How to chose your baby's name.

[HeyWayne]

Sounds like a relatively simple task right?

Not in my experience.

We've got a short list (and oddly, found it easier to decide on a girls name than boys), but still nothing jumping out as a clear favourite.

Such a decision - I'm adamant that I don't want our child to have the same initials as me either WC, or WFC if you include middle names. So many things to consider.

'elp.

How did you chose your bebbe's names?

[Hans Mum]

mine was watching a drama and the lead character was called Hannah, at that time therre werent many Hannahs around (loads now) and i thought what a lovely name....easy really, good job she was a girl cause i didnt have a boys name at all

[Finedon.Dandy]

Morning HW

My wish list was an even number of letters in the first name, preferably a biblical but not obscure name, middle name after a family member and care the I didnt end up with hag, dog etc as our surname ends with a "G"

Hannah ended up with Louise as a middle name (after one of my sisters) Daniel ended up with.....................ready???......................Peter (after my garndad and Olivers Dad) Oliver (for obvious reasons), and Francis (as he was born on his grandads birthday - he was Oliver Francis - but we couldnt just have Oliver as my Dad (Francis) looked like being offended if we left him out) LOL!!!

It seemed more important to "honour" family members with a male being born but also I took getting pregnant pretty much for granted after Hannah as she was a honeymoon baby. Seeing as Daniel had followed a miscarriage I was more aware that he may end up being the last chance to honour - hence I think the panic with the names and why he ended up with so many - LOL!!!

Just a thought though HW, have you ever been called W.C.??? I think that is one set of initials I wouldnt personally consider but if its never caused you problems or you are happy on educating bubba on how to handle it then thats fine. I had a lot of mickey taken with my name (Tammy Tampax or the annie song sung with Tamara substituted for Tomorrow)

Good luck - dont forget you may change your mind when babby arrives if it looks nothing like the chosen name!

Tammy

[snuffer]

Every time my wife was expecting (three times) we new exactly what we would call a daughter. We had three sons. Borrowing a name from another family member, as a middle name, can earn you an incredible ammount of brownie points.

[shirlthegirl43]

We kind of had a shortlist for ages then whittled down as time went along. Nearly ended up with elder son having the initials CAR so changed the middle name - he is now CDR which had no meaning when he was born! Younger son was going to be called Benjamin but when I was a week overdue and at the hospital for a check up, I overheard 4 women all saying if they had a boy they were using that name so we changed it to the second on the shortlist.

Tamzin Louise was the chosen first and middle names if we had a girl.

[Flummery]

You mean s/he ISN'T going to be called Bean! Or Phaseolus even?
Oh heck, back to the drawing board. In fact, in the Flum household the children were given their names because one or both of us had reason to dislike all the others. For example I thought Oliver was a really manly name but Himself had a friend with a cat called Oliver - therefore it was a cat's name! He liked Moira for a girl but I used to sit near a Moira in Primary school - one of those unfortunate children who aren't too clean and smell of biscuits. We managed to eliminate the whole Book of Names until we lit upon the ones we used!

Best of luck lad!

[vicky]

I have a Hannah too! She looked like a Hannah when she was born, all the names I chose beforehand didn't suit (don't want to offend the other Han's mums...) but I felt Hannah was a name befitting a 9.9lber - not a delicate Rose or Catherine! Her middle name is May after Hawthorn blossom and my Nan.
The second one was easy as we found out we were having a boy. James is hubby's family middle name and Hannah then chose Samuel, luckily we all liked it as she is quite bossy!
I think it is important to think of initials as children do tease!

[HeyWayne]

You mean s/he ISN'T going to be called Bean! Or Phaseolus even?

Best of luck lad!

He he, funny you shoudl say that - the dude/dudettes at LadyWaynes office warned her that we should stop calling him/her Bean as it will stick.

I remember naming my brother Peter (after my favourite book/music at the time - Peter and the Wolf. I was four at the time). That seems so easy in comparison!

[tootles]

We wanted old English names, nothing fashionable or odd. We had a girl's name from the moment I first became pregnant but didn't get to use until the third baby (my grandmother's name). We have used alot of relations names too. Fortunately both of our fathers have the same name so they were sorted together with No.1 sons first middle name. His second middle name is Henry, this was a bit of a laugh really, he was late and a henry is a measure of induction in physics, obviously not the same sort of induction, but we like it. No.2 son is named after both maternal grandfathers, as middle names. Our daughter also has as a middle name my husbands grandmother's name. The boys first names are their own, also used by many English kings.

[Rhona]

Really difficult! We looked at the bestest baby names book in the world by Satran and Rosencrantz for inspiration - it's a Collins one and leaves the other books standing. We didn't agree on many and girls names are easier than boys I think. Our marathon search has set us up for the next two as well I think though! My only advice would be to take it slowly, and you might not find one that "springs out" immediately. Lots of fun making lists though!

[Tam]

It is right to give it some thought as some kids go through torment because of their names. I think the oddest I have ever come across was "Isabella Bell".

[Winged one]

Ah, don't worry about "bean" - we had a "Chuckles" right up until she arrived. No one referred to her as Chuckles afterwards.

We hadn't any real fixed ideas, except that we half wanted an Irish name. We happened to see the lists of top 100 names for the previous year from the Central Statistics Office (I'm sure you'll have an equivalent), and the toddler's one just jumped out at us there. Had never really heard it before, and within the week before she arrived, realised that her cousin had a cousin the other side with the same and a few others around too (at one stage, there were 3 of them in the todler's creche - luckily the other 2 were that bit older so never shared the room with her and all recognised their own surname young!! .

Her second name came about cos she was born on St Stephen's Day and my grandparents nabbed OH to eat with them (leftover turkey etc - we'd eaten it hot in their house only hours before the arrival). After a sleepless night, and almost no sleep in the day (between visiting me and just on a high), he was in no shape to argue when they insisted on Stephanie - it was a done deal by the time I woke up the next morning!!

[pipscariad]

Ah yes, the name dilemma, I remember it well! I had such a job to pin OH down to a 'thinking of names' session, he kept putting it off. Our first pregnancy was twins, so we had to think of two - or rather four, two girls, two boys. Girls was easy (I think it always is!), but we struggled to think of two boys names that we both liked. One of the twins (both boys, non identical) suited his name the moment he was born, but the other was much harder, it took over three weeks until we found a name that fitted, and in the meantime he was 'Little Pip' (as in pipsqueak, as he was very small!) - we have congratulations cards with different names in, as my mum, bless her, kept telling people that we were thinking of calling him '......' when we hadn't actually decided! In the end we registered his name on the very last day possible, as it took that long to be certain.

Number 3 was a girl, and was named the minute she was born (top of the girls list that we had when the twins were born). Her second name is my late mums first name, as it seemed a good way to honour her, as she died almost a year to the day before my daughter was born. The boys have family names as middle names, it does please folk so much!!

As others have said, think of initials very carefully, and also how it works with the surname - my OH had a friend at shool called Peter Ennis, think about it!! It's also worth making sure you avoid the latest fashionable names, unless you don't mind your child being called the same as most of the class at school. We went for uncommon but but not unusual.

[HayleyB]

It's a toughy with boys, we have a boring surname so wanted something different as first name for DD. Some of the more traditional names are coming back though. My Grandad's name was Jack and that seems to be popular now. Some of the more Gaelic names are nice too, I quite like Connor, Ewan, Ethan.

Girls are easier

[HeyWayne]

It's a toughy with boys, we have a boring surname so wanted something different as first name for DD. Some of the more traditional names are coming back though. My Grandad's name was Jack and that seems to be popular now. Some of the more Gaelic names are nice too, I quite like Connor, Ewan, Ethan.

Girls are easier

Jack has been the number one boys name for the past 5 years.

It's one of those things that kids will come up with rhymes etc regarding names.

I always looked forward to a rendition of "Wayne the pain went to Spain on a chocolate aeroplane, he saw a ghost eating toast, halfway up a lamp post."

Madness!