen's name was chosen from a list of 5 names after she was born and Violet's honestly came out of the blue (well, we had talked about the name Violet before and DH loved it but I was only so-so with it...but she *is* a Violet and I knew that after spending a few hours with her).

You have time yet and I am betting when it is time for you to name a baby, you will be ok.