This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy here.

7/09/2012

[Huggies] The Baby Name Dilemma


I love baby names. It is probably one of my favorite things about being pregnant or even knowing a pregnant lady. And I love the different types of baby namers out there. I know quite a few people who don't feel like they can name their baby until they have laid eyes on him or her in the hospital. I also know more than one person who can tell you the details of how to legally change your baby's name if you decide the one you put on the birth certificate just doesn't fit.

I have always found myself in the 'pick a good name and it will just work out' category. I like to keep it easy. Before you are released from the hospital, get the name to a person who works there and she will do all of the paperwork for the birth certificate and social security card for you. Heaven knows if it were left to me I would have an undocumented baby well into the teenage years!


One of my favorite phenomena is the couples who want to keep their baby names a secret. I have heard that they are afraid of someone else using the name or that someone will share a story that will make them change their mind. I don't worry about either. My mom was one of like 100 Susans in her high school and she survived, and if there is a story out there that is good enough to make me change my mind about a name, I want to know it BEFORE the baby is born. If my parents had told more people my sister's name before she was born, she might not have grown up with the initials A.S.S.

Just sayin'!

We have always used family names as our starting point when looking to name our kids. Our oldest son probably would have been named James after my husband's grandfather, but I was student teaching at the time and the little boy named Jimmy in my class used to try to choke other kids with jump ropes. So Jimmy the Strangler ruined that name choice.

We joke that when naming my youngest daughter we were trying to get into as many wills as possible. She is named after a great-great-grandmother, both grandmas, and with the name of three aunts and a great-grandmother thrown in for good measure. All crammed into a regular first and middle name. Now that is magic!


Baby number four is on the way. We had the PERFECT girl name picked out. It was pretty miraculous that we all agreed so quickly. Figures this baby would be a boy. I told my youngest, Ruby, that we should name him Max and she could take care of him like the big sister on 'Max and Ruby.' To which she replied, 'They don't have a mom.' Good point!

Why don't those cartoon bunnies have a mom? I mean, they have a grandma, but she doesn't live with them...

Anyway, if you have any good ideas for a baby boy name, let me know! My husband loves the name Hank, but honestly the only thing I can think of when I hear that name is hanky panky. That name so isn't going to happen.

What type of baby namer are you? Have you ever had your kids name legally changed? I would love to hear your baby naming stories!


Check out the Huggies Mommy Answers Facebook app!


Find more posts from bloggers sharing their experiences of motherhood on the Huggies page on BlogHer.com.

19 comments:

marissa with hadley lane said...

That is hilarious about your sister's initials!

I love thinking about baby names!!! My daughter's name is Hadley. I heard it in college and it stuck with me ever since. I love it.

For boys' names I'm really liking Zander, Grayson, Anderson, Landon and Caleb right now.

Good Luck!!!

Kelli W said...

I love baby names too! We had the perfect girl name picked out with my first one and I ended up with three boys:) I especially like classic older names..nothing too trendy. I also try to avoid names that can be nicknamed just because that is one of my biggest pet peeves.

Ellis and Elliot are two we considered when naming my youngest. I also like Graham, Owen, and Levi. Good luck picking out a name.

Unknown said...

I love baby names too, and we are the people who keep the name a secret. I never like knowing the name ahead of time for other people, it's sort of fun to have a surprise since so many people end up finding out the sex of the baby now...at least one thing is a secret.

I love the name Oliver (Ollie) and Gus is another favorite. My boys names are Aidan and Owen, both names I still love and were picked out eons before they became so popular. Guess we are ahead of the curve~

Candi said...

Two summers ago, one of my best friends was expecting. There are four of us that went to college together, and we all went to visit her before the baby was born. She and her husband were torn on names. We all looked at the baby name book. She had each of us write down their 5 favorites for consideration. (It's really fun when you aren't naming your own baby!) My faves were: Gaius, Magnus, Paulo and Cruz. I was so happy when they went with Gaius!

PS: My daughter's name is Murri (like Murray only with an 'i')

Julie, RN said...

As a NICU nurse, I can tell you that folks are getting more creative with baby names...and it is not always a good thing! We have often joked about writing a "what not to name your baby" book. We also seem to have names go thru phases...like this year I think there are a lot of "Twilight" & "Hunger Games" names. A popular one in the NICU is: "ABCDE" (pronounced ab-sa-de)!

Unknown said...

We just started our "Trying to conceive" phase & boys names are something we have no idea what we'll do... so fingers crossed we 1. conceive soon and 2. it's a girl lol... can't wait to see what you pick!

hugs! Kim @ Party Frosting!

S in SK said...

I like the name Carson for a boy.
Carson John, Carson James etc.

Unknown said...

Us Brits aren't quite so adventurous with our baby names just yet & there is a strong trend just now for old fashioned names like Stanley, George, Henry, etc. I prefer a first name to be fairly classic & timeless & then we go a bit trendier with the middle names. My two sons are Matthew Ryan and Alexander Ethan, known to all as Matt & Alec. Best wishes for a healthy baby, whatever name you choose!
Kate, England.

Unknown said...

Us Brits aren't quite so adventurous with our baby names just yet & there is a strong trend just now for old fashioned names like Stanley, George, Henry, etc. I prefer a first name to be fairly classic & timeless & then we go a bit trendier with the middle names. My two sons are Matthew Ryan and Alexander Ethan, known to all as Matt & Alec. Best wishes for a healthy baby, whatever name you choose!
Kate, England.

Unknown said...

Us Brits aren't quite so adventurous with our baby names just yet & there is a strong trend just now for old fashioned names like Stanley, George, Henry, etc. I prefer a first name to be fairly classic & timeless & then we go a bit trendier with the middle names. My two sons are Matthew Ryan and Alexander Ethan, known to all as Matt & Alec. Best wishes for a healthy baby, whatever name you choose!
Kate, England.

Unknown said...

oops, sorry, new to commenting, got carried away!

BJ_Mama said...

WOW! I love this post....naming a human is such a hard burden to bear, isn't it? I actually wrote a post on it when we were expecting our 2nd child. Now after just having our 3rd, it seems like we took a different approach to each. We never found out the gender until birth with any of them though....went to the hospital with one boy name and one girl name. Now we have a:
Samantha Brynn
Cashton Randall
and
Georgia Laehn

God Bless you on this journey!

Kaye said...

We had fun naming our children. Our son is Patrick Reese. Reese isn't a family name - we just liked it. And 6 years later, I'm still very pleased with picking Patrick. It's a masculine name that isn't so off the wall that people always ask how to spell it or pronounce it, yet it's not so common that there are lots of them around. He doesn't have any friends near his age with the name. It works well on a little boy as well as on a grown man. He could take it into a board room or an art studio.

We do have friends that like the more "off the wall" names though and they have boys named Park and Thatcher. I like them both but they are both rare for names.

Anonymous said...

I was one of 3 Kellys in grade school and hated it. When it came time to name our 5 kids we wanted non-traditional names, which they love.

Our 2 boys names are: Hawken and Colter

Best wishes finding that perfect name! :-)

mama_mobes said...

The thought of being able to name a new baby is almost enough to get me to want to add another one to our family, but not sure if it is the time quite yet. Our boys names are Caden and Kyson (Ky). If we had another boy I really like the names Bentley and Jaxon. I'm sure whatever name you choose will end up being great :-)

Cheryl said...

I love the boy name Jensen. My daugher is in love with Oliver. I also love Jax

Kelli @ WhimsiKel said...

My sons are Lincoln and Mason. We wanted them to have "cool" nicknames (Link and Mace) with their nerdier given names so they have options. :)
But I love the names Sawyer, Jefferson, and Maxwell. Yeah, you can tell I have a penchant for last-name first-names...

Grace the Heart Breaker said...

We're expecting our first in September and we are keeping the baby names (we are going to be surprised on the sex) a secret, but not for the reasons you listed above. We are keeping it a secret because we don't want our families opinions on the name!! We both come from large, nosey families and everyone has an opinion about everything... by keeping it a secret until the documents are SIGNED, then they will all be less likely to share their opinions about the names and just love the baby and the name together. :)

Katie said...

My parents never legally named me, so my birth certificate said, "Not Named Baby Girl" until I was 16. The DMV wouldn't accept it (go figure), so for my 16th birthday, they got me an attorney and let me choose my name myself. It's a good story for the next family reunion ;)

Can't wait so see what you name #4! You come up with such good ones!